The Israel Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis Foundation – CCFI

CCFI is a charitable organization dedicated to providing support, information and education to patients, families and caregivers, the public, organizations, authorities and medical professionals within Israel, on Inflammatory Bowl Diseases (IBD) – Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Our goals:

  • Empower patients, families and the medical professionals
  • Demystify the diseases
  • Normalize realities surrounding the diseases
  • Promote rights and avoid discrimination
  • Make life more livable

Our mission:

We support, advocate, educate, empower and promote connectedness for people affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease, as well as those involved in the care, treatment and mitigation.

CCFI and IBD in Israel:

  • CCFI established in 1994 by a group of dedicated parents
  • Supervised by the Israeli Corporations Authority
  • Estimated 30K IBD patients in Israel among them thousands of children
  • There are five centers of IBD excellence in Israel. CCFI continuously collaborates with these centers and with clinics in the periphery  (Pop. 7.6 million)

We focus on:

  • Distributing reliable INFORMATION
  • Raising AWARENESS
  • EDUCATING patients, family, the medical community and the general public
  • Promoting WELL-BEING
  •  ADVOCATING patient RIGHTS vis-à vis authorities, educational institutions and the workplace
  • Improving QUALITY OF LIFE for patients and families
  • Supporting RESEARCH initiatives

Our main activities are:

  • Providing support:
    • Hot line– Operates every day, serving everyone
      • aiding approximately 5 callers a day, open 5 days a week
    • Organizing support and information gatherings for families
    • Providing financial aid for purchasing medications
    • Providing access to experts on patient rights issues
  • Educating:
    • Our new website is continuously expanding and improving to provide meaningful, reliable and undated information
    • Arranging patient and medical staff conferences
    • Collaborating with medical centers (lectures, support groups)
    • Producing and distributing brochures
    • Producing CCFI Magazine (Tmichon) – a self-published periodical
  • Promoting Quality of Life:
    • Special events
    • Challenging trips for family fun
    • Children’s summer camp in collaboration with Kfar Nahar Hayarden http://www.jrv.org.il/eng_home.htm
    • Organizing webinars that provide information and promote sharing of information and experiences
  • Keeping IBD issues in the media by:
    • Being the “go to” resource on IBD
    • Promoting media focus especially around International IBD Day
  • Advocating for patients rights:
    • Insurance: Social Security (Bituach Leumi), National Health Insurance (Kupot Cholim), private insurance companies
    • Educational systems: schools, colleges and universities
    • Employers
    • Army