My name is Inna Penek and I grew up in Odesa in the former Soviet Union, modern-day Ukraine, and I didn’t have a Bat Mitzvah growing up. COJECO, a marvelous organization that works with Russian-speaking Jewish families, have been running group family B’nai Mitzvah journey programs for kids for a while now and I have been imploring them to create an adult program for someone like me, who didn’t get to experience this as a kid. Last year they finally announced that it is happening and signed up the very same day they opened program registration.
Last spring, I got diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, and I have turned to Sharsheret for help. There was a number of aspects of Sharsheret’s help that were invaluable for me personally: counseling, helping to process and organize all the information coming at me as if from the firehose and understand the diagnosis and treatment options, peer mentoring, helping find relevant resources, whether it was related to dealing with side effects of ovarian suppression and aromatase inhibitors or the challenges of surgery recovery, or with working through various issues at work and with health insurance. Sharsheret also puts together very thoughtful and personalized care packages for kids who are as well affected by their parent’s diagnoses and treatments, and sends materials that help parents talk to kids of different ages about cancer. They also send care packages to those undergoing chemo and radiation, and while it didn’t apply to me personally, I know how valuable and important those are to women in treatment. My daughter loved the toys and books that have arrived in her Busy Box and we felt empowered to have a conversation with her about what is happening to her mama and how it will affect her day to day life while mama is undergoing treatment and recovering.
For my Bat Mitzvah project I chose to collect gifts for women undergoing chemo or radiation treatment for breast or ovarian cancer (Best Face Forward program) and toys for kids in their families (Busy Boxes). I am so happy that my adult B’nai Mitzvah cohort decided to join me in this effort.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart and other reconstructed body parts!
Here’s COJECO’s website: https://www.cojeco.org/
Best Face Forward: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/3JSBHKM1U6EB1
Busy Box: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2HU66XZIMP66S