"I came out injured with heaps of promises but no actions on the ground" (Photo: Reuters)
"I came out wounded with heaps of promises but no actions on the ground"
D. is a medical student at the Hebrew University, who volunteered at a summer camp for disabled and sexually harassed children.
Since the harassment, her life has become a nightmare, she suffers from post-trauma and she dropped out of medical studies and the professional direction she chose was cut off.
Now, she is filing a lawsuit against the organizers of the summer camp and against the person who sexually harassed her, whose name is withheld in the system due to legal confidentiality.
The statement of claim reached Walla!, in which she requests compensation in the amount of NIS 2.5 million for all the damages she suffered.
Today D is accompanied by a protective organization that accompanies victims of sexual assault.
Her conversations with Walla!
They were difficult, and it was obvious that it was difficult for her to reopen what she went through there.
The documents that have come to us reveal a difficult story, especially D's difficulty in getting recognition from the camp's organizers - especially from the chairman of the association, Sam Waldman. In one of the conversations, she said: "I volunteered at the Medical Heart Foundation in Israel in order to give,
In the statement of claim, D says that she volunteered last August as part of the Kids of Care (QOC) summer camp in the Israeli department funded by the Heart Foundation for Medicine in Israel.
According to the statement of claim, two of the organizers of the camp ordered the plaintiff to visit a girl with a disability who, as part of her volunteering, had to make home visits to her.
On the way to the home visits, the girl's father drove D. and as part of this trip he pulled out his penis and rubbed himself in her face, and even tried to touch the plaintiff and sexually assaulted her.
The organizers of the camp did not deny this claim.
Since this incident, D. suffers from anxiety, depression and decreased functioning.
D's torment did not end there: the indictment states that the plaintiff commanded a disabled girl who also began to masturbate in front of her and undress in front of her.
When D. tried to get help for the trainee and for her, she found out that there was no professional therapist in the camp, following these two things - the sexual harassment on the way to the trainee's home and the behavior of the trainee in the camp - the plaintiff flew to the United States the day after returning from the camp to receive medical treatment at a trauma rehabilitation center .
The resignation of the chairman of the association
D filed a complaint with the police at the end of February this year for an indecent act against a person.
In the correspondence from last December that she presented to us, the directors of the association that operates the camp seem to promise her that following the events she went through a psychologist or a lawyer. Also appearing in these correspondences is D's request to receive funding for medical and mental health care, but so far this has not happened and because of this she submitted the The lawsuit.
In another correspondence that reached Walla!, D. asked Sam Waldman, the chairman of the association, for legal assistance as well as psychological assistance.
Waldman disclaimed responsibility and claimed, among other things, that Shusham Sd hired a private attorney - the same attorney she asked for assistance with his financing - she should work with him.
Moreover, he also claimed that he had no responsibility to prevent sexual assaults within the framework of the home visits, as well as within the framework of the camp.
"As I'm sure you understand, any further action involving the police or any other official intervention on your behalf, must come directly from you, due to the fact that you are an adult, and all the accusations against the father of the trainee are of incidents that occurred outside the actual camp, and during your personal visits at home and abroad To him. In addition, all claims and allegations were made after the end of the camp."
Waldman added: "Our personnel structure, although it is not to your satisfaction, does not focus on prevention (of sexual assault, BA) in any role and is not required to do so by law.
My empathy, and the desire to help you in any possible way, is in accordance with our financial capacity and our abilities, do not translate into taking responsibility for anything that happens to you or anyone else outside the camp itself, or even in the camp itself if it is beyond our area of responsibility."
Attorney Yaniv Bakal, who represents the complainant, told Walla!: "We filed a claim for damages caused to our chain due to sexual assault and negligence by its managers during volunteering at a summer camp.
We will insist on receiving the full compensation due to our network."
The camp: "We are sorry for the slander"
The command of the camp stated: "D., like all the volunteers at the camp, are wonderful people who do real holy work and enable these children to have life-changing experiences. We thank her for her volunteering and because she was harmed, according to her, by a relative of one of the trainees. We again call on her to turn These claims are for handling before the competent authorities, as we recommended and reported to the relevant authorities when we learned of the complaint after the camp."
It was also reported that "out of great appreciation for her volunteerism, as well as out of respect for her personal modesty and that of a minor trainee involved in the matter, it is not possible to go into detail about the circumstances of the incident. However, we are sorry for blaming the volunteers who were by her side and helped her all the way, even when it was beyond In their role, they continued to serve as a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on."
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