Hamesivta-OU Grows Beneficial

By COLlive staff

If you visit Hamesivta of Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn during lunch break on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, you will find boys laughing and building friendships over basketball and table tennis.

They comprise of Hamesivta students and visiting high school boys with various learning and emotional disabilities that learn in Individualized Vocational Development Unit (IVDU) Schools, a division of the Orthodox Union (OU).

While these boys might have a difficult time learning and social interacting, at HaMesivta they have found friends.

The partnership between HaMesivta and IVDU has begun this year. According to the schools, it was a success right from the start with each group was benefiting tremendously from the time spent together.

“Every since I started hanging out with these boys, I started feeling more sensitive to different people. Everybody is different and now when I see people that aren’t like me, I try to understand where they might be coming from,” said one HaMesivta student.

They began to make regular meetings – once a week swimming and basketball, and once a week for table tennis. They added programs throughout the year, like a Chanukah party, and a Purim carnival.

“The students at HaMesivta are growing in many ways from their new friends,” said the director Rabbi Moshe Leiblich. “The very idea of being needed and being able to help someone else was humbling and taught them some deep lessons.”

“And the boys from Ivdu gain confidence and social skills from their new-found friendship,” he said. “This is what we call a win-win.”