Israel Active

Israeli charity ADI’s “Toy Like Me” initiative delivers toys to children with severe disabilities in hospital and rehabilitation. The toys mirror the child’s life situations – wearing feeding or breathing tubes, with limb differences, birthmarks, scars, albinism or even in wheelchairs.

Doctors from Haifa’s Rambam Healthcare Campus were operating on a 3-year-old patient in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when a power failure occurred. With no backup generator, the surgeons continued, using the flashlights from their phones and manually ventilated the child.

10 Israeli climate-tech companies met UK investors and policymakers in London, including BeyondNetZero; Just Climate, Barclays Sustainable Impact, J.P. Morgan ClimateTech; BlackRock Decarbonisation; the European Bank’s EBRD; and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.

In 2006, Israelis invented a stuffed toy dog called Hibuki (Hebrew for “hug”) to help kids cope with trauma. In 2011 Hibuki therapy helped Japanese children (see ). In 2022 Hibuki went to Ukraine, and now Hibuki is comforting Ukrainian refugee children at a school in Brooklyn, New York.

Israel plans to send a delegation of 1,000, including 100 companies, to the United Nations COP28 climate conference (Nov 30 – Dec 12) in Dubai. 250 people attended a preparatory meeting at Israel’s Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Takwin Ventures (see previously) is dedicated to investing in startups with at least one Arab Israeli cofounder. Since 2015, it has supported 10 early-stage startups. Takwin founder Imad Telhami himself founded Babcom, which now employs over 5,000 in outsourced services.

A rising number of Israeli students are completing academic degrees. Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics announced that for the 2021/22 academic year 88,200 Israeli students successfully graduated. Those with master’s degrees increased by 4.5%. Most graduates were women.

The Presidential Medal of Honor is awarded to those who have made an extraordinary contribution to the State of Israel, the Jewish people, and all humanity. 2023’s recipients included Arab VP of Hebrew Uni Mona Khoury-Kassabri (see ) and ex-soccer captain Bibras Natcho - a Circassian Muslim.

Surgeons from Israel’s Save A Child’s Heart in Holon saved the lives of two young boys from the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) with VSD (ventricular septal defect - a congenital hole in the heart). The boys were from the same village but hadn’t known each other. They do now!

The number of disposable plastic bags distributed by large Israeli retailers in 2022 is 73% less than in 2016 just before a NIS 0.10 charge was applied. On International Plastic Bag Free Day, the Environmental Protection Ministry announced that this saved over 4,000 tons of plastic waste in 2022 alone.