Israel Active

Latest news on Israel’s Sesame Enable smartphone for the disabled is that it now has reached more than 1,200 customers globally, including in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, in the three years since it was set up.  See video of the phone’s paralyzed co-founder.

Project TEN, a project of the Jewish Agency for Israel, has set-up its third volunteer center in Africa.  Partnering with a coalition of organizations, the center in Namulanda, Uganda (between Kampala and Entebbe) will focus on education, healthcare, agriculture, and the arts.

Mekin Mustafa Kemal Okem presented himself to Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem and officially assumed the post of Turkey’s first ambassador to Israel in five years.  He hailed a “new beginning” in bilateral ties and called the Jewish state Ankara’s “partner and friend.”

Israel’s MASHAV has three centers of excellence in the Indian State of Rajasthan.  They are working on producing high-quality seedlings, intensifying cultivation, better irrigation and fertilization. Israel can also help increase milk production, crop shelf-life and pest control.

Excellent article featuring the latest work by Israel’s MASHAV provide agricultural training to hundreds of thousands of people from 130 countries. The second link is to Israel21c’s stunning online exhibition, showcasing Israel’s humanitarian aid work around the world.

The Pears Challenge, run by the Pears Program for Global Innovation at Tel Aviv University, is focusing on creating affordable healthcare solutions for low and lower-middle income Indians.  The winners of the 2017 challenge will be flown to India to meet investors and clients.

I reported on the child-friendly Wheelchairs of Hope previously .  The first shipment of 250 plastic wheelchairs for children in institutions in Israel and the Palestinian Authority is to be sent this month, with a batch for residents of the refugee camps in Syria soon to follow.

A rockslide on the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal buried Japanese solo trekker Akiho Sugiyama. Luckily a group of ex-army Israeli backpackers, including a medic, heard her cries, treated her and used their Chabad-supplied satellite phone to organize her rescue via Chabad in Katmandu.

The Japanese government has awarded the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun decoration to two Israelis. Professor Meron Medzini of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and architect Arie Kutz from Tel Aviv University. Both awards were for fostering good relations with Japan.

Ministers of Israel, Greece and Cyprus met in Jerusalem and agreed to push for a pipeline to Europe, which wants to reduce dependence on Russian gas. They also agreed to establish a new regional rescue and emergency services force.