Barak Nedveski’s, representative of ZDVO’s scholarship recipients 2013

My name is Barak Nedveski. I am 39 years of age and happily married to Meirav and father to two amazing children.

I served in the Military at the Naval Computer Center, on a base located in Ramat Gan. I’m sure you are all wondering how a soldier, who served in Ramat Gan, ends up as a disabled veteran. It’s simple. One morning, 18 years ago, luck was not on my side as I ascended a bus in Ramat Gan which was exploded just 5 minutes later by a suicide bomber.

As a result of the explosion I was thrown forward from my seat. I remember getting up, saying to myself, “well, there was a terrorist bombing and I was lucky that I’m fine”. I approached the driver and asked him to open the front door so I could get off the bus.

The next thing I remember is waking up at Ichilov Hospital in intensive care, attached to a respirator after surgery. Shrapnel had penetrated my chest, my lungs had collapsed, both my eardrums had torn and I had lost a substantial part of my hearing. Parts of my body were covered in burns and ash.

The doctors didn’t have good news for me: when my family arrived at the hospital they were told that there was only a 50% chance that I would live. A few days later when I was disconnected from the respirator and transferred to the department, the doctors said that I would be hospitalized for six months.
But, I decided differently! I decided that I needed to recover quickly and after 8 nights in hospital, I was discharged to my home in Pardess Hana. The first year after the bombing I spent most of my time in Ichilov hospital but that did not prevent me from getting on with my life. Already after three months recovery at home, I began academic studies at Tel Aviv University and a month later I had moved into an apartment in Givatayim.

I won’t go into any more detail but during the 18 years that have passed since the bombing, I completed a degree in economics and management, worked in a large high tech company, completed a further bachelor degree in law, specializing in finance, and I have worked for many years in the legal field – mostly in the legal department of the “Delek” company. I can’t say that I did not face challenges throughout my studies and work. On the contrary, I soon discovered that the aftermath of the bombing had led to other injuries, less visible but deeper and more difficult to come to terms with – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

During the past few years, I understood that I want to do something else with my life, something different. I was looking for something worthwhile, something with essence and a sense of mission – not just going to a place of work every day to earn a salary and gain a promotion. That’s how I got to the “Call Yachol” company, whose vision and goal is to help integrate people with disabilities into the workforce by providing them with the physical and technological adjustments necessary for them to work. At “Call Yachol”, I managed a team of employees with disabilities who did not know that I was in fact just like them, facing difficult health challenges each day.

At “Call Yachol” I understood for the first time that all the knowledge and experience that I had accumulated in my many trials since my injuries, could serve me in helping others, particularly those suffering from various disabilities.The connection with the employees was immediate. I very quickly was able to identify their needs and I knew how to help them, to show them how to gain a different, empowering perspective on things and to give them the feeling of confidence so that they could persevere at their place of work and enjoy it.I didn’t perform magic. I simply helped them by teaching them the techniques I used during my previous jobs.

In time I felt that I could contribute more – I wanted to take it one step forward and help people in a more professional way. So I decided to learn coaching which would provide me with the professional tools that would help me help people deal with their life challenges.

That’s what happened and that’s what I am doing today.

This is the place to say a huge thank you to the donors that helped me by financing my coaching studies, which so enriched me and gave me more tools to help me in my personal challenges. I feel that by being able to convey these tools to others, I am paying the contribution forward, often to exactly the same population which I am representing here.

I thank you for supporting us year after year and enabling us to study, to create and to achieve.I would like to take this opportunity to also thank members of the ZDVO Fund for their tireless work.

Thank you also to the people in ZDVO who accompany me personally, who are always there to listen and to help, Kobi Yitchak, Chairman of the Centre and Coastal Region and , Attorney Sharon Schechter Bitan. And of course thanks to Edna Shitrit who organized this evening and who during the last few years has revolutionized the area of employment of disabled veterans.

The message for you, my friends, is to place your disability within your life and not live your life in the shadow of your disability. You manage your disability and not let it manage you. And don’t give up on your ambitions and dreams. We only live once and so you have to live and experience life fully and not just exist. I’ll finish with a short personal story. I remember when I was still in the hospital, lying in the surgical department, I said to myself that if I return to a situation such as this in the future, meaning bound to a hospital bed in a serious condition, I can look back on my life with joy and know that I lived my life as I wanted.

I’m happy to say sincerely that I have kept that promise. The memory is always my motivator in whatever I do, whatever changes I make in my life and I have learned to always follow my heart. Thank you for listening.