Ten percent of Israelis will not have enough blankets or other similar products
to keep themselves and their families warm this winter, according to a survey
released by the NGO Chasdei Naomi on Monday.
This number is also broken
down to regions of the country and shows that a higher percentage of people
living in the North will be suffering from this shortage than those living in
southern areas.
The report, which is summarized as painting a “difficult
winter” ahead, showed that the recent economic situation has made it very
difficult for 71% of citizens to afford the heavy costs of energy and
electricity, which are needed to heat up their homes in winter.
In
addition, 56% noted that they will have to cut down 20 to 30% of their bills for
home heating this winter. Ten percent of them said they will reduce this cost by
at least half.
Almost 80% of those who will be saving on heating are aged
55 to 64.
The survey, which was conducted amongst a national sample of
509 respondents aged 18 or above, also indicated that 6% of the population will
have no choice but turn to charitable organizations to receive home heating
products or children’s winter clothing. For 4% of them, this will be the first
winter during which they will have to ask for help.
“The economic
situation of tens of thousands of families in Israel only worsened in the past
year,” Joseph Cohen, chairman of Chasdei Naomi explained.
“It reached an
absurd situation,” he continued, “I am very concerned that if the State of
Israel does not help these families, it will only get more severe.”
The
organization Chasdei Naomi, which mainly provides food for families affected by
poverty, announced that following the results of the survey, the NGO will
increase the amount of blankets, stoves and winter coats it will distribute to
the needy this year by 15% in comparison to last year.
The goods will be
given out to some 5,000 families this winter.
This study joins the
alarming poverty report published by the organization Latet on Monday morning,
which showed that 95% of Israelis who receive aid from NGOs were forced to forgo
some essential basic needs in 2012 because they were not able to afford
them.
In addition, 10% of the children of these needy families have also
begged in the streets for money over the past year due to difficult economic
situations at home and overall, 27% of children in Israel have experienced full
days without food this year.