The NOAM Children ProgramAmong the thousands of children growing up in Israel’s residential care system, there is one group whose loneliness is almost invisible.
These are children whose lives began in places where childhood itself was interrupted.
Most are orphans, abandoned, or removed from homes that were unsafe to live in. Some were rescued from severe violence. Others spent years with a parent who could not care for themselves, with no other adult in the family able to step in and protect them.
They enter residential care as young as age five and remain there until adulthood.
The boarding school becomes their home.
Their bedroom, their holidays, their milestones, their tears, their longings.
These are children who were uprooted at a very young age, live for years in state care, and have not a single consistent adult in their lives.
No one waiting for them on Friday afternoons.
No one attending parent-teacher meetings.
No one asking on their birthday, “What cake would you like me to bake for you?”
The NOAM Children Program
Supportive Families and Mentors for Children Without Family Support
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong to anyone. And then Inbal comes to visit – and suddenly, I’m someone’s child again.”
— Adam, 11
We refuse to leave them alone.
In Israel, approximately 7,000 children and adolescents grow up in residential care. About 1,500 are defined as having no family support at all. These are the NOAM children – the most alone within the system.
Residential care can provide structure and physical safety.
But it cannot replace one essential human experience: a sense of belonging to a family.
Two accompaniment paths
The NOAM Children Program operates through two complementary models:
• Supportive Families – families who open their homes and hearts to children in residential care who have no family backing.
• Friends for Life Mentors – committed adult volunteers who build a long-term, personal relationship with one child.
Both tracks operate in close partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and residential care teams and are carefully adapted to the cultural and community contexts of each child.
What our research shows?
Over the years, Yeladim has conducted in-depth evaluations of the NOAM Children Program. Through interviews with children, families, and mentors, and long-term follow-up of the relationships formed, one insight emerges again and again:
When a child has even one consistent adult in their life, everything begins to shift.
Children report:
• A significant reduction in loneliness and the feeling of being “alone in the world”
• A stronger sense of belonging and safety – I have a home, I have someone to turn to
• Improved relationships with adults more broadly, and greater trust in systems
• New experiences of family life – holidays, outings, and calmer, more predictable routines
Families and mentors also describe deep impact: relationships that enrich their own lives, strengthen values of responsibility and compassion, and demonstrate just how transformative one stable presence can be.
Supportive Families
Families who open their homes and hearts to children in residential care who have no family backing.
Friends for Life Mentors
Committed adult volunteers who build a long-term, personal relationship with one child.
Support the NOAM Children Program.
In The Media
האחיות הצעירות שמחפשות משפחה: “הן רוצות פינה שתהיה רק שלהן”
“הוא לא ידע מה זו משפחה, היום אנחנו העוגן שלו”
כששואלים את עפרה כמה ילדים יש לה, התשובה מבחינתה ברורה
סיגל בר און בראיון על תכנית משפחות מלוות
