Programs · 02 of 08
112 routes · 6:30 AM pickups · every weekday

The First Person a Child Sees Each Day Is Avi the Bus Driver

Parents work. Some can't drive. Many of our schools are 30 minutes from where the children live. The bus is not a perk — it's the entire reason a child can keep coming back, day after day after day.

The promise

Why The Bus Is Sacred

When we open a new school in a town like Karmiel or Sderot, the question we ask first isn't who will teach or what we will serve for lunch. It's can we get every child here, on time, every morning, no matter what?

If the answer is no, we don't open. The bus is the load-bearing wall of this entire enterprise. Skip the bus and the program collapses by week three — kids miss days, fall behind, and quietly drift back to whatever school is around the corner.

By the numbers

What This Looks Like

112
Active routes

Across all 22 cities. Every child within 45 minutes of a Chinuch Atzmai school is on a bus by 6:30 AM.

7,300
Children riding

Of our 7,800 students, 94% take a bus to school. The rest walk from neighborhoods within 1 km.

9 yrs
Avi's tenure

Our longest-serving driver, Avi Shemesh, has driven the same Kiryat Gat route every weekday for nine years.

Sponsor this program

$180.
Sponsor a route for one week

$180 covers fuel, insurance, and the driver's wages share for one full week of one bus route — about 60 children round-trip, every day.

Sponsor The Buses →

All donations are tax-deductible. EIN 13-1953145.

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