Easy doesn't challenge

I visited Susan's House again recently. If you haven't been - you need to go. It's an amazing workshop in Talpiot, Jerusalem, where at-risk kids get a fresh chance with training in woodwork, glasswork, ceramics and the arts.

But really, it's not 'about' the crafts (even though they're beautiful, and they make terrific gifts and souvenirs).

It's about helping kids who face the worst situations of crime, abuse, neglect and more, and giving them self-esteem, the idea that they can succeed and make something of themselves.

They learn business skills - and social skills. And I loved the concept that they don't 'do' simple jewelry or art - they have to do complex pieces. Because the kids need to grapple and concentrate, and feel a sense of achievement. They don't do easy pieces.

Easy doesn't challenge.
Easy doesn't give you a sense of fulfillment at the end.

JDC helped set up Susan's House. But what I like most about our connection there is that we don't have one anymore. We've phased out.

But, you know, they always need people to buy things. So add a visit to your next Israel mission or trip.


If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

How much stuff costs

I had a conversation with a colleague the other day from a nearby Jewish federation about "how much things cost" for JDC services around the world.

Bearing in mind that costs differ from community to community, and equivalencies aren't as simple as you'd hope ... here nonetheless are some basic illustrative 'unit costs' that give you a good sense of the kind of tzedaka (charity) opportunities you can have when you make a donation.

$180 sends an Israeli with a disability to an independent living skills workshop, like computer skills, healthy living, household management.

$300 send an at-risk Israeli kid to a business entrepeneurship program, helping ease his or her transition into society and keeping them safe and off the streets.

$1000 sends one kid to the Szarvas summer camp in Hungary, changing lives and renewing Jewish community across Europe.

$1750 can cover the cost of an elderly client with food, medicine, home care and winter relief in the former Soviet Union.

$2150 can allow an Israeli woman to take part in a 'Woman of Valor' Employment program, shifting her from economic dependence to independence, and changing the face of Israeli society.

If you're looking for a way to make a difference - a real, powerful, personal difference - in one person's life, consider these ideas when you go to make a gift.
And if you've already made that gift, directly to the Joint or through your federation, then know how grateful we are - on behalf of the people above, and all those whose lives you've enriched, empowered and rescued.

Are you coming?

Terrific promo video for Chotam - Teach First Israel, supported by JDC (and one of my favorite programs).

Walking on the grass (when it wasn't there)

The thing she remembers most, Rachel says, is walking on the ‘grass’ in the center of the neighborhood, and her feet sinking into the sewer and open sewage. This shouldn’t be happening in modern Israel.

We’re walking in the Herzl neighborhood of Kiryat Malachi, perhaps one of the most difficult neighborhoods in the South of Israel, certainly it has the most challenging socioeconomics in the region. The neighborhood has a total of 21 large apartment buildings, with almost 3,000 households.

I’m walking with a colleague of mine, Rachel, who is the Better Together coordinator. Better Together is a platform, on which we can build stronger communities for youth at risk, especially Ethiopian-Israelis. And Kiryat Malachi was the pilot, some eight years ago, when Rachel came and did her first walking tour of the neighborhood.

Rachel went with spirit and determination from house to house and persuaded residents to join residential housing committees (ועדי בית), she brought them to meetings, introduced them to each other … because in a neighborhood filled with crime, despair and neglect, no one was talking to each other, there was hostility, vandalism, drugs and more. Kids were hanging out at night with nothing to do, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, in holes in the neighborhood [at first we thought she meant holes metaphorically, but then she explained – real holes, dug into buildings] smoking.

We’re walking in this lovely neighborhood now … where local activists, set up and empowered through Better Together, have beautified the gardens, worked together to lobby the municipality for services, and run programs and services that bring together immigrants, the poor, the different sectors of the community. Lots of enrichment programs, community building services, early-childhood projects.

From the apartment buildings, people used to throw their trash out from the windows. The main road sides of the building had trash reaching the second floor.

We brought all the departments together to one table, Rachel says. All the activists, everyone. In the past no one worked together. Now we sit together and listen to the needs of the community. The mayor is very interested and involved. It’s never happened before. They were surprised at first that the municipality got so involved – at first they said, why, there aren’t elections due right now. It’s established credibility for the municipality among the residents. Greater change; greater involvement.

Last week Rachel pulled ten building-residents together for cleaning and beautification of the neighborhood..

Rachel organized a clean-up campaign. Everyone helped, cleaned, painted, did gardening, planted seeds. They used to throw their trash out of the window into the road. Now there's neighborhood pride, organization, advocacy with the municipality.

There's a nice open grassy area between the buildings now, (in the photo at right). People picnic there.

Before Better Together started, it was a mound of trash. It took three massive dump trucks to clear out all the trash.

Teach First Israel - Holon

The Ministry of Education, noted Israeli businessman and philanthropist, Dov Lautman, and JDC are partnering to create a cadre of excellent teachers within the Israeli education system. The plan is to create a number of initiatives which will attract Israel's best and brightest, primarily from among its young adult population, to train as teachers and to devote themselves to teaching students in the periphery of the country and in cities in the center of the country which suffer from very low socio-economic levels.

Location: Ayalon School, 8 Hakneset St., Holon

RONIT CHAIMOV is the school principal , it’s a 50-year old school with a variety of populations including special needs (autistic), learning-challenged, gifted, science track, theater track. From 7^th to 12^th grade, middle-class, most parents are employed and with 12 years schooling or more. It’s a diverse neighborhood (Rasko-Bet), 1508 pupils, not many olim.

She's been here 13 years. They’ve increasingly emphasized volunteerism as a community value here, it’s a big emphasis for the school and pupils. They had the highest rate of blood donations from any school at MDA, over 60% donated. There are lots of certificates on the walls (“that’s only a small amount – the rest are in storage”)

Ronit: I came to Chotam, I wanted them here, two years ago. I believe in it.

First year we had 4 Hotamists, 1 didn’t adapt well – she's now in informal education, 3 are still here.

Second year we received 5 – they're wonderful, magical, highly motivated.

What's important here:

(1)   Teaching – as professionals, developing their skills

(2)   Educating – their ability to serve as role models for the pupils, in speaking, behavior, in how they communicate, show respect.

(3)   Enjoyment

(4)   Strengthening what we can offer

The Hotamists bring in a young spirit, they create a vision of the future for the Israeli educational system. We were in a crisis and the message that young people come in and believe in education is a breakthrough. There's a future. It’s huge. That’s why the teachers here are so enthusiastic. They were depressed before this, now they're winners.

We sit in KARIN’s class on citizenship, 45 minute class for 11^th graders. She is superb, absolutely amazing. This class is on the elements of democratic elections. They're talking about Yair Lapid’s entry into the political world, proportional representation, building coalitions, how you influence, what are democratic and undemocratic elections.

She is full of energy, asks them questions so they move to the next topic, encourages them with their names, “good  Einat,” “excellent,” “explain why,” “thank you Itai.” The students are engaged, they follow along and ask.

I have a photo of her standing beside her laptop about to forward the next slide – it’s a rare photo because for the most part, she's standing in the middle of the class or in front, moving, not referring to her notes, maintaining eye contact, using names. She explains patiently, making sure everyone is following. Uses good examples – why was Amir Peretz chosen as Defense Minister, what were Tzipi Livni’s criticisms of the Gilad Shalit deal?

At the end she sums up what they learned today, what they’re going to learn next week, what the homework will be. Very impressive.

We’re sitting with several in Ronit’s office: from left:

KARIN – 2^nd year Hotamist

RONIT - principal

ELA – 1^st year

YOGEV – 1^st year

ROTEM – Mentor

RACHELI - Mentor

AVI – 2^nd year Hotamist

ELA grew up in a moshav near Gadera, studied with Karin BA and heard about Chotam. Sounded fascinating, the opportunity intrigued me, to come to education from a different angle. It seemed like a strong group, idealistic, new, refreshing. I teach citizenship and mentor the 8^th graders. I saw the spark in Karin but I was nervous because education is so low-status in Israel, it’s at the bottom – it’s like you have to apologize for becoming a teacher. But I knew this was my destiny.

Today I taught a good class, on social democracy and liberalism. But sometimes the kids don’t understand what I want from them. I'm not looking for ‘the right answer’ but rather to learn, to speak, to widen horizons.

YOGEV comes from Moshav Eshkol near the Gaza Strip near Tze’elim. I didn’t think about becoming a teacher, maybe at most going to informal education. But I felt it was important to be part of influencing, helping, seeing the process at work. At first I was turned off by the educational system, it’s awful. But Chotam really attracted me. I wouldn’t be a teacher without it; they escort you along the way, significant support. Today a teacher comes alone and can't always take the burden by him/her self. We have individual and group support, you’re part of something, a vision.

What surprised me here? It’s not a zoo. I learned to accept problems, not to get upset or to be frustrated, not to take it personally. First time you enter the classroom you’re shaking.

[Especially with the gifted kids, they're never satisfied]

The tools I got in the July course – a full month of dilemmas, situations, how do we do, approaches in education, how to understand learning difficulties, what the student is thinking and undergoing. You get feedback, what worked and what didn’t.

KARIN was an El Al selector abroad, mostly in Bangkok (the usual joke among the Hotamists when they see her, is “arazt levad?”). I was looking for a reason to stay in Israel and not leave. I got an email, and I said to my partner, ok, now I have a reason. I filled out the Chotam forms – I deleted my answers and started again five times.

I understood that this is a high level, I was so impressed right from the start, from the interviews. And then I understood that this isn’t just a reason to stay – this is an existential reason. When I arrived here at the school I was scheduled to teach in the afternoon, four hours after everyone. So everyone was coming in with positive experiences … my first year wasn’t simple, I had amazing support, it built me up. It takes time to connect to the pupils, but now I have the connection, they give feedback, I enjoy being in the classroom with them. I didn’t realize until now “what a clueless I was” a year and a half ago.

RACHELI we’re supporting their sense of security, helping things flow, tips, emphases.

AVI teaches math and computer science, was a high-tech programmer, wanted to change professions, it wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to be a teacher, was searching the internet and found that the Chotam registration had already been closed. But I signed up anyway. The summer course wasn’t just about didactics, it was also about creating your personality as a teacher and a person. It’s also a quality group

You need a lot of patience, explain what your expectations are, listening skills.

RACHELI is beaming with her smile. 34 years I've been working in the education system, now I see these Hotamists refreshing and renewing the teachers’ room. When I first saw them I was surprised, why are they here? You came from Teva, you came from a good company, why would you leave? It was weird. Now I take that back. This is the future, modern. It’s a blessing. We’ve thrown them into the ocean, to show bravery, responsibility.

Better Together Afula

Better Together improves services for children and youth in disadvantaged communities such as development towns on Israel's periphery and poor inner city neighborhoods, by maximizing local resources and forging partnerships between residents and service providers.  It improves existing services and creates new programs, accompanying children from birth to 18, morning till night, school to home. The program focuses include early childhood development and academic assistance and enrichment activities, while engaging parents, teachers and community leaders in strengthening communities.

Location: Gvanim School, corner of Negba St. and Wolfson St., Afula

Wolfson neighborhood is the closest to Jenin, but there's no neighborhood identity, they don’t even use the name – most aren’t aware of the fact that it’s called that; they're planning a competition to rename and own the name.

14,000 households with children

1/3 olim from Ethiopia

1/3 FSU olim

1/3 veteran Israelis

PACT was here, very successful, now in phaseout – i.e. we have a strong infrastructure

BT is based on three concepts:  (1) organizational, cooperation with professionals and residents

                                                   (2) professional training

                                                   (3) answering needs

IRIS is the school principal, came to the school two years ago. This is an elementary school. The South East of Afula is in a serious condition, difficult population, violence, drugs, verbal violence, alcoholism, poor socioeconom ics. Therefore the main aim of the program in the school was to ensure that the kids would be ‘free’ to learn and to empower the teachers.

"I found a school ripped apart, parents and teachers would fight each other – literally. There were petitions left and right against each other, it was awful here. I wa s in shock. Parents would come in to the school in the morning, open a classroom door and scream at a teacher, I was threatened. It was a violent and difficult culture. The BT was an SOS for us, first to improve the teachers’ communications and functioning, working together for the students. Now it’s been two years. I met Yehuda, we thought together what tools do we need here, courses, workshops. We wanted to start with the teachers so they could start modeling the right behavior, with parents, working together. There was a lot of opposition at first,  significant change – some of the courses and extras are on the teachers’ free time, they know how important this is."

"After six months we understood that there has to be a social response as well. The long school day finishes at 2:30pm, so kids go home and then they have all kinds of problems. We have to provide an alternative, but we didn’t have funds. There's no Matnas here, there are no social activities. So the school became a center, including alight dinner – because there are kids here who otherwise wouldn’t eat anything in the evenings. We also got recognition as a healthy eating school."

DARI is the community coordinator. The place is vibrant and full of kids and parents this evening. This used to be a violent and unpleasant place. Now most evenings there are activities. Twice a week run by BT, twice by others.

50% of the families in this neighborhood are classed as ‘non-normativ e’ (charig), without proper functioning family structure.

 

MORAN is the artists’ group coordinator. BT emphasizes the voice of the residents.

Yehuda: we did a survey of 150 families – saw the need for community leaders course.

Moran’s group: 30 artists aged 24-27, based on a Nahal garin, integrating into the community as artists in education, community, arts, neigh borhood projects. But we’re residents here. There wasn’t even a Va’ad Bayit when we came to our building, no one cleaned the front garden and stairs. Everything was dirty and messy. Today it’s much better.

The model is tightly restricted to the Wolfson-Kinamon-Jerusalem streets, with all the population: community events, presentations, kabalat Shabbat, event s, cleaning up. We set up a community shelter with cultural events, open moadon, social games, Hebrew for adults

There are 180 kids in the classes. 300 in the school (from first to sixth grade)

 

We walk around the school and visit the activities:

(1)   “Penguins” – toddlers, 20 kids, run by Meital and Sapir. Sport, singing, dancing, two hours, every 30 minutes something new. Right now having a snack. Then singing.

(2)   “MasterChef” for 1^st to 3^rd graders, right now having soup, which they learned about as part of the activity. Einav is the madricha, English major at Oranim.

(3)   There's a busload of older kids and their parents going to the Festigal in Haifa. Each person pays 5 NIS for the subsidized ticket; we provided snacks and the bus. Local businessman subsidized the ti ckets. I said hello, they were thrilled to chat (but thrilled to leave on time, too)

(4)   Theater group with Adi and Ortal from the artists’ garin. 5 girls, they see Moran all the time in the neighborhood, all grew up here. Naomi: what do we do here: relaxation exercises, drama, presentations, movement. Rivka: we learn so much here, we did a show for the younger kids, but we also get the chance to talk here about other things, about politics, life, culture. There's such a warm feeling for us here, they care about us and what we feel and think. It helps me in school as well. My horizons have opened wider here. Adi and Ortal aren’t just teachers, they’ve done so much in the community, everyone loves them, they’ve put on a show for the community, “Servant of Two Masters” (by Goldoni). Tzviah (in pink) – we’re talking today about our relations with Arabs and the price tag concept, we’re trying to understand what we feel and why  [amazing openness to discussion and grappling with difficult concepts], we’re discussing it through the concept of the stranger and the other, someone different from me, we’re preparing a show about it. [this was really impressive – I was expectin g a political discussion but they're doing this through theater and moral concepts]. Adi explains that the girls are increasingly volunteering, getting involved in the community, helping in other roles.

(5)   Sujud is leading a Zumba class. She's from Yafiya (near Natzrat)

Merhav Ashkelon

Merhav aims to ensure that elementary school children from underprivileged communities are adequately prepared for junior high school. It does this by focusing on students, staff and city decision-makers. In schools, Merhav establishes cooperation between educational, psychological and welfare services. Through teacher training and supplemental resources, the school day is extended and in-school counseling, academic support and parent-child activities are made available. On a city level, Merhav places the needs of at-risk students firmly on the agenda.

Location: Harel School, Shai Agnon St. Shimshon Neighborhood, Ashkelon

RUT BEN-VALID is the school principal

School is usually open till 1pm. Three times a week they open till 5pm with activities, drama, youth movement. Here they have Noam (Conservatives). The school has won prizes. They have a psychologist once a week, social worker, therapist.

Animal therapy is especially for youth at risk, difficulties, children of drug addicts. Identified by their problems. Snake, hamster, rabbit. They learn to connect, to stroke, to be calm.

MIRI is the coordinator, I’ve seen and heard amazing things here. One boy’s father is in Assaf Harofe Hospital in Ramle, t he neighbors take care of me, he was crying. She explained later that the father is in jail, not hospital. It took four meetings for him to open up. They slowly open and share.

AYAL is holding the rabbit. It’s nice, it’s pleasant. I'm usually on edge (atzbani), I argue. Here I can overcome.

It’s a weak neighborhood. Rut says that since she's been here, “the strong have left and only the weak have remained.”

We go to the ‘lighthouse’ structure to see the gifted students’ ‘planetarium.’ They're learning about stars and the galaxies. They built a nature exhibit last year. Now they’re building a supernova. ZOHAR is the teacher.

We’re watching a dance troupe for girls from first to sixth grade. They work very hard on this, they love appearing.

DITI (Ashalim Merhav coordinator)

The program was developed in 2 003 now works in 30 locations. The pilot was Ashkelon and Afula.

RUT (Principal)

Merhav came in eight years ago. The neighborhood is classed as 8 in the 0-10 socioeconomic neglect scale (i.e. very poor and neglected). Lots of children-at-risk with parents who are unemployed, in jail, taking drugs, single-parents:

45% are single-parents

20% are immigrants

40% are veteran immigrants who didn’t yet adapt

 

We had a problem with violent parents, children were beaten, tough homes. Even violence inside the school, even against teachers. There was a negative atmosphere. We had 220 children. Now we have 450 children. Merhav said to us “dream” and we opened the school till 6pm. The holistic view, everything under one roof, responsibility for the child and also for the family. We can bring the family here to sit with the social worker. Let’s break the paradigm, let’s solve this together. We mapped everything out; all the children here were basically at-risk, not a percentage but all of them. We had to give a solution for all of them. The school became the center, we didn’t send them away. Social worker, psychologist, clothing, hot meal. Every year Rut has a group from France who bring packages of clothes and sneakers.

 

Rut: I was very young, I was 30 years old. There were shouts, screams, threats, violence. I was afraid to come in. They threatened to burn my car and more. We received three years of close escorting from a social worker. The children are no longer wandering the streets at night, little prostitution and drugs. Now we have a framework and activities. They have nothing at home.

We’ve become like a school in the North, we’re one of the top 56 schools in the country, see the movie they did. Everyone wants to send their kids here.  They even change addresses so they're here.

Rut is being promoted to the Education Ministry so she has mixed feelings. We raised people’s sense of pride here, we brought in new flooring. My husband is a doctor in the emergency room. When people want to thank him, to donate something, he suggests they give something to the school: flooring, clothing, furniture. Now the children also look after the school, it’s their home. It’s been a dream fulfilled to show the State we can succeed.

Our graduates are very much in demand in the middle school. This is a Tali school, we have good values.  Tali at first didn’t want to come in here. But now we received an award from them for excellence. The school is elementary for grades 1 through 6. There are still difficulties, it’s still a difficult population. But there's still a lot of pride. The parents now come with programmatic demands, they're proud of the school, it’s a successful model. Not because of the funds but because of the perspective. But you still need money.

There was opposition from the teachers, staying till 6pm. There was a strike, they were angry. But they saw it was successful. At lunch you see how the children are starving, they devour the food because it’s the only real meal they get all day.

The school is very influential now in the neighborhood. We have more parents who are teachers, doctors, police. About 10% are now stronger population, it strengthens us.  But at-risk isn’t just poverty. There was a family where the father was a policeman but the children were beaten. Even without financial problems you can have risk.

Merhav comes straight to the children without filters. The kids were amazed, they'd never been in activities, music, drama, dance. They didn’t know how to play an instrument, to listen to classical music, never been to theater.

We’ve won ten international prizes, the kids have won prizes for art and cinema. You have to believe in them. We became experts in building programs. They come from all over the country to see how our teachers work. We’ve learned how to teach. The kids are learning how to believe in themselves: I can do it, I can present, I can perform.

SHOVAL is one of 8 kids at home, 4 sets o f twins, 6th grade. There’s no father at home. He was violent and abusive. Today they're doing well because the pr ogram can help them. Elementary school is the base, it’s the infrastructure. It shapes the child. Without the activities we’d just be wandering the street, it’s so much nicer now. I can do music and theater; we put on a performance at the end of the last school year. We love the school, it’s like home. I want to be an

actress when I grow up.

[there are two special needs classes in Merhav here]

The parents don’t really have money, but we charge them 2 NIS per activity, so they’ll feel compelled. They also do a lot of fundraising for the school. Shuval received sneakers and clothes and a coat.

Center for Young Adults Be'ersheva

JDC's Centers for Young Adults offer immigrant and disadvantaged young adults the skills and information on which to build productive adult lives.  Services include counseling regarding higher education and vocational training; employment readiness; and life skills, such as financial literacy. Centers help participants make decisions in critical areas spanning army, family, education and employment, easing the youth to adulthood transition and preventing chronic unemployment and poverty later in life.  Community-building and leadership opportunities allow young adults to give back.

Location: Startup Center, 16 Hashalom St. Beer Sheva

Contact Person: Yiffat Hillel, CYA southern coordinator,

Amitzur, Yohann, Director of Parliament

There were 8 CYAs in the South. In the last year we opened three new ones: Eilat, Rahat and Mitzpe Ramon.

Eilat: 50% of the population is young (same as Rahat), and it has the highest percentage of single-parent women in the country, low salaries. 65% earn minimum wage. Eilat receives half a million young people every year, mostly for the hotel/tourism industry. There’s real need to open a Center there. It’s located at the High-Max between the two halves of the city. There’s a lot of motivation to work, the team is very positive, the Eilat mayor is very supportive and there’s huge potential. There was a concept to open a Center in Akaba, maybe to go international.

The Negev suffers from negative migration, a lot of quality young people are leaving.

It takes on average 6-7 years for a Beduin to finish a BA. Lots of dropouts. Lots of obstacles.

The guiding logic is local because that’s the emphasis of the municipalities. But we’re also developing a regional perspective, for education and employment. Regional employment is critical because it also serves the Centers. The Directors work also intuitively because they know what’s important, they create cooperation opportunities.

Examples:

Industrial zones are regional, not local.

The IDF training bases are moving South; the Southern mayors can't deal with this challenge on their own: absorbing families, finding employment for spouses, creating social/communal agendas.

The cities are small, no bigger than 20,000 each in the South. It’s not the mass numbers in the Center even if the geographic size is bigger.

There’s some great culture even though people don’t really think about culture in the South – there’s a great theater group in Dimona, but someone from Beersheva won't go to Dimona for the theater. They’ll go to Tel Aviv. You need to create a feeling of belonging. Only Dimonaim go to the Dimona theater.

The training bases (Ba’hdim) will have fully moved South by 2018. There is a GOI decision to set up 10 new towns in the South. It’s not clear who will benefit or suffer from this. There's no planning. The CYAs are therefore critical in this discussion and the Parliaments are the focus. The Arad Parliament invited the 10-Town plan to a discussion, and other community leaders participated. It empowered the youth, and gave them positive community activist roles.

How do you solve employment problems:

on an individual level – training, courses, referrals

interaction with the local authority, bringing companies and employers

both the above with additional value, creating a venue for synergy

CYA is grappling with the employment issue:

There's a municipal employment forum in Beersheva, trying to find solutions. There's a supply of jobs but not enough demand because lots of those who finish university don’t even look for a job, they just assume there aren’t any.

Entrepeneurship

Emphasize the community aspect and not just the employment. Social engagement on a deep and meaningful level will help you find a job better when you live here and have roots.

Cooperating with the municipality and employers on placement. There's actually a good supply of jobs but a poor image, as if it’s harder than reality. Be’ersheva isn’t seen by most people as a place in which you can succeed. It’s starting to change but very slowly. The university here is a bubble, so when you finish studying you won't have been very involved in the city life. If during your studies you lived in the good neighborhoods (Chet, Tet) you’re much more likely to stay. But if you lived in Gimel or Daled you won't. In the good neighborhoods, you’ll see good infrastructure, education, community. According to the research, only one in ten of students who come to Be’ersheva to study will even contemplate staying. Of them, 80% are already from the Negev.

We meet with the Parliament taskforce discussing the new proposed civilian airport at Nevatim. They had a public meeting with 200 participants, put forward an agenda. The top concern here is jobs; the claim is that a regional airport will create 10,000 jobs. We turned to the mayors, created a lobbying focus, we did a campaign “let the Negev take off.” The emphasis was to put employment at the focus of the discussion on the airport. We don’t have any political strength or experience but we have an opportunity to talk from the heart and the head, people listen. We have tools in the Parliament. Creating an infrastructure, speaking with the mayors, employers, Knesset and GOI representatives. 

There's nowhere else where we can do this. [You can see the enthusiasm, the self-respect, the positive image]

Laulicht center and Nutrition activities in Ofakim

This city-wide program improves the health of at-risk children through launching nutrition and healthy living educational programs in schools and community centers and educating parents and teachers about nutrition and health.  It improves children’s nutrition, physical fitness and dental care habits, countering rising rates of obesity, malnutrition and disease, and enabling children to fulfill their educational and social potential.  It focuses on teaching parents and educators practical, low-cost methods for improving the eating and health habits of at-risk children.

Location: 73 Herzl St. Ofakim (opposite Kikar Hayona)

The program “The Race to the Kitchen” – each time the dietician presents another country, they learn a little about the culture, the food, eating customs, a few words. Last week they did China, this week Switzerland. They learned last week about chopsticks, eating slowly, widening horizons. Each child gets to create something of his/her own to eat, it’s a fun activity and very educational. They’re proud of what they make. They learn that food is made up of healthy components. Today they're going to make a Swiss pie with cheese, vegetables etc and a cookie cake.

 

The nutrition program works with the municipality. They’ve seen changes in the eating habits of the children and it’s changing the way the city looks. Ofakim this year is a pilot city for “Healthy Cities” including meetings with doctors and nurses, dieticians, right now in four kindergartens. We’re the pilot because we’ve run this program for three years and have identified the huge potential in recruiting professionals. It requires a lot from the kindergarten teachers and assistants. But it’s very attractive. The breakfast exposes them to healthy foods like tehina and sardines that they might not receive at home, setting a table, healthy eating, clearing away the table.

 

The approach of the Center was that most of the activities would take place here, we’re building a unique center to serve the entire community. In the future we’ll have parents’ groups, mothers’ groups. How to cook, nutritional support, etc. We’ll have a syllabus of courses and activities to empower families and develop the community. There’s huge potential here. There’s a growing problem of obesity, especially with girls. They eat junk and there's no awareness.

 

The Kitchen’s target audiences are professionals, parents, youth, children. It gives an equal introduction to all, good therapy, emotional boost.

Photos: “Race for the Kitchen” this week in Switzerland. This is the second meeting. Adi is the dietician. She explains a little bit about Europe, Switzerland. The kids are aged 9-12. They’ve been referred by the Social Welfare Department of the Municipality.

How do we make pies, what are the ingredients, what’s in a recipe. Each child fills half a cup with carrot, zucchini, onion, pepper, mix them up.

They have a 10th grade volunteer. Shoshana is the House Mother and cook.

Adi mixes cottage cheese, eggs, flour and each child takes a large spoonful into his/her cup, mix and then pour into the molds. There's huge satisfaction.

Neve Alonim Neighborhood schematics

Afula City schematics

Civic Service Program in Afula