Tomer Ravid, a Paamonim volunteer from Herzliya and Leah Ben-Zvi, his team leader who also works on a full volunteer basis, recently received this moving letter, from a family who was deeply in debt when they asked for assistance:
“I feel that words can’t describe the magnitude of the miracle that happened to our family with Paamonim. We were on our way to financial oblivion.
In other words, like most middle-class families, we worked very hard and earned well, we thought that life was in our hands, that life should pamper us because we were living a good life. We were constantly being ‘told’ that we are the lucky ones, that most people earn less than us, they are hungry or homeless.
So we lived with the thought that we could live well.
But our bank accounts reflected a different reality, so we started spending less, and downsizing, without understanding how it didn’t make a differnece (because after all, we earn more than most people).
We really spent less (so we believed) and lived through a very difficult experience. We gave up a lot, but it wasn’t enough.
Every month our overdraft grew by another few thousand shekels.”
Month after month they repeatedly increased their credit limit, until the couple realized that they were facing a huge financial situation, from which would be extremely difficult to get out of. At this stage, the couple decided to make changes in their lives, and in order to support the process, they turned to experts at Paamonim.
“Very determined not to reach economic doom, we turned to you,” the father of the family says in his letter.
The family set out, accompanied by dedicated Paamonim mentor Tomer Ravid, and the path was not simple.
“The process was very difficult. You entered our home, our bank accounts, our priorities, our fundamental decisions for life, you entered and made a thorough financial mapping tha gave us a thorough examination that wasn’t easy for us to see.
You knew exactly what must be done. At the same time, you know that this would be a difficult time and showed us the way that we must choose to ‘fight the disease’. You worked with dedication and determination but with endless sensitivity. We know that you were in an extremely sensitive position, that there are people and children with a past here… But that there is also a future.
You managed to contain extremely difficult situations. Like that night when I got very upset and said: “I can’t carry on like this, I feel poor! Poor! Poor! I feel like I’m choking, you don’t understand what it’s like!’ And Tomer, like a fearless professional, you didn’t budge and simply listened and with a sensitive and ingenious way of doing things, helped me step by step to the right path.
It wasn’t easy, to say the least. But it was the greatest gift our home could have received. Your method was so good, you brought my wife and I together, to face our problems together, working on them together, solving them together. Carefully examining our home’s priorities made us find a way to talk to each other and not be angry at each other and helped us find a way to compromise, prioritize and choose. You made us connect again. To take these islands that have become our lives and stitch them together into a stable land that can withstand the forces of nature.”
After the process was over, the couple summarized the assistance they received:
“Today, after a difficult process and wonderful months, I am writing this email from the house we moved to just two weeks ago. A home twice as big as the one we left, giving us and our children far more than we could have even hoped for.
I am writing this email and I know, if it were not for the process we went through with you, without that wonderful review of all our life and the rebuilding of significant parts of it, there is no way that the future ahead of us would be the one that lies ahead.
So with all my heart,
Truly with all my heart,
A big thank you both
And to this wonderful organization that does such an amazing job – really saving families!”
Paamonim is a voluntary organization that assists families and individuals in the field of economic management. The assistance is provided voluntarily by thousands of Paamonim experts in the field of family finance and includes: information and tools for self-employment, online answers to questions, a one-time consultation meeting and personal or group financial support lasting several months. In addition, the organization operates financial education programs throughout the country, including lectures, study plans and group workshops.
The organization is currently running a fundraising campaign.
Your donation will enable us to help more families.