Haiti – five years on
(Thanks to Israel21c) Five years after the devastating earthquake, Israel has not abandoned its work in Haiti. Humanitarian organization IsraAID is running a medical facility, an agriculture program, a youth empowerment center and a gender violence prevention program for Haitian women.
Give your heart out
90% of jewelry manufacturer YVEL’s employees arrived in Israel from 20 countries. YVEL also trains Ethiopian Jews in all jewelry crafts. It is now supporting the latest campaign by Israel’s Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) to raise funds for performing free heart surgery to children from developing countries.
Clean water for Tanzanian school
Students from Tel Aviv University have built a 48,000-liter rainwater harvesting and advanced filtration system that provides 400 school kids and staff at Nkaiti Secondary School in Minjingu, Tanzania with safe drinking water. It will stop the children growing up with skeletal deformities.
Female cancer survivor becomes IDF officer
Rotem Chiprut made aliya and joined the IDF as a lone soldier, only to discover she had cancerous cells in her thyroid gland. Following surgery and treatment she completed her officer’s training and has now been promoted to 2nd lieutenant.
Israel’s “Lego man” tells of Ezer Mizion’s kids
Maor Cohen is known in Israel as the Lego man. Three years ago Maor went to Israeli cancer charity Ezer Mizion to donate some Lego to young cancer sufferers. But seeing children with sick parents reminded him of his early life. So Maor stayed, and the Lego sets just grew.
China-Israel innovation cooperation
(Thanks to Michelle) Beijing hosted the first meeting of the China-Israel government innovative cooperation joint committee. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both sent their congratulations.
Ecological makeover for Tel Aviv bus station
The Onya Collective is turning Tel Aviv’s massive concrete bus station into a blossoming center for urban ecology. This includes hydroponics, growing plants without soil, under special LED lights. Gardens grow lettuce and strawberries using drip irrigation from the air-con system.
Send video messages from your wristwatch
Israeli start-up Glide has developed video texting that is so fast, you be watching the video the other side of the world before your friend has finished recording it! And now, Glide is putting that technology onto smart watches. Remember Dick Tracey’s watch? It’s been superceded.
You won’t need this in Israel
Israeli Shalom Koresh has invented a new invisible kippa (skull cap) made from artificial hair called “Magic Kippa.” It is for Orthodox Jews in Europe where recent terrorist attacks against the Jewish communities have left many afraid to go out in public wearing a kippa.
A Digital Upgrade at the Tower of David Museum
(Thanks to Michelle) Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum is introducing a new digital initiative. Position any mobile device over the view and an audiovisual guide, using IDF mapping technology, will identify and explain landmarks within the frame.