Fugee Fridays updates & fresh coverage in the press.

Updates

Indian food donations – We made our first trip to 24 Rupee, an Indian restaurant that volunteered to donate food for the Neveh Sha’anan shelter on Friday. The whole thing went extremely well. The restaurant donated huge quantities of cooked rice, potatoes and Indian tea. We also brought the usual shipment of fruits and vegetables. Next Friday, some of the teenagers from the shelter will start heading over to the restaurant themselves, which will hopefully become a weekly thing.

Activities with the kids – Below is a message from Hanan, who is planning to start conducting fun activities with the kids next week:

Starting next Friday, we will begin a new program at the family shelter. A group of volunteers will meet at 4:30 at the Shapira shelter (not at the shuk) and will engage in activities with the fugee kids. The exact activity plan is still open, and will include book reading, help with school work, short trips, work in the community garden once it’s ready and any other special projects our volunteers can help with (e.g. kite building, etc.). The idea is to have more meaningful, 1 on 1 interactions with the kids that will hopefully have a positive impact on their lives.

How you can help:

* If you’re good with kids and want to spend more time with our fugee kids, come on Friday at 4:30 to the Shapira shelter. If anyone needs a ride or can help with a ride, please contact Hanan Lifshitz at hananlif (at) gmail (dot) com or 054-4911231.

* If you have experience working with kids, if you’d like to initiate an activity or if you’d like to help in organizing this program, we need you! Please contact Hanan Lifshitz (see contact details above).

* If you have children’s’ books, toys, painting materials, clay or anything else that could be used please bring it on Friday (even if you’re starting at the shuk). Ask your friends and family – they probably have lots of stuff lying around that would be much appreciated by our fugee kids!

Cheers,

Hanan, 054-4911231,hananlif (at) gmail (dot) com

English and Hebrew classes for the refugees – Below is a message from Florentine, who is setting up language classes for the refugees:

Hello Everyone,

Some weeks ago we started organizing Hebrew classes in the evening for men at the Sudanese Refugees Cultural Center at Rechov Tchelnov 41. Now that we see how big the demand for classes is, we would like to expand the program and offer Hebrew classes for women, as well as English classes. In both cases, the students are at the beginner level. So we are looking for volunteers who are fluent in one (or both) of the languages and are willing to sacrifice an evening or two a week. Experience isn’t a must, enthusiasm is. Also, we are grateful for any kind of materials and/or funding (mostly for making copies) that we can get.

To get involved, contact Florentine – flo (at) flempp (dot) de.

For the minutes of our last meeting, click here. For more info about Fugee Fridays, click here.

Media

The 21C Israelity Blog published a post about Fugee Fridays and ActiveVision, and the video class that ActiveVision conducted with African teenagers. Noosh also wrote a post, which included a photo essay, about the show that featured the students’ work on Ha’aretz.com.

The January issue of Hadassah Magazine featured several articles about African refugees in Israel and the organizations that provide them with support. Fugee Fridays was mentioned briefly in the article.