Better Together - Kiryat Gat

A Farash Foundation site visit to see their incredible support for the Better Together program ....

If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

Farash Foundation JDC Strategic Partnership Mission to Israel April-May 2013

Etrog-sprays at the Machane Yehuda culinary tour

 Visit to Israel Air Force Base to see the JDC "Blue Dawn" program for Haredi (Orthodox) enlistment
Below: Independence Hall, Tel Aviv

Above: Arab Druze hospitality in Usifiyah
Left: overlooking Jerusalem
Below: explaining Jerusalem's history

 Above: at the Supreme Court, Jerusalem
Left: embarking on a culinary tour of Machane Yehuda
Below left: cheese tasting

Above and left and below: Better Together kindergarten, Kiryat Gat

 Left: preparing a dedication sign for Better Together Kiryat Gat
Below: with the mayor of Kiryat Gat, Aviram Dahari, ribbon cutting

 Above: Kiryat Gat Mayor Dahari fixes the mezuza to the new Better Together Center
Right: networks and webs of connections in Better Together BeerSheva

Above: JDC-Ashalim Nutrition program for Ethiopian-Israeli mothers in Beersheva, Yud-Aleph neighborhood
Right: Israel Air Force/JDC "Blue Dawn" program

We’re Better Together

Our main day of site visits was spent in Kiryat Gat and BeerSheva, visiting the two “Better Together” programs supported with the generosity of the Farash Foundation. 

Better Together isn’t really a ‘program.’ It’s more of a platform, bringing together all the different elements in a community – the municipality, the teachers, parents, activists and all those who care about strengthening the community. And in these neighborhoods (Nevi’im in Kiryat Gat, Yud-Aleph in BeerSheva) there's a huge need. Parents are scared to let their kids out at night, there aren’t any cultural or enrichment programs for youth.  

In Yud-Aleph there are over 50% immigrants in the neighborhood. That translates to weak civil society, and a lack of municipal services because there aren’t enough activists to lobby for those services.

But we kept coming back to an amazing sense of pride, a sense of change, in both these neighborhoods. In just the last year or two, since Better Together began, we’ve seen real change in the perceptions and orientations of the community.

People are starting to believe in change. They’re starting to understand that the Joint will help, but it’s up to them to lead. And this leadership is growing.