Israel Active

(Thanks to Nevet – ) A report about two IDF bases where “special” soldiers with disabilities perform important jobs.  IDF service helps integrate the disabled into society and the workforce.  It also educates and changes the attitudes of IDF personnel without disabilities.

Worku Abiy arrived in Israel as an orphan at the age of 15, appearing in the documentary “Take Us Home”.  Exempt from the IDF due to medical issues, he volunteered, and got exceptional basic training scores.  Abiy later applied for and completed an officer’s course.

(Thanks to Janglo) The organization Crossroads, Jerusalem says it “takes teens off the streets and then puts them back on the street with an entire team behind them”.  The team is running the Jerusalem marathon to raise funds for its Jerusalem center and new programs in Modi’in and Beit Shemesh.

Israeli humanitarian organization IsraAID has set-up a program entitled “Ebola Heroes”.  It provides psychosocial training to health workers, teachers, burial teams, policemen, social workers etc., so they can treat Ebola cases, while tackling the devastating effects of fear, trauma, extreme stress and stigma.

A 4-day international seminar for judges took place in Haifa recently.  It focused on the central role of judges in combating human trafficking.  Supporters included the UN, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the International Organization for Migration.

Israelis have helped install the largest solar field in East Africa.  Gigawatt Global, with its Israeli R&D center Energiya Global, has built an 8.5 Megawatt facility in Kigali, Rwanda, at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, a kibbutz-style orphanage for victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

(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.

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.

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.

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.