A shelter in Sderot

This ad appeared on the Esralist and other community mailing lists at the beginning of July:

To Sderot with ESRA

ESRA wants to twin with Sderot. If we have enough interested volunteers we will go to Sderot once a month to chat in English with adults in the community who want to develop English skills.

Among many of the responses was one in which the writer asked:

Who are you and why are you doing this project?

In answer to the first question I suggested that she click on the ESRA Facebook and You Tube icons that appeared at the end of my mail message.

I briefly answered the second question by saying we understand that there is an interest in Sderot to have this sort of program and ESRA wants to reach out to the people of Sderot.

So how do we know that there is such an interest?

 To begin with ESRA has its own unofficial representative living right there. Almost everyone in ESRA remembers Adele Rubin who worked so closely with Merle to set up ESRA as an organisation. Three years ago she and her husband Mike left their home in Herzliya and relocated to Sderot. True pioneering knows no age limit. She told me of the number of people, many of them municipal officials, who have approached her with requests for help in English.

And then I read an ad in the Pesach edition of ESRA MAGAZINE asking for volunteer English tutors to work in a summer camp in Sderot with kids who would be moving from primary to middle school. This sparked my professional and volunteering interest. I called Herb Levine, the volunteer who was going to coordinate  the English tutors and who had placed the ad. One thing led to another, and towards the end of June I met with the head of the English department at a middle school in Sderot and with the city’s Municipal Education Director. We discussed the viability of running a summer school, but finally decided that it would not be feasible to organize such a program in the two weeks that remained before the summer vacation. But plans are going ahead for an alternative program where ESRA will be working together with a group of young people from Sderot Young Leaders, which Herb has been mentoring since its inception. Watch for a report in the next edition of ESRA MAGAZINE.

Before going down to Sderot I had been thinking of what Adele had told me. When the rockets fall, the whole country identifies with Sderot. When there is relative quiet, we go back to our own daily concerns. How could ESRA show residents of Sderot that they are committed to their wellbeing at all times? How could we help the adults in the town that Adele had mentioned?

So that is my answer to the question regarding why we are doing this project. The “how” is now in the works. We started with the ad to check if there would be enough volunteers interested enough to make this project viable. Because the response has been enthusiastic, ESRA is now looking into the logistics of this venture.

We think we may start just with conversation groups. Perhaps later we will expand to include 1:1 meetings where a volunteer will be able to offer specific assistance for particular requirements in English. Of course nothing will be starting until after the high holidays.

If YOU would like to participate in this project, please contact me -  communic@netvision.net.il - and I’ll add your name to the growing list of interested volunteers. We’ll update everyone as the plans develop. 

Lola Katz is co-coordinator of ESRA’s Volunteer Division.