Mother’s anger as son set to miss Israel tour

A SINGLE mother has launched a campaign to raise money for a support worker to accompany her autistic son on Israel tour this summer.

Janine Greyman said that without specialist help, her 15-year-old son Ryan Isaacs, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, will not be able to go on the trip with the FZY youth movement in July.

Ms Greyman, 42, a mother of three from Barnet, north London, said she needs to raise £3,000 because FZY “does not have the money to pay for it”.

She claimed that the group told her in January that they would find the funds, but informed her last month that it was struggling to do so.

Shesaid:“MyargumentwithFZYisthat they have left it too late to let us know.”

Mrs Greyman, a member of Southgate Reform Synagogue, believes tour is a “rite of passage” which should be available to every Jewish child.

She said: “You build up friendships for life, that is what I want for him. FZY should have the support in place.”

Ryan, who attends JCoss and is currently taking his GCSEs, said he would be upset if he missed out.

“I really want to go so it can help me make new friends and help with my Ryan Isaacs needs a support worker to accompany him on the FZY trip self-esteem. I want to learn more about Israel as well. I would be disappointed if I could not go because I have had to wait this long to find out.””

A spokesperson for FZY said: “FZY are 100 per cent committed to bringing as many young Jewish teenagers to Israel as possible. Every year we work with parents or guardians and our partners to do all that is reasonably possible to support an applicant’s individual needs. This includes working with doc- tors and mental health professionals and providing additional resources to the best of our ability.

“If we were to comment in public on specific cases we would lose the confidence of families who may well want to apply for Israel Tour, but we can say that we work very hard to accommodate our applicants.”

FZY will be taking over 410 15- and 16-year-olds to Israel this summer. It charges up to £3,149 for the tour.