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Sheri: A Fresh Start After a Devastating Loss

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Sheri was born in Ukraine to a stable and loving family. She was grateful for what she had and dreamed about one day moving to Israel with her parents and sister. But then tragedy struck.

Sheri was only fourteen years old when her parents were involved in a head-on collision that killed Sheri's father and grandfather and left her mother in critical condition.

For months Sheri and her thirteen-year-old sister lived alone in their house with no one to provide or care for them. The electricity was turned off because no one paid the bill and food became increasingly scarce. Sheri had no way to get to school, which was an hour walk each way. Eventually she stopped going.

Overnight, Sheri's life had fallen apart.

After nearly a year in the hospital, Sheri's mother returned home permanently handicapped and unable to work. It haunted Sheri's mother that she had no way to support her children. That's when she heard about the Bat Zion orphanage and boarding school in Jerusalem, funded by The Fellowship's Guardians of Israel program.

Fortunately, Sheri and her sister were able to get into Bat Zion, where dozens of other orphans from the former Soviet Union live and have found refuge. Although they greatly miss their mother and still mourn the loss of their father, because of the love they received from the teachers and fellow students at Bat Zion, Sheri and her sister immediately felt at home.

Sheri and her sister speak with their mother in Ukraine weekly, and tell her about their new lives at the Bat Zion girls’ school. Losing her husband and her children's father was tragic, but the girls’ mother says that knowing her children have a bright future in the Holy Land is the "light at the end of the tunnel."

Become a Guardian of Israel — give today and help provide assistance and basic necessities to Israeli children like Sheri