This is a photo of the celebration at the end of the Civil Rights Course for Volunteers at Sapir College in Sderot, funded by ESRA.

The course was free to the 18 participants, most of whom were from the local Ethiopian community.

Many were young and they will help as translators to their Ethiopian elders who don’t know Hebrew, and as counselors on health and other public services.

In general, they will also join the existing volunteers in the local community projects. A special challenge for Amharit speakers will be to help upgrade the Club for the Ethiopian Elderly.

There were 13 lectures in all on subjects that included the history of civil rights, the National Insurance, the health funds, communication skills, the model of Mezach (the Civil Rights organization in Sderot), and more. Lectures were held once a week.

The course was very empowering for the participants – personally and as future leaders for their community.

Present at the celebration were Dr. Merav Moshe (Head of the Social Work School at Sapir College and the Founder of Mezach), the course participants, ESRA members – Chairman Baruch Tanaman, Projects Chair Nina Zuck, ESRA Sderot Chair Adele Rubin, ESRA Projects Coordinator Cathy Aron, Hanna Yitzchaki, the Ethiopian social worker who runs Mezach Sderot, and Amit Kitain, head of all Mezach projects.