After kissing goodbye our families and loved ones, we landed in Israel during the early hours of Sunday morning and travelled to Beit Heuss in Herzliya Pituach, which would become our base for the next five days. After a few hours sleep, Cheli the director of the hostel explained that Beit Heuss is a unique centre set up in 1967 for people to come for respite and refuge from their everyday lives to help them cope with severe problems they may be facing.

Helen Glaser, President of Worldwide WIZO welcomed us and told us how happy she was to see young women volunteering for WIZO.

After lunch, we travelled to the Rebecca Sieff Centre, WIZO UK’s flagship project, where Kobi the director showed us the Challenge that faced us. This included the wall which we are going to plaster, the garden we are going to makeover and the three beautiful murals that we are going to paint. We also saw around the Centre, taking in the daycare centre, legoland and the fantastic art done by the children.

Back on the bus and several roundabouts later, (we got lost) we arrived at the Bradfield Centre, a WIZO UK maintained Centre in Pisgat Zev for more food and a concert and dance show by children and Russian immigrants. The Centre itself is an inspiration, running courses for women teaching them empowerment and self esteem as well as assisting them in finding jobs.

We are tired but motivated for our Challenge ahead of us and cannot wait to start the hard work that begins today.