Jerusalem school turns daycare center for kids of doctors and nurses

Unlike almost all schools nationwide, Jerusalem’s Yafe Nof reopened its doors a week after national guidelines sent kindergarten and school children home. Since March 22, it has been hosting the young kids of the doctors and nurses of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The school turned daycare center has become a second home to some 90 children aged 3-8. It is open five days a week from 6.30 in the morning till 5 p.m., an hour and a half longer than a regular municipal kindergarten in Israel.

The children are divided into 11 permanent groups, with brothers and sisters placed in the same group to ensure as little chance of transmitting the virus inside the school as possible. Part of the staff is provided by the organization Lavy, which is responsible for after-school activities in municipal educational institutions in Jerusalem. The rest have been called up from the soldiers and volunteers, with at least two grown-ups for each group of 8-10 children.

The kids play inside and outdoors in the school facilities, have sports sections, art classes, dog training sessions, and other activities planned for them by the staff of the impromptu daycare. Jerusalem municipality pays for some of them. The rest is delivered to the kids by volunteers.

There is a drama teacher who comes to do story time. Before Passover, members of the Chabad movement conducted a masterclass of baking matzah and a theater performance. Other volunteers include medical clowns, home chefs, youngsters in their pre-army time who give kids lessons about nature, and those who bring candies and small gifts.

“As any Israeli hospital, we in Shaare Zedek had a plan of what to do in an emergency, like a war or earthquake. This included providing care for the staff children,” says Ayelet Cohen, coordinator of volunteer projects in the hospital, who took up the task to create an alternative to daycare for the kids of workers a month ago. “However, we needed to change our plans significantly because of the situation with coronavirus. For example, originally, the daycare was supposed to be placed in the underground floor of the hospital. But amid the pandemic of the virus, we did not want the kids to enter the hospital each day, so we made use of the school building instead. Also, we needed to keep the groups small to prevent spreading of the virus among the collective.”

Many Israeli hospitals have arranged some kind of daycare for their workers’ children. In cases where both parents work in the hospital, the management generally tries to make sure their shifts do not overlap.

Every person entering the Yafe Nof school needs to have their temperature checked. The staff also wear masks most of the time, and disinfection is taken care of regularly. So far, there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus among the staff or the children.

One of the organizations that sent its volunteers to Yafe Nof is the One Heart nonprofit. It partnered with a pre-military academy, Ein Prat, whose students offered to help fight the social implications of the pandemic. “At the beginning of the quarantine [era] we used to bring food to the elderly,” says Amit Cohen, 19, one of the volunteers at the Yafe Nof school. “And then they in One Heart told us that there is a need for volunteers here. Nine friends of mine from Ein Prat academy and I decided to take up the task.”

Together with a friend, Amit Cohen takes care of the kids in his group from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. He says he has already begun to appreciate his parents more. “This is a tough job – taking care of the children,” he says. “It’s hard to get up early each day, and to be here, and then I have to cook something to eat for myself and to take care of other staff. But I’m happy I’m doing this.”

Also involved at the school are soldiers from the IDF’s Education and Youth Corps. Before the coronavirus, one of the soldiers involved (who asked not be named, in accordance with IDF regulations) served as a conscription adviser at a school in Ma’ale Adumim and worked as an educator with troubled youth. Since the daycare opened at Yafe Nof, she was sent to be a teacher. She has been giving chemistry lessons, performing origami masterclasses, and teaching the kids yoga – essentially, doing anything she could think of that is suitable for young children. She misses the children at the school where she worked before, but is glad she is not locked at home. “It’s good to feel you’re doing something meaningful,” she says.

As part of the school activities, the children were encouraged to make a drawing and write a greeting for their parents working in the hospital. Some of them expressed their anxiety. “Father, I don’t want you to become ill,” one of the children wrote.

Others tried to encourage the parents. A 7-year-old boy wrote a big green circle with long green outgrowths on it – an image of the coronavirus – and wrote: “Mom, I know you save lives.”