'Trying to find strength and move forward'

'Beit Eyal,' a sports center that functions as a second home to hundreds of handicapped and healthy people, is Orna Shimoni way of immortalizing her son Eyal who was killed in Lebanon

Reuters | Published: 12.05.07, 15:29

A physical fitness center, an olympic pool and a therapeutic pool, an auditorium, an amphitheater, a cafeteria – all handicapped accessible. Welcome to "Beit Eyal" in Kibbutz Ashdot Yaacov. A sports center that caters to disabled people, soldiers and residents of northern Israel is the lifework of Orna Shimoni who chose a unique way to commemorate her son, Eyal, who was killed in Lebanon in 1997.

Video: Yehonatan Zur (יהונתן צור)

"I started planning the house in 1997 shortly after my son was killed," said Shimoni. "I wanted to create an environment in which people with disabilities can interact with 'normal' people allowing for a spontaneous cooperation based on health, education, culture and sports."

"The first time I arrived here, something extraordinary happened to me," said 29-year-old Kfir. "As a blind man, the center provides an opportunity for me to interact with people, exercise and experience a personal sense of empowerment."

Shimoni has raised $4.5 million in nine years. Now she needs another $1 million to finish the Memorial Axis ‘’To Lebanon and Back.’’ Fund raising is very difficult for Shimoni. "People simply do not want to remember," she said.