"I would like her to have a new bag and clothes - but it's either that or buying food at the supermarket"

Michal (pseudonym) loves fashion. And like many 15-year-old girls, she wants to "look the part" on the first day of school. In a few days, she will enter the ninth grade, but she barely remembers the excitement of shopping for September 1st. "My school shirts are too small for me, it doesn't look that good," she says, adding, "But I have no other choice. I'll probably look like last year, the same shirt and the same jeans. I have no way to diversify."

Behind Michal and her mother Dana (pseudonym) are years of financial survival. Dana has been raising her daughter alone since her father died when she was six and a half. Only after his death, Dana says, did she discover the extent of the loans he had taken without her knowledge. "For years I lived alongside him in a violent relationship, both financially and verbally," Dana says. "Her husband controlled the financial conduct in the house - and when he passed away, he left behind debts that are still being deducted from her account every month."

Dana, who deals with heart failure, works as a secretary at 75% capacity and is unable to work long hours. Within this reality, every expense is reconsidered. "In Michal's class, they study with tablets. Hers is stuttering and getting stuck, it's a terrible feeling. I would like her to have a new bag, books, and clothes - everything that other children around her have," she says. "But it's either that or buying food at the supermarket."

Dana's choice to shop at the supermarket at the expense of school shirts for her daughter is a reality that thousands of families are dealing with ahead of September 1st. Data from a study conducted by the "Latet" organization among aid recipients reveals a worrying picture that points to a deep gap in the ability of parents to provide their children with even the basic starting point for the school year: 63.2% report that their children lack basic school supplies - four times the rate in the general population.

60.8% of families do not have a computer available for children for learning purposes, and almost three out of every four parents are unable to meet all the payments associated with school. 84.4% of parents cannot fund private lessons and 83% cannot fund extracurricular activities and enrichment programs. But the figure that illustrates more than anything how financial distress permeates the lives of children is this: in two out of every five supported families, at least one child under the age of 18 is forced to work due to the family's financial situation.

Michal is one of those children. At 15, she already has several regular babysitting clients. She charges 35 shekels per hour and tries to be as flexible as possible - so she can earn a little more money and buy what girls her age usually ask their parents for. "That way I can afford things that I know Mom can't pay for," she says, showing off her colorful nails with enthusiasm. "My shoes looked terrible, so I saved up for new ones. In general, it's important for me to be well-groomed, to fix my eyebrows, to get polish. I realized that to get what I want, I have no choice but to work."

But there are moments when it is harder to blur what is missing. Just this week, a good friend of Michal's was supposed to come to her house as part of a summer vacation hangout. Dana, who says she loves to host and give, found herself asking the girl to arrive with snacks from home. "Unfortunately, we have no way to host. It was so shameful and embarrassing for me to say that. But both of them understood." And yet, behind this maturity is a child who still wants to return to school and feel like everyone else. "There are small things that make me feel different," she says. "They have the expensive equipment and I have the cheaper types. I see the gap, I understand that I want and cannot afford it."

Michal still manages to overcome the gap in expensive clothes and quality equipment. But the academic gap she has accumulated is what worries her the most. "It scares me to go back to class and be the only one who doesn't understand again. It hurts to fail tests and get a bad report card," she shares. Following a boycott and bullying she experienced at her previous school, Michal stayed home for almost all of seventh grade. When she returned to school in eighth grade, she had accumulated many gaps. "At the end of the last year, we were summoned for a conversation with the coordinator, the teacher, and the principal," says Dana, "there I was told that she must be strengthened. I sat there and was ashamed. I was embarrassed to tell them that I, as a mother, have no way to help her, I have no money for private lessons."

But the difficulty among the population does not end with a bag or a private lesson. For some families, the financial situation determines whether the child will be able to continue in the framework. A third of the parents receiving aid (33.8%) say that their children were forced to change or stop their educational framework due to the distress at home, compared to 18.4% in the general population. 72.5% are unable to meet all the payments associated with school. And the gap starts long before first grade: almost half of the supported parents with children aged 0-3 (45.3%) gave up on registering at least one of their children for an educational framework because they could not pay for it.

When one child gets a private lesson, a tablet, and a club, and another, like Michal, is forced to work to buy herself shoes - they might sit in the same class, but they don't start at the same point. "I was in a voice development and theater club, but we stopped the registration because we didn't have money," Michal says and Dana agrees. "But I believe it will be good. I have a dream that in a few years I will act, dance, and sing at Menora, I will fill the audience with fans."

Throughout the conversation, Dana looks at her daughter with pride at the maturity and optimism she displays, but is also overwhelmed with feelings of guilt. "I wonder, how else can I help her? Promote her? If only I had the ability, I would give her everything, a lesson in every field." Michal, for her part, shares about the beneficial relationship with her mother, "We are in this together, shoulder to shoulder."

Against the background of these data, and as part of the "Latetik" project of the Latet organization, about 5,000 study kits will be distributed ahead of the opening of the school year to children from families dealing with financial distress and food insecurity, through about 160 partner associations from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat.

Eran Weintraub, CEO of the Latet organization:

"The difficult economic situation of the aid recipients and the dismal state of the education system in Israel, which forces those who have money to purchase private supplementary education, cause an expansion of inequality, and this instead of the education system serving as a platform for reducing gaps and providing equal opportunities for every boy and girl to realize the talent and potential inherent in them."

"Education is the highest barrier to escaping poverty, and investing in it may have the best return for social mobility, so that children growing up in poor families can acquire education and develop into independent adults. On the eve of the opening of the school year and the elections to the Knesset, the next government must change the national order of priorities and invest in social issues, including education and poverty reduction, which are not only economically efficient, but the just and proper thing to do."