Home › Blog › Bringing Light During Dark Times: How Sunrise Israel Supports Children with Cancer and Their Families
By Sara Brenner
Sunrise Israel’s mission is powerful in any year: to bring joy, hope, and resilience to Israeli children—Arab and Jewish—battling cancer, along with their healthy siblings. Through free summer day camps and year-round in-hospital programming, Sunrise Israel creates safe, inclusive spaces where children can just be kids.
But in the wake of the ongoing war with Hamas, their work is more vital than ever.
Each year, 450+ Israeli children are diagnosed with cancer. For these families, life becomes a blur of hospital visits, treatments, and mounting financial strain. These children often face social isolation due to compromised immune systems, missing out of the support and connection from everyday childhood experiences.
War, meanwhile, has only deepened these challenges. Sirens, rocket fire, and evacuations have become the new normal, layering trauma on top of an already overwhelming reality. Healthy siblings, too, are affected—often feeling overlooked as parents focus on the child who is sick.
Sunrise Day Camps provide a crucial outlet, offering children with cancer and their siblings a place to laugh, play, and connect—bringing moments of joy and relief during an incredibly difficult time.
This summer, despite ongoing wartime disruptions, Sunrise Israel is preparing once again to welcome children back to camp. In 2024, thanks to generous support from our community, the organization was able to extend its flagship summer camp from 10 days to 12—offering even more time for children and families to connect, recharge, and heal. Now, as donor attention continues to shift toward causes more directly tied to the war, Sunrise is working hard to maintain that expanded scope while navigating staffing challenges caused by school closures and reserve duty obligations.
In 2024, Sunrise Israel also launched the Resilience and Emotional Assistance Program (REAP) to address the emotional well-being of children with cancer and their families during wartime. Thanks to this initiative, the organization trained additional professional counselors and volunteers, reaching over 1,000 young cancer patients across Israel.
We’re proud that, through support from Federation—via an Israel Crisis Relief Allocation and a Jewish Community Foundation Endowment Fund grant—our community helped make these critical expansions possible.
Sigalit, mother of Zohar and Asher, shared:
“Every year, the day after camp, Zohar makes a calendar. On it he counts twelve months and marks the day in the following year that Sunrise is due to start. He literally counts down all year long for the first day of camp. And for the duration of camp, for the first time in a long time, I can have a breather, a break. I know that Osher and Zohar are together, having the most wonderful time – both together and in their separate age-groups. When I’ve visited camp, I’ve seen it with my very own eyes – I’ve seen the joy of them being together, the pride each one has in being brothers. Being here at camp, while in the midst of a cancer journey, helps them strengthen and deepen their sibling bond. And this is beyond precious for me.”
As charitable funds divert to war-related causes, Sunrise Israel is working hard to maintain its life-changing programs while becoming more cost-effective. In the coming year, they hope to identify new donor partners, source more in-kind donations of food and transportation, bolster supplies of toys and games for the hospital programs and continue training staff to navigate the multicultural dynamics of their inclusive programs.
Your support can make all the difference—learn more about Sunrise Israel here or contact us at foundation@shalomdc.org to explore ways you can support their mission.
Together, we can help children facing cancer and their families experience the joy, hope, and resilience they so deeply deserve.