Community Garden

The Community Garden program brings Israeli Ethiopian and veteran Israelis together through gardening. The garden operates as an environmental educational center and provides training to the community in the fields of practical ecology-gray water systems, garbage seperation and compostation, ecology gardening, and energey efficiency (water and electricity-wise).

The Community Garden program is designed to empower the adult community and connect them to the land of Israel through work in the gardens, as well as establishing strong relationships with the community, and strengthening the bond between the children and the adults of the Shapira community.

Wajjed [a word in Amharic, the native Ethiopian language], the neighborhood renewal program, focuses on improving neighbor relations, practicing responsibility through gardening, and re-planning and changing the neighborhood’s public spaces in a sustainable way. Through the program, families assume responsibility over their health, become more environmentally aware, and receive practical tools to change their lives.

For a look at our community gardening efforts, check out our photo album.

The activity is ongoing in 5 buildings (each building contains 12 families). The tenants meet every week to nurture the gardens they planted in front their buildings, and take part in workshops regarding resource reduction and ecology.

Community Incubator

The Community Incubator provides an opportunity for motivated students to join the Gar’inim, live in the neighborhoods where they operate, and volunteer in educational programs. It trains them to become leaders and professionals in their fields, as well as in the field of Non Governmental Organizations. Graduates go on to set up their own Community Gar’in or join existing Gar’inim armed with their experience, motivation, and social initiative training.

Main activities are:

• Social activity and workshops for empowerment and leadership that connect the students to the community, training them to become professionals in the field of civil society. Workshops include meetings with businesspeople, discussions regarding Jewish-Israeli-Ethiopian identity, working on personal and group goals, and more.
• Volunteering in one of the Gar’in’s youth programs for at least six hours per week; participants receive a stipend that allows them to focus on their studies and become role models for youth in the neighborhood.
• Academic courses which focus on social initiative, such as Israeli Society and NGO Management. Friends By Nature works towards that these courses will be accredited in various academic institutes.
• Employment internship in each participant’s field of study, 4 weekly hours. This guarantees the participants firsthand experience, which is a determining factor in developing a career and in learning how to connect between the business and philanthropic sectors.
• Establishing an Educational Project in the neighborhood. This way, participants get to practice the Community Gar’in lifestyle and plan joint projects. In planning their project, participants will include all of the content detailed above, with an emphasis on Ethiopian-Israeli culture as a tool for personal empowerment.

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Homework At Home

Homework – At Home! is a unique academic assistance program that aims to boost children’s achievements by creating a supportive learning environment at home. During the 2008-2009 school year, the program includes approximately 95 students and is operated in cooperation with the high schools.

“There are no studying conditions at home”??

This is exactly the way to create them, for the present and for the long run.

Homework – At Home! has succeeded in affording entire families with habits regarding studies during the afternoon hours, doing homework, and involvement of the parents in the children’s studies. When the parents actually see their children doing homework, they realize how to enable this process happen also outside the program; they allocate the necessary time and place in the house for both the students and their siblings to do their homework. The students do not “skip” classes, since the teacher comes to their houses.

The teaching staff consists of highly motivated professional teachers and volunteers who maintain a close connection with the children’ parents. The group of teachers includes both Ethiopian- and veteran-Israelis.

Homework – at Home! has helped bring school drop-out among Ethiopian-Israelis in Gedera High School to zero (before, approximately 25 Ethiopian Israelis entered 7th grade each year, while only ~5 students completed 12th grade).

The program begins with a professional assessment of what academic subjects the students should focus on and which students are most in need of support. Individual evaluations of the children’s ages, grade levels, and educational capacity helps to divide the participants into groups of 3-5 participants. Each group receives academic support in two school subjects, two hours weekly each, in the students’ homes and teachers devote an additional 30 minutes per session to get to know the students’ parents on an informal and social level. In addition, students, parents and teachers go together on field trips, to help create friendly relations among all.

Teachers undergo training in lesson development and educational pedagogy, as well as in multiculturalism and positive interaction with the students and their families. In addition, some of our older youth participants have become involved in the program as tutors for the younger children.

The program focuses on English, Mathematics and Hebrew Grammar. The teachers build the educational curriculum together with the Youth Centers’ counselors, to make it relevant to the Jewish calendar and the other educational programs. In this way, English lessons before Passover can draw from texts about Passover in Ethiopian Judaism, and so on.

In 2009, the program is operating in Gedera, Yavne, Kiryat Gat and Be’er Sheva; with additional funds, we will also be able to expand it to other Community Gar’inim.

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Multicultural Jewish Identity – For Gar’in Independence

Each Gar’in has a “Multicultural Community Beit-Midrash” (Learning Group) that enables discussion of topics related to Ethiopian-Jewish traditions, modern and traditional Jewish customs, and how to shape communities based on these topics. For example, a discussion might draw parallels between the eight levels of Tzedakah (charity) outlined by Maimonides, Gar’in activities, and the potential influence that a community can have. Another discussion may connect Jewish-Ethiopian handiwork (such as pottery and cotton-making) and Chanukah, which wasn’t celebrated in Ethiopia.

The fact that each Multicultural Beit-Midrash includes Ethiopian-Israelis and native Israelis – both religious and secular – has become possible due to each Gar’in member’s common goal of community involvement and high standard programming as a way to change the Ethiopian-Israeli community in Israel.

Participants: The Learning Groups are open to Gar’in members, working staff, and volunteer staff (teachers, counselors, program coordinators, etc.). These groups are used as training for successful work with the community. Naturally, some of the volunteers and workers are Gar’in members themselves; as mentioned, participants include native Israelis and Ethiopian-Israelis, both religious and secular.

Experienced instructors, usually Gar’in members themselves, guide the Beit-Midrash. Some of them work in this field in different frameworks, such as the Hartman Institute.

Training: Each Gar’in conducts Multicultural Training seminars to educators and community workers in its city, who work with the Ethiopian Israeli community. The seminars focus on the community’s strengths, and include content such as the history of Ethiopian Jewry, the Ethiopian-Jewish calendar, and so on. The training provides practical tools and so deals with issues such as identity, how to plan culturally sensitive lessons and activities, and more, according to the local needs.

Each community Gar’in has its own multicultural instructor who is responsible both for training the Gar’in’s staff and other educational staffs in the community.

Beit-Midrash Goals

• To unite the Gar’in members as a group with a common language and open communication;
• To strengthen the Israeli-Jewish identity of both Ethiopian- and veteran-Israelis while introducing the Jewish-Ethiopian narrative into mainstream Israeli society and improving the community’s status;
• To develop adult volunteerism and responsibility in the community;
• To create a sustainable change in the social services offered in these neighborhoods;
• To reduce the polarization within the Ethiopian-Israeli community itself, and in Israeli society in general.

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Open Space

Open Space is a program designed as a safe unstructured hangout center where youth from the ages of 14 and up can come and be with their friends. The idea of the program was to establish a “cool” place where the teenagers in the neighborhood come to and spend their evenings in a safer environment, rather than engaging in at-risk activites. The Open Space program is held at the Kat Gan in the Shapira community and opens up several nights a week.

Friends by Nature works in collaboration with Yahel Israel on the project. Yahel Israel has spent time building trust and working together with Friends by Nature to understand the needs of the youth in the community.

In order to attract the youth to Open Space, the Yahelnikim and the Gar’in members walked around the neighborhood and invited teens to come. Word would soon get around about the games, friends, and the great atmosphere. A number of new faces show up weekly. The Yahelnikim brought in a borrowed Wii, and started to think of other projects.

In order to make Open Space attractive to more teens, the Yahelnikim were looking to upgrade the “space” part of Open Space. They have added more games and equipment — chess, checkers, backgammon, cards, board games, a Wii station controllers, a ping pong table, and a pool table.

We at Friends by Nature are very excited by the success of the Open Space Program!


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Yahel Israel

Yahel is an educational organization that offers service learning and social action programs in Israel. We are passionate about getting people to work side by side in order to bring about personal and social change.

Yahel works hand in hand with partners in Israel and abroad who share our vision. We offer tailored programs for non-Israeli groups who seek to experience Israel beyond the tour bus and make a real contribution to Israeli society. Our goal is to offer high-quality immersion programs that are community based and unique in their depth and sustainability.

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Young Adults Volunteerism & Leadership

The program presents young adult Ethiopian Israelis aged 18-26 with a unique opportunity: to be on the giving rather than the receiving side, where most immigrants find themselves from the day they arrive in Israel.

While many of the young adults in the neighborhoods where Ethiopian Israelis live, are considered “at risk”, others have become more successful, having joined the army, found occupation and are considering or joining university. Unfortunately, the younger population is usually mostly exposed to the less successful young adults. Those who are more successful prefer to stay at home, away from negative influences.

This program enables these young and motivated adults to assume responsibility as positive role models for the younger children and youth: It provides them both with the opportunity and the tools to do so.

Ethiopian Israeli young adults encounter difficulties that cut them off from the center of Israeli society. For example, the Adva Center’s data from 2005 showed that among 21-24 year old young Ethiopian Israeli adults, 58% are unemployed. These young adults are forced to live off of temporary jobs and low salaries. While most of them are aware of the option of higher education, they are not available to this possibility. Therefore, the program includes ways of exposing the participants to the options of higher education or professional advancement, as well as ways to integrate into these programs.

Five Community Gar’inim now implement the program; in Gedera, a third of the participants enrolled in institutions of higher education, and, despite the tempting offers to live in the dormitories, chose to continue to live in the neighborhood and volunteer with the community, without any stipend.

The Community Gar’inim invite young adults to become members, and take part in all the activities: Multicultural Community Beit-Midrash, seminars, joint weekends, etc.

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Youth Centers

The Gar’inim Youth Centers are open up to five times a week and employ male and female Ethiopian-Israeli youth workers, usually neighborhood residents. These people become role models for the youth with whom they work. The Gedera Gar’in’s success prompted a nearby high school to hire Gar’in workers in the morning; through this work, we create an important educational continuity. Today, about 150 youth in 5th-12th grades participate in the Youth Center’s various activities; their parents join for specific events. Other Gar’inim have 30-120 youth participants in their Youth Centers.

The Youth Centers include a number of programs that develop over time, with an emphasis on:

Ethiopian-Israeli-Jewish identity as an empowerment and leadership tool: The program is based on the Jewish calendar and holidays; it includes trips throughout Israel and “Youth Movement” activities, with an emphasis on Jewish-Ethiopian components. For example, a tour through a city neighborhood may spark the question of how Succot was celebrated in Ethiopia, causing youth to turn to their parents for answers; a special evening celebrating the Ethiopian Sigd holiday connects participants to their Ethiopian-Jewish identity; Chanukah parent-child activities can include a Jewish-Ethiopian facet by making ceramic candles and cotton wicks, which are traditional Ethiopian handiworks; certain archeological ruins in the Golan can be compared to the structure of Ethiopian-Jewish villages; discussions can compare Jewish heroes in Israel and Ethiopia; and more.

“Maslul” – Leadership and Volunteerism: This program encourages young leadership, beginning with community volunteerism in areas that youth can experience success and fulfillment. Volunteering and taking responsibility at a young age encourage youth to adopt a positive outlook towards pre-army programs and enlistment. In addition to identity and tradition, the educational topics include Israeli Society and other areas of interest chosen by the group. In grades 11-12, participants are introduced to quality volunteer programs, such as pre-military Service Year (“shnat sheirut”), Nachal, pre-army preparation, and voluntary National or military service. The purpose is to making thought-out, responsible decisions for their futures, based on sound information.

After high school: Their connection to the Community Gar’inim enables youth to remain in touch as they go on different paths. Graduates of the program are often invited to join the Gar’in. The strong feeling of belonging is conducive to success and personal development.

Strengthening the Family Unit by offering leadership opportunity to parents: Parents take part in leading joint parents-children activities on holidays; in other activities, children ask their parents questions connected to Ethiopian-Jewish tradition; parents and children go on trips together, which involve parents telling Ethiopian folktales. These activities improve relations at home and enable members to fulfill personal potential.

Connection to Israel: Ethiopian immigration to Israel was a result of Zionistic zeal, but many Ethiopian-Israelis have not seen much of their longed-for country. The Youth Centers conduct trips throughout Israel that teach participants how to face challenges in life, take responsibility, and give aid. The staff draws parallels between Israeli and Ethiopian history, geography, and cultures, and creates a medium to identify both with the Ethiopian tradition at home, and with the modern Israel (a discussion on Jewish heroism in Israel and in Ethiopia, while travelling to Bar-Kochba sites; preparing an Ethiopian Matza on a Pesach hike; etc.).

The Counselors in the Youth Centers are chosen by each individual Gar’in and work with one or two age levels: 15-20 participants on a regular group basis; he/she integrates additional 10-15 participants into different programs and follows up on them; and evaluates another 10 participants every three months, introducing them to various programs. There are altogether 40-50 participants per half-time counselor.

Their job includes:

1. reaching out in the neighborhood and keeping track of the youth in their designated age level;
2. guiding a group in the fields detailed above, including hikes;
3. home visits;
4. integrating the participants into different programs, with an emphasis on the “Homework – At Home!” program (detailed below);
5. work in the school in the mornings, when possible;
6. individual accompaniment of certain participants.

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SUCCESS OF FRIENDS BY NATURE PROGRAMS

Independent research on Friends by Nature’s programs conducted by “Shatil” in 2009 shows:

• The dropout rate and frequency of violent incidents in the schools have decreased.
• The project has empowered the parents of the participants and raised their level of awareness of instilling positive and efficient learning habits among their children at home.
• The participants consider their school work as important, and feel that their parents and school staff support them in this respect and encourage them to study and achieve.
• The participants’ social integration, self-image, sense of belonging to Israeli society, and learning habits have all improved in comparison to the previous year.
• Students are increasingly encouraged to study theoretical subjects that prepare them for university, rather than vocational courses.
• Relationships between parents and participants have improved in comparison to the previous year. Increasingly, participants see their parents as a source of support and feel that their parents trust them, value them and respect their educational needs. Parents feel that the mutual respect between them and their children has improved.