This Shabbat I will be celebrating my 12th birthday (Hebrew date). Although I am going to be celebrating my bat mitzvah later in the year, I wanted to mark the occasion this week.

My dad and I came up with the idea of an aliya l’regel (ascending to Jerusalem). My dad and I are going to walk to the Kotel from our house in Ra’anana. The walk is approximately 90km and will take 3 days. We leave home this Wednesday morning and will arrive at the Kotel on Friday afternoon.

I decided that I would like to use this challenge to raise money for two causes – both under the Myisrael umbrella.

SHOHAM - allow Ethiopian-Israeli youth at risk to access the same skills and academic training as other young people in Israel. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to hear the inspirational story of Yonie who whilst living in Ethiopia as a small child dreamt of making aliya. Her quite literal aliya l’regel took her all the way through the deserts of Africa, to Europe and finally to Jerusalem. My aliya with my parents was very different to Yonie’s and our life in Ra’anana is very different to the challenges faced by Ethiopian-Israeli’s. I would like to help Ethiopian-Israeli children my age who are not as fortunate as me.

HOME BASE- uses the power of football to transform the lives of homeless people. People say football is so much more than just a game. At Home Base, football acts as the catalyst to getting people off the streets and committed to a brighter future. My dad has passed on his love of football to me. We spend a lot of time talking about football, especially whilst we have been training for this challenge. I understand the power football has and I believe that HOME BASE has the ability to use this power to transform lives.

I would be so grateful if you could support my efforts to raise as much money as I can for these two amazing causes.