From Connections Magazine

Education, Welfare and Community

With regard to education and welfare, Partnership 2000 (P2K) set as its objective the empowering and strengthening of the communities of Beit Shemesh - Shefelat Yehudah (BS/SY).

With that in mind, P2K funds amutot and organizations that strive to advance and support children, youth and adults in the BS/SY region. Thousands of residents are helped every year by programs that include music, theater, student scholarships, children and youth at risk and senior citizens. One recent success story is the BeKidmat HaBama Youth Project.

Culture and Volunteering in Beit Shemesh - Shefelat Yehudah

The BeKidmat HaBama Project seeks to avail high school students in the area who are generally less exposed to cultural events to Israeli art at its finest. The students participate in high quality cultural programs and at the same time are asked to contribute back to the community by taking part in volunteer activities in the city.

At the beginning of the school year, the youth experienced several cultural offerings - theater, music, dance and cinema and at the same time they got first impressions of the work and creative processes of the artists. Approximately 2,000 students from the various local high schools participated.

In turn, these students chose the community volunteer activities they would participate in: from visiting a day care center for senior citizens to adopting and maintaining a local archeological site. Other projects included the repair of public gardens and painting garbage containers.

The students are excited about the volunteering and derive pleasure from what they do, while getting more involved in their local community. Students of Bronco "1", a high school in Old Beit Shemesh, began working at the day center for the aged. The seniors eagerly wait for the students who go out of their way to prepare entertaining programs for them. One program was a Seder Tu Bishvat, conducted by 11th grade students. The students made berachot on the fruit, read literary selections and holiday songs and gave out personal gifts of dried fruit.

Bronco Weiss High School students chose to improve the cityscape by painting garbage containers. One container "became" an aquarium; another now looks like a pasture for cows and another turned into "Noah’s Ark". Their artwork now adorns many containers spread around town. The students of the Shaalei Torah and the Amit-Fuerst Yeshiva delved in the world of archeology, learning about the Tel Yarmut site in RBS, taking over and renovating the site.

The Hartuv School embarked on a volunteering project in cooperation with KKL in Park Britania and in the Tzora-Eshtaol Park. The students refurbished a spring, arranged paths for tiyulim and cultivated the forests.

Girls from Ulpanat Noga volunteered at the regional Mateh Yehudah Library. The girls fervently arranged the books, sorted them and organized the shelves. They will soon start a campaign for the library in the neighboring moshavim of the mo’etza.

"We were very pleased about the varied exposure of the cultural events - a concert, the Cinemateque museum and theater. The school commitment to contributing to the community is the crowning glory of the project. We have undergone a valuable educational process with the girls in order to understand and internalize the fact that when you receive you also have to give." -Hagit Barnea, Headmistress, Amit Noga Ulpana

The first year has been summarized as a huge success, and after the summer vacation, the students of the area are expecting a new year packed with culture and volunteerism.