Unfathomable: Kindergartens in Haifa without shading • 4-5 year olds 'burn out' in the sun or don't go out for whole days

Parents in Haifa claim that for months they have been asking the municipality to install shading in their children's gardens, but nothing has been done and the children continue to suffer from the scorching sun or they are forced to give up staying and playing in the garden yard because of this.

At exactly this time last year, in the months of May-June 2022, we published in Hai Pa articles about the lack of shading in playgrounds around the city, a basic, required and actually necessary thing when it comes to a hot country like ours. Logically, it also seems that this is not a very complicated matter to operate. Well, it turns out that as far as the municipality of Haifa is concerned, this is a particularly complicated and complex task, since it also reached the kindergartens in the city, the ones to which we send our tender children every day, which are supposed to be specially adapted and protected for them.

So it turns out that there are kindergartens in Haifa where there is no shade in the yard, where the children are supposed to go to release energy, play and breathe air. The parents say that they contact the municipality since the winter months, to avoid such a situation when the summer comes, usually it really doesn't help.

"From January, all parents contact the municipality so that there will be a barbecue in the summer for the children"

Miki, the father of a girl in the "Rainbow" kindergarten in Ramat Golda, tells about what the parents of the kindergarten children go through every year around the issue of shading: "This is the third year that our children are in the Keshet kindergarten on Laskov Street in Ramat Golda in Haifa. The older daughter spent two years in this kindergarten and the middle one started there this year , and every year the story repeats itself - the kindergarteners open an application to install a grill in advance, so that the municipality has enough time to prepare and that the grill is installed on time, before the warm months arrive, and wonder and wonder, this year the kindergarteners did not receive any response from the municipality and asked us, the parents, to start as well Contact the municipality on the matter. There is nothing to be done, until you make a 'mess', no one takes notice."

Direct sun on 4-5 year old children

"Already in January/February, we, the parents, began to act so that this time it would be different, first through the usual channels: sending messages, emails, telephones, we opened inquiries again and again just to remind them that a grill should be installed לפני that the warm days begin. I don't think it's necessary to explain to 4-5 year old children in direct sunlight in 30 degrees heat or more, it's very unhealthy for them, and that's putting it mildly. All that is missing is for one child to pass out or lose consciousness..."

You have to remember that children go outside to the yard to play and release some energy. But how can a child play at 30 degrees outside in direct sunlight? The facilities are boiling, the asphalt is hot, very little shade. Now in the months of May and June there are extreme heat loads - so they stay closed in the garden and cannot go out to play in the yard. And what are we asking for altogether? Roasting? What happened to the grill you removed a year ago? delusion!".

Miki continues: "So after normal requests were not addressed, each of the parents started to step up and send personal requests to various parties, both inside the municipality and outside of it. Anyone who knows or is familiar with how this system works from the inside, or knows how it can be activated from the outside .

The answer we received from an official in the municipality, and this is an unofficial answer of course, is that the municipality does not have a budget, so we are waiting for them to approve it in order to purchase a grill, so now wait... and wow! No one there cares! I wonder if it was one of their children who was under the blazing sun, if he would have received the same answer", he is outraged.

"Regardless of that, just a few months ago the municipality 'found' a budget to renew sports fields in the Neve Shanan neighborhood where I grew up (and I'm really happy about it!), an innovation that cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of shekels. So how does this have a budget and a barbecue that costs several hundred Only shekels, no? How exactly do you plan a budget in the Haifa municipality?"

Very temporary roasting

This year, with the help of the kindergarteners, a roast was purchased from the kindergarten funds, which unfortunately was not good enough and fell. After several times, the municipal employees gave up and were no longer willing to come and install it.

Now, after we made a noise, they told us that until there is approval they will hang a temporary grill for us today. They already did this to us in the previous years and as soon as there was a bit stronger wind, the roast fell apart. I guess it will be like that now too.'

Council member Nir Shuber said that the grilling at the "Rainbow" garden will be fixed today, Sunday (4/6/23): "I am sad that this is the case, after a personal inspection and personal care, the grilling at the Keshet garden in Ramat Golda will be fixed today. In the other gardens, the city council will approve The budget that was already approved by the Finance Committee, on the 6th of this month."

"There is a very small grill that is not enough for all the children"

A mother of a child in the 'Habcelet' kindergarten on Abba Hillel Silver Street in the Neve Shanan neighborhood, tells Lehi Pa how difficult it is for children to stay in the kindergarten without shade: "This is a very unfortunate issue. The shade is usually hung a little after the Passover holiday. It's a shame that you can't leave the shade all year round, but in the winter there are winds that don't allow you to leave it."

They don't go out to the yard for whole days

"From what we know, the gardens are contacting the municipality before Passover, so that they will come and hang the shade. Our garden has a single shade, which covers a very small area of ​​the garden yard, in fact almost the entire yard area is very exposed to the sun. There are days I hear from the gardeners that they are not at all They could take the children out into the yard because of the strong sun.

The grill that is already there is very small, and it gives very limited coverage. I know from the kindergarten teacher that she encourages the children to play under the grill and enjoy the shade, but the problem is that not all children can go under it."

"What is a playground for if you can't shade it and enjoy it in the summer?"

The mother of a girl who lives on Bracha Havas Street, who usually goes with her daughter to the playground on Leon Blum Street, wonders how there can be a playground that does not have shade in the summer months: "I live on Bracha Havas Street, there are no kindergartens there at all. The Leon Blum kindergarten is one of the gardens we go to On normal days, when it's not very hot, then the facilities there boil. The garden itself is excellent and full of grass all around, but there is no shade, and on summer days it is impossible to use the facilities because they burn. I contacted the municipality in the past, and I was told that they cannot install shade because of the neighbors, because It bothers them. So the question is why build a kindergarten in the first place in a place where you can't play."

"In the municipality, people are always surprised when summer comes"

Yael Shanar, a member of the city council from the Green Party, and a candidate for the holder of the education portfolio in the next coalition, does not understand the difficulty of installing shade in all the kindergartens in the city: "In the municipality of Haifa, people are surprised every time summer comes. I have children of preschool age, children need a yard and open air to run around , to develop and learn. You can't take children out to a yard that isn't shaded or that is shaded poorly, when the facilities are boiling and the children and the staff are sweating and turning red," she says.

"It is also impossible to stay with 30 or so 3-4 year old children inside the kindergartens, between 4 walls, for 9 hours.
This situation is intolerable. I invite the decision makers in the municipality to try to spend half an hour without shade with 30 children in the yard. I contacted the officials in the municipality who are responsible for the finance committee, the council, for the fact that no budget was submitted at all, everything is true and everything is irrelevant.

The parents pay property taxes here like in Manhattan and receive service like in a third world country, after that we are surprised that Haifa is losing young families in favor of Nesher, Tirat Carmel Kiryot and Atlit, in the next city council I am going to demand dates for implementation."

Shaner forwarded a query to the city council on the subject:

"Recently, a number of parents of children from Haifa kindergartens contacted me claiming that weeks and months have passed in which the courtyards of the municipal kindergartens are not shaded at all. These include, among others, the Keshet Kindergarten in Ramat Golda, and the Baba Hillel Lily Garden. The parents even purchased a grill with their own money, but it was not strong enough. This situation is unacceptable Tolerable, the residents of Haifa pay the most expensive property tax in the country and the return is zero, and after that we ask why there is a negative immigration of families and young people. I want to see one person in the municipality who is able to go to the yard of a kindergarten at 10 in the morning in June in Israel without shade, or alternatively spend 9 hours With 35 children in a room without going out into the yard. This situation is intolerable. A kindergarten yard in the Israeli summer without shade is not safe, the facilities boil and the children turn red and burn, and so do the women of education."

My questions:

• Why is the municipality of Haifa unable to provide shade for kindergartens?
• When will the grills be installed in all the kindergartens in the city?
• How many kindergartens are there without shade in the yard?

The municipality's response to the article will be attached when received.

Einval Cohen Toval, CEO of the Israeli Skin Cancer Association, gave a speech:

It boils down to see the conduct of the Haifa municipality regarding the shading of gardens in Haifa. Says Einbel Cohen Toval, CEO of the association. "According to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education from 1997, there is an obligation to shade at least 25% of the yard area in kindergartens and schools. The State of Israel is a sunny country most of the year, which puts everyone exposed to the sun at risk. International studies show that 90% of skin cancer cases are caused by uncontrolled and unprotected exposure to the sun, mainly during childhood. When a municipality ignores hundreds of parents, it directly harms the city's children. Kindergarteners, no matter how traditional they are, can't apply sunscreen to 30 kindergarten children every two hours to protect them from the sun, and they can't. Leave them between the garden walls for whole days. We call on the mayor and the municipality to act to shade the gardens as soon as possible. Summer is already here and the sun's radiation is high and dangerous, ignoring parents' appeals unequivocally harms children in the city.