Nava Nuriel (51)
Prude
Mother of six children aged 27,24,23,19,16,13.
She lives with her youngest daughter in the Bedouin village of Zubeidat near Tivon.

Holistic medicine practitioner: “Today, Paamonim is like family to me and the facilitator Avi Harush is like ‘Daddy’ who walks by my side, supports, cares about me personally. The people around me also see the great change that has taken place in me and I immediately share with them the long road I have taken with the association.”

She came to the paamonim shortly after separating from her partner, in order to receive legal advice and recommendations for repaying debts, mainly to the bank, which in total soared to about NIS 60,000, alongside additional debts to various government bodies such as the National Insurance Institute, which reached NIS 100,000, “definitely a decent amount came out,” she says from the clinic where she treats. That’s how she came to Avi Harush.

“In the relationship I came out of there was never abundance and we were always chasing food and money, so I wasn’t bothered by the downsizing tasks that my father assigned me, what was important to me was to start with a smooth, clean slate. Closing the debts was my first task – and I have no doubt that I would not have accomplished this task without the guidance and guidance of the association, which gave me the strength to believe in myself, gave me support, and for the first time in my life I felt that there was someone to talk to. My father pushed me to go to the bank and all the relevant offices and would always check after me and be interested in how it was and the results speak for themselves.

Today, about seven months into the process, and after years of being limited at the bank, we reached an agreement with them and I even managed to open a bank account. I’m not at the savings stage yet, but I’ve started moving my business more and promoting it. My father taught me how not to chase clients all the time and mostly gave me the energy that I am not alone and have someone to run with and work with.”

She says that in the past she used hitchhiking to reach customers, and today, for months now she has a driver’s license and a car, “It sounds like life before paamonim and life after – and it really is,” she begins with a laugh, “Today, I have no financial fear and that’s important. Today I have regular customers, I reached an arrangement with the spa I work with – for a fixed monthly amount, something no employee has received before. Today I also give workshops and lectures in the field, people turn to me, it’s just a blessing. Good energy coming in. In the past I always dreamed, today I have already passed the dream stage, I am in the stage of fulfillment, implementation, and things happen by themselves. Just flowing. In the past, I worked very hard at a difficult job and the money somehow escaped me. Abundance – never was. Today there is abundance and plenty. And a lot thanks to paamonim, thanks to my father’s faith in me, it’s much more than my activities in the field.

I was always the woman who carried everything on my back, but today I have more economic abundance and I can see many options and look forward, and it’s not a simple thing when you’re in a profession that is considered versatile and where making a living is barely possible.”

Nava Nuriel, participant in the Family Advancement Program (with the assistance of the Toronto Friendship Foundation)