Lending a Helping Hand to Families of those taken Captive

April 17th, 2024 |HaTikva Aid

Rivka Buhbut first visited Israel when she was young and immediately knew it would be her future home.  Several years later she moved to Israel from Columbia, married her husband, Elkana, and they had their first child.  On October 7th, Elkana was working as part of the staff and the Nova music festival.  Shortly after the massacre, Rivka learned that he had been taken captive in Gaza and from that moment has had no contact with him.  As Rivka has been awaiting any news from the government regarding her husband, she has been living with her son in the same home as Elkana’s parents and his brother, his wife, and their children.  All of the family are processing their emotions and sharing a small space together.  This has made it difficult for Rivka to create an emotionally stable environment for her son, while she herself is stuck within the nightmare of not knowing about the well-being of her husband.  She shared with us how her son is always scanning the posters of the hostages so that he can find his dad’s picture as that is the only relationship he has with him at the moment. Rivka shared with us how helpful it would be for her and her son to have their own place to live so that they could have space to process.  HaTikva Project is so happy to have been able to rent her a separate apartment near the family for at least 6 months. We are all praying that by that time, Elkana will be back home!