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Nitzan Matanel – Springboard to Higher Education for Bedouin youth living in unrecognized villages

Israel

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Vision

“Springboard to Higher Education” is a new and unique program providing holistic support through learning centers designed for Bedouin youth living in unrecognized villages in the Negev of Israel, with the aim of increasing the percentage of matriculation eligibility, providing participants tools and skills required for integration into academy and strengthening the sense of ability and motivation to acquire higher education.
The Program is designed to address the main barriers suffered by the Bedouin population in the unrecognized villages, including: low quality teaching, lack of appropriate learning environment, lack of ability to finance private lessons and lack of parental support.
To overcome these obstacles, the program provides them with holistic support, relationship with caring adults, positive self-perception and learning skills

The program provides intervention during the most critical time in the lives of adolescents, just before their window of opportunity for changing their status through academic studies becomes significantly narrower.

Activity

Founded and run by Bedouin women, the Association`s main goal is to advance the status and lives of Bedouin women children and youth in the Negev.

The Association`s main Projects:
“Desert Embroidery” Project and Educational Tourist Center- The Association`s home-based embroidery project preserves and develops traditional embroidery skills, provides uneducated women with supplementary income for their families restoring the contribution of women’s earning power. In order to bring about a wider exposure of the embroidery works and the story of the Bedouin community and women, the Association operates an educational center that hosts hundreds of groups a year from Israel and abroad
“The Mobile Library” The Association operates the only mobile library in the Bedouin community in the Negev providing books and educational enrichment to over 2,000 children a year in Lakia and the surrounding unrecognized villages. The library develops children’s reading skills, nurtures a love of reading and provides access to reading and unformal education for isolated children.
“Springboard to Higher Education” A new and unique educational project designed to provide a “springboard” for academic studies for Bedouin youth from unrecognized villages in the Negev, who have the potential to graduate but need educational/emotional/personal support in order to succeed.

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