The Humanitarian Trust, founded by the late Abie Nathan and Havatzelet in cooperation with the Kibbutz Industrial Association and the Kibbutzes Movement, was made to help and ease the suffering of those in need, regardless of their faith, race, gender or nationality, across the globe and especially in Israel.

The organization provides assistance at times of national-scale disaster, such as earthquakes, floods, famine or any other natural disaster, as well as in events of governmental mistreatment of civilians.

This assistance is provided under two conditions. The first condition is that the receiving country wishes to receive this humanitarian aid and is unable to provide all the necessary support to save lives. In these cases, emergency aid is provided in the form of food and equipment, in accordance with Abie Nathan's view that support should be delivered by the volunteers without the involvement of any intermediaries, from the moment it is collected until it is delivered into the hands of the individual in need, in the afflicted area.

The second principle is that all the work is carried out by unpaid volunteers.

The method. Upon learning of the disaster, an emergency telephone network is activated between the volunteering members, each of whom has a pre-determined assignment. The experience accumulated over the years enables speedy performance of this step and take-off to the afflicted area in a very short space of time. Most members have acted in Ruanda, Biafra, Ethiopia, Columbia, Honduras, Turkey, Bulgaria, Kosovo, assisting the Kurds, in Mozambique, Nicaragua, Armenia, Peru, Somalia and Georgia.

The most recent activity was in Sri Lanka, following the tsunami, and in Haiti, following the earthquake. We were also active during the Second Lebanon War in supplying food to the civilian population confined to bomb shelter, as well as organizing vacation days for the children, and after the war in the rehabilitation of forests and shelters.

The Trust operates in Israel as well, when humanitarian aid is needed. Activity in Israel is conducted modestly, in the form of secret charity, usually before the holidays, or in the event that a particular family has experienced life-shattering calamity. In addition, the Trust has acted in providing support to families afflicted by floods and families of members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) residing in Israel, in the social struggle of the physically disabled, in aid of workers made redundant, in support for those affected by the Dolphinarium bombing and supporting refugees, the elderly, holocaust survivors and invalids.

The people of the Trust. The Kibbutz Industry factories are the body recruited for the humanitarian enterprises and most of the volunteers are from the Kibbutzes Movement.

The Chairman and founder of the organization is Henry Alexelsi from Ein HaShofet. The Trust is run by the Havatzelet Fund.