(By M. Wyzanski) Did you ever wonder what it’s like to grow up on the dark side of life? Truth be told, it’s a difficult thing to do if you’ve never been there before.

For young Moshe, though, it’s not difficult at all because he is right there. Honestly, it’s a dark kind of life to grow up in poverty, go hungry all the time, and not have a father around. Then again, perhaps life was even darker for ten-year-old Moshe when his father was around. After going on a drinking binge, Moshe’s father would become extremely abusive. Moshe, his brothers and sisters – even his mother – would be victim to their father’s screaming, yelling and beating.

Not a very pretty picture for a little boy growing up.

The volunteers and staff at Yad Eliezer don’t have to wonder either about growing up on the dark side of life. They know first-hand because they’ve entered the lives of Moshe and boys like him.

Yad Eliezer started out as a food program for the poor in Israel and grew steadily. But as the Yad Eliezer volunteers would go all over the country into the homes of these families, they would become aware that, although the lack of food was a very big chunk of the problems these families faced, it was not the only problem. They witnessed the dark lives of lonely boys who had lost a parent through death and become orphans, or boys like Moshe who didn’t have tangible father figures because their fathers were in jail or had simply walked out of the front door and their responsibilities…or were abusive. And while the mothers generally never abandoned their families, providing the emotional stability in a home with such sorry circumstances was generally a feat too overwhelming for them to address.

Born out of this awareness, the ‘big brother’ program of Yad Eliezer takes boys like Moshe and literally changes their world. Suitable candidates for the program – married men who possess the character and giving personalities that meets Yad Eliezer’s standards – are paid $10 an hour to serve as mentors, role models and virtual father figures where there are none. These caring ‘big brothers’ learn with the boys so that they will not fall behind their classmates and so that they will progress and mature. They take them home with them for Shabbos meals so that the boys can witness what a normal happy and healthy family life means. And they remain on top of the general picture of where the boys are going and where they are headed so that one day they will lead normal productive adult lives.

In truth, the fact that mentors are paid workers and not volunteers assures the program’s success because when something becomes a job, it becomes a true commitment – a component that is a vital necessity in a matter as important as this. Additionally, the beautiful circle of chesed that Yad Eliezer provides through the program because of it becomes two-fold. On the one hand, underprivileged youngsters receive the attention and supervision that they so desperately need; on the other hand, the mentors themselves receive the monetary stipends that assists in their own financial standing.

The overwhelming success rate of Yad Eliezer has been so encouraging throughout all of Israel that practically every city council in the entire country, even the most poor, has agreed to subsidize the program, leaving Yad Eliezer’s expenses down to only $1,300 per child, per year.

But there are more expenses to be met. Stemming from the common occurrence of boys’ families not having the wherewithal to provide the basics for a bar mitzvah – the pair of tefilin, a new suit, the festive meal – Yad Eliezer has initiated a new Bar Mitzvah Program. Up until recently, boys who had benefited from Yad Eliezer in the program themselves may have contributed from their own maaser of bar mitzvah gift money. Yad Eliezer hopes to expand the notion with the greater public’s contributions. $500 can buy a young bar mitzvah boy a pair of new tefilin; $200, a new suit; and $300, a modest celebrating seuda. Sponsors interested can choose between paying for all of what the bar mitzvah boy needs, accumulating to the amount of $1,000, or any one of the three. Whatever the contribution, the one common result is the glowing joy that a sponsor brings to the face of a boy who otherwise would have gone without.

Currently, there are 2,800 youngsters in the Yad Eliezer program – boys who once might have wondered what it means to be on the other side of life, but who no longer do because Yad Eliezer’s Big Brother Program has assured them that they have a bright beckoning future. With 2,000 boys still on the waiting list, won’t you became a partner to their future by sponsoring a child’s chance to overcome the dismal odds – and shine?

Click HERE to find out how you can help the wonderful organization of yad Eliezer.