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Safe Harbor
Migdalor Association
Naval officers raising sails for combat veterans with PTSD
Who We Are
The Naval Officers Community
Naval Officers Course graduates are the combat officers commanding the Israeli Navy’s vessels - people who bore full responsibility for their crew and ship through long, complex missions at sea, facing pressures with no civilian equivalent. The course lasts approximately two and a half years, and graduates commit to approximately eight years of regular service.
Migdalor Association, founded in 2014, unites approximately 3,500 of them: CEOs, tech company founders, and senior professionals across all industries. In the Iron Swords war, Migdalor alumni fought on every front, in regular and reserve service. As leaders within Israeli society, a commitment was born: to harness this human capital for the benefit of those who were hurt - IDF disabled veterans, and PTSD survivors in particular.
Safe Harbor - The Story
The Iron Swords war left behind a historic wave of PTSD casualties. The IDF Rehabilitation Department projects that by 2030, approximately 100,000 disabled veterans will be recognized - roughly a third suffering from psychological trauma. These are numbers the public health system was not built to handle alone.
Migdalor alumni saw this as a call to action: to use what we know best - the sea, and make it a tool for healing. “Safe Harbor” is the project born from that commitment: sailing sessions for PTSD survivors, led by certified skipper-officers from our community. Not as an external service - but as the personal commitment of those who were there.
The skipper accompanying the participants is a professional mentor and guide for the veterans, having commanded under pressure and knowing the sea as a second home. The sea - our natural environment , becomes the tool for healing and rehabilitation.
חסר מידע על קשרים(מנטורינג תעסוקתי)
סיפורי הצלחה, ציטוטים וכו׳
How Does It Work?
Each group completes a program of 12 two-hour sailing sessions spread across approximately four months. Every session takes place on a single yacht, with two certified skipper-officers from the association alongside a clinical psychologist.
The power lies in repetition: going out to sea on the same day and at the same time - in a marine environment that creates an atmosphere unlike any therapy room, and restores to participants the routine they were missing, as a first step toward reclaiming control of their lives following psychological injury.
Participants who persist and wish to continue can receive a Sailor-30 certification from the association, completing the program not only with recovery, but also with a practical maritime qualification.
Current Status
Our Goal
We currently run a first cycle:
30 participants across 6 boats. The feedback and demand justify significant expansion.
15 boats per cycle, three cycles per year - a total of 270 combat veterans per year.
We welcome every donor who connects with this program and its important mission to contribute their part - any amount, large or small, goes directly toward helping PTSD survivors recover and return to full lives.
Thank you for your partnership.
Jgive
To donate to the project via JGive,
click the button below
Friends of libi
To donate to MIGDALOR via Friends of LIBI, click the button below
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Israeli Naval Academy Alumni Association
Registered Non-Profit 58-04811-66
23 Kanfei Nesharim St. (BDSK CPA Office),
Jerusalem 9546438