Israel Active

For 15 years, New York art educator Maureen Kushner led children at 50 Israeli schools to draw pictures of peace. When completed in 2009, the resulting “Peace through Humor” exhibit went on an 8-year world tour. It now resides at Yemin Orde Youth Village near Haifa.

Israeli charity Zichron Menachem spares no effort to collect hair offered by donors or salons and turns it into wigs, supporting children who have lost their hair during cancer treatment.

30 Israeli adults in wheelchairs had the unforgettable Hanukkah experience of reaching the top of Masada, thanks to the Yad Sarah and Mangishei Derech organizations. One by one they were taken by cable car to the top of the national site.

Villagers in Akuyam, Uganda, hadn’t eaten in three days when Sivan Ya’ari and her Innovation: Africa staff visited them in February. They organized an emergency food relief mission and implemented a water-pumping project to raise the long-term standard of living of the village.

I reported previously that Israel’s Technion had laid the cornerstone for its new research center in the southern Chinese city of Shantou. The Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) is now open and ready to educate some 3,000 students.

A Magen David Adom (MDA) delegation recently went to the Philippines to train instructors for emergency medicine teams on dealing with mass casualty incidents. The Philippines has suffered natural and man-made disasters, requiring highly skilled medical and rescue forces.

Zambia is to host the first ever Africa-Israel Summit in 2018, according to Zambia’s President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. President Lungu flew to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and accepted his request for Zambia to host the summit.

UN Development Program rep Roberto Valent said, “The UN is very happy that Israel is advanced in not only its own actions towards the SDGs implementation, but in also providing a platform for others in the areas of gender, gender equality, education, and especially in innovation.”

A 25-member Bahraini delegation made a 5-day visit to Jerusalem to talk about peace and coexistence. The group included Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, Christians, the leader of a Hindu temple and a Sikh. It was led by Betsy Mathieson, a British ex-pat, now a Bahraini citizen.

Nice article on Israel’s SodaStream, highlighting the excellent relations within company’s multi-ethnic workforce. For example, the 22-year-old Bedouin female team leader who supervises two Bedouin men, a Palestinian Arab, a Jewish woman and a Russian.