Udi Galberd

Udi Galberd is a former capital-markets professional and chair of the board of Darna—A Safe Home for Youth at Risk. After volunteering in his spare time with teenagers facing severe personal and family difficulties, he chose to apply his financial and managerial experience to a sustained social mission: helping create a residential framework where vulnerable young people can find stability, education, treatment and a realistic path toward a responsible adult life.

The Darna association was established in 2011 to provide individualized attention, personal support and a comprehensive educational and rehabilitative environment for teenagers at particularly high risk. In 2015, the association opened Darna’s residential home. In the summer of 2020, the home moved to a permanent site on the campus of Ruppin Academic Center in Kfar Monash, in Israel’s Hefer Valley. The facility was designed and built around the residents’ needs and the therapeutic processes they undergo.

A framework for young people without a safe home

Darna serves boys aged 14 to 19 who are referred by Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and by the courts under the Youth Law. Many lack a reliable family support system, have left previous educational or rehabilitative settings, and face major learning gaps and difficulties adapting to ordinary frameworks. Some have also become involved with the law. The residence can accommodate up to 24 young people and is supervised by the Youth Protection Authority.

The work at Darna begins with the understanding that behind dangerous or disruptive behavior is a young person who needs a stable relationship, clear boundaries and an adult who believes that change is possible. Galberd leads the association together with Tomer Bohadana, the director of the residence and the person responsible for shaping its educational and therapeutic approach. Bohadana himself grew up in residential institutions outside the home, an experience that informs his understanding of the challenges faced by the residents.

Rehabilitation through education, responsibility and success

Darna’s educational and therapeutic approach draws on positive criminology. Rather than concentrating only on failure, offenses and non-normative behavior, the framework seeks to create positive experiences and expose the residents to generosity, responsibility and a sense of capability. It treats each young person as someone with strengths and room to grow—not merely as a collection of problems to be corrected.

Each resident receives an individualized rehabilitation plan combining academic or vocational education with personal empowerment. The program gives the teenagers tools for coping with physical and mental difficulties, encourages personal responsibility and teaches consideration for others and for the surrounding community. Success in a task, in school or in a relationship can gradually change the way a young person understands himself and his future.

Education and vocational preparation

Darna’s educational program is designed to bring residents back into the learning system. It helps them complete ten or twelve years of schooling, earn a recognized Ministry of Education completion certificate or a technological-vocational qualification, take matriculation examinations and, where possible, finish with a full Israeli matriculation certificate.

Classes are held inside the residence. The teaching staff includes educators from the Ministry of Education and the HILA program, supplementary teachers employed by the association and volunteers who provide individual tutoring. Education is therefore not an accessory to residential life; it is a central part of a process intended to expand each teenager’s future choices in work, service, further study and participation in society.

Challenge, service and personal growth

The personal empowerment program gives residents opportunities to build positive experiences through demanding activities. Each week they ride and care for horses at a therapeutic riding farm, assist children with special needs who visit the farm, volunteer at a shelter for injured animals and take part in rehabilitation efforts.

Other activities include mountain biking, surfing, demanding navigation hikes, physical training and preparation for service in the Israel Defense Forces. Inside the residence, a Twelve-Step program addresses addiction and dangerous behavior. Together, these activities connect treatment with discipline, responsibility and service. They allow the teenagers to experience themselves in new roles: as persistent students, helpers, contributors and people others can trust.

Why Udi Galberd’s legacy belongs in Moreshet

Udi Galberd’s contribution lies in turning professional experience and personal resources toward a long-term social institution. Through his leadership of the Darna association and its residential home, he has helped build a setting that combines protection, education, treatment and preparation for independent, responsible lives.

The significance of this work extends beyond one individual. Every teenager who is given a chance to return to learning, acquire a skill, rebuild self-confidence and participate in the community may alter the course of his own life and influence the future of those around him. Darna’s emphasis on the residents’ strengths, while addressing addiction, educational gaps and dangerous behavior directly, reflects a profound responsibility toward young people living at the margins of society.

For these reasons, Galberd’s work merits a place in Moreshet. It represents more than philanthropy: it is the patient construction of an institution, the cultivation of young lives and the expansion of the possibility of belonging and contribution. At Moreshet.com, his story illustrates how legacy is also built through daily commitment to people who need someone to believe in them—and to help turn that belief into practical ability.