To Support Benjamin Dawit Family Crises
Donation protected
SAVE OUR KIDS AND FAMILY ,PLEASE
My name is Biniamin Giru and I’ve lived in Israel for 11 years. I am from Ethiopia, and my wife is from Eritrea. I have six daughters and a son. We have never received any financial aid, benefits, help or assistance of any kind from the government. We have requested basic humanitarian aid and when we turned to clinics when the children were sick, we were told to go through a social worker. Nevertheless we were turned down by social workers, saying we are not entitled to help since we don’t have citizenship. We have survived by the grace of God, and my wife and I started working under the Supreme Court’s permission. In 2014 one of my daughters was raped and abused in Jerusalem. After this incident the social workers gave me an order in 2016 to halt the legal/prosecution of the perpetrator under threats to take our children. I refused to comply and continued to seek legal aid, while working with the State prosecutor. The social workers continued to threaten that they will involve the police in whatever they can find. They refused to help, demanding to take my daughter.
They warned me that they will not leave us alone if we take this to court. In the afternoon after the first court hearing, I received a call from a social worker summoning me to a meeting. When I refused to come they said they received a call of violence at my home and that they were going to involve the police. They started interviewing my children and sent case workers to investigate the children at school. They interviewed my seven year old son for five hours. They asked if I or my wife beat him, why we live in a small house with a big family. They repeated these questions many times. My son told us that the interviews took place during his recess and breakfast time. He missed time playing with friends. In order to shorten the interview and go back to playing with his friends, my son reported telling his interviewers that my wife and I were beating him. He was coerced to say what he thought they wanted to hear. My son is wary of returning to school because of these of these interviews. The social worker interviewed my daughter as well, with the school counselor present. She was 11 years old at the time. They asked similar questions.
Up to the age of 8 all of my children studied in Christian, English speaking schools. The transition into the Israeli public schools proved a major cultural shock for them. Instead of helping integration, the social workers added unnecessary emotional damage to their already difficult transition.
The social workers used these interviews to create a story of violence and abuse in our home. This is not true. Instead of providing the much needed assistance, they creating a false story for the purpose of taking the children. We were never assigned a family social worker, offered any family counseling or help. The war they waged against us was to taint our name. They called the police to our house many times. Our children never called the police and expressed distress at the interviews and contact with the social workers. We live in a constant state of unrest and fear. We have been harassed and accused by the social workers, while taking advantage of my daughter’s tragedy or my son’s high energy behavior to do so. His behavior was used in court to accuse us of bad parenting in order to obtain custody. As a reminder, he was seven.
On June 7th of this year my daughter chose to join a shelter for teenagers called “Atnachta” where she would receive help for the abuse she suffered from her attacker that was not provided by social workers. In the court hearing the social workers accused her of stealing money from the shelter, even though the shelter never accused her of any such thing. The social worker used my daughter’s choice to join the shelter as a testimony of our parenting. The court preferred not to proceed under the allegations brought against us. Instead they demanded an agreement be made between our family and the social workers. The court ruled that we were entitled to financial help, for example, summer camps, kindergarten payments and needed household items, as well as arranged family counseling by the social workers. The social workers did not approve of the court decision and disconnected from us. While they ceased harassing us, they also did not comply with the court decision for assistance.
My name is Biniamin Giru and I’ve lived in Israel for 11 years. I am from Ethiopia, and my wife is from Eritrea. I have six daughters and a son. We have never received any financial aid, benefits, help or assistance of any kind from the government. We have requested basic humanitarian aid and when we turned to clinics when the children were sick, we were told to go through a social worker. Nevertheless we were turned down by social workers, saying we are not entitled to help since we don’t have citizenship. We have survived by the grace of God, and my wife and I started working under the Supreme Court’s permission. In 2014 one of my daughters was raped and abused in Jerusalem. After this incident the social workers gave me an order in 2016 to halt the legal/prosecution of the perpetrator under threats to take our children. I refused to comply and continued to seek legal aid, while working with the State prosecutor. The social workers continued to threaten that they will involve the police in whatever they can find. They refused to help, demanding to take my daughter.
They warned me that they will not leave us alone if we take this to court. In the afternoon after the first court hearing, I received a call from a social worker summoning me to a meeting. When I refused to come they said they received a call of violence at my home and that they were going to involve the police. They started interviewing my children and sent case workers to investigate the children at school. They interviewed my seven year old son for five hours. They asked if I or my wife beat him, why we live in a small house with a big family. They repeated these questions many times. My son told us that the interviews took place during his recess and breakfast time. He missed time playing with friends. In order to shorten the interview and go back to playing with his friends, my son reported telling his interviewers that my wife and I were beating him. He was coerced to say what he thought they wanted to hear. My son is wary of returning to school because of these of these interviews. The social worker interviewed my daughter as well, with the school counselor present. She was 11 years old at the time. They asked similar questions.
Up to the age of 8 all of my children studied in Christian, English speaking schools. The transition into the Israeli public schools proved a major cultural shock for them. Instead of helping integration, the social workers added unnecessary emotional damage to their already difficult transition.
The social workers used these interviews to create a story of violence and abuse in our home. This is not true. Instead of providing the much needed assistance, they creating a false story for the purpose of taking the children. We were never assigned a family social worker, offered any family counseling or help. The war they waged against us was to taint our name. They called the police to our house many times. Our children never called the police and expressed distress at the interviews and contact with the social workers. We live in a constant state of unrest and fear. We have been harassed and accused by the social workers, while taking advantage of my daughter’s tragedy or my son’s high energy behavior to do so. His behavior was used in court to accuse us of bad parenting in order to obtain custody. As a reminder, he was seven.
On June 7th of this year my daughter chose to join a shelter for teenagers called “Atnachta” where she would receive help for the abuse she suffered from her attacker that was not provided by social workers. In the court hearing the social workers accused her of stealing money from the shelter, even though the shelter never accused her of any such thing. The social worker used my daughter’s choice to join the shelter as a testimony of our parenting. The court preferred not to proceed under the allegations brought against us. Instead they demanded an agreement be made between our family and the social workers. The court ruled that we were entitled to financial help, for example, summer camps, kindergarten payments and needed household items, as well as arranged family counseling by the social workers. The social workers did not approve of the court decision and disconnected from us. While they ceased harassing us, they also did not comply with the court decision for assistance.
Organizer
Haregewoin Tesfaye
Organizer
Frederick, MD