Israel

Implementing a model of bilingual, multi-ethnic education at the three schools (from kindergarten through high-school), and connecting the communities around the schools by means of a variety of social activities involving students, their parents and siblings, and the wider community.

the movement has hundreds of branches, centers and clubhouses throughout Israel, from Kiryat Shemona and the Golan Heights in the north to Eilat in the south. Tens of thousands of Jewish, Arab, and Druze young people are members; young people who work and study in the cities, development towns, kibbutzim and moshavim; affected young people and young immigrants. All are guided and accompanied in ways that are appropriate to them, working to strengthen the intra-movement relationship.

The movement works in 130 branches across Israel - in cities, kibbutzim and Arab villages (via our Arabic division Ajyal), and meets about 18,000 participants, their families and surrounding communities.

Heartbeat organizes camps, retreats, and bi-weekly meetings for Israeli and Palestinian youth musicians. Our most committed and talented young musicians perform and lead workshops to bring their music and messages to their communities, as part of the Heartbeat All Star Band. We offer open mics, jam sessions, master class workshops, and performances with international and local performing artists. We also lead overseas performances and encounter programs, such as the 2010 Hip Hop Hudna (Ceasefire) and the 2012 Hip HOpera which unites Israeli, Palestinian, African and German youth musicians, film-makers and dancers to create a transnational Hip HOpera on migration and the right to asylum. Heartbeat and our professional artists community, Jamaa, produce original music recordings and music videos to enable our musicians voices to build trust across the widest audience possible. We also provide music education opportunities in communities without previously existing music programs.

A total of 183 children are enrolled at Hewar today, from preschool children aged 3 until 8th grade. While the basic curriculum taught at the Hewar School follows the national curriculum determined by the Israeli Ministry of Education, the teaching methods and environment differ greatly from other schools, in that students are encouraged to independently investigate and critically reflect on content and subjects. In addition to the standard curriculum, Hewar children also learn many supplementary subjects each year - such as arts, music and drama - and engage in long-term research projects, which helps them acquire the skills and confidence to enable lifelong, self-motivated learning. Other projects at Hewar include training for teachers in alternative education methods, running active parents' groups, and operating a school library.

In the coming year of activity (2022) we intend to deal with four core issues:
1. Militarism in Israeli society;
2. Poverty, hunger, and food insecurity in Israel;
3. Hope Hub: Rewriting a Jewish/Palestinian Narrative in Shared Cities Through Media;
4. A sequence of video articles on the core issues noted above

In the coming year of activity (2022) we intend to deal with four core issues:
1. Militarism in Israeli society;
2. Poverty, hunger, and food insecurity in Israel;
3. Hope Hub: Rewriting a Jewish/Palestinian Narrative in Shared Cities Through Media;
4. A sequence of video articles on the core issues noted above

The HMW was founded by a group of citizens disturbed by the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers in Israel. With initial assistance from the NGO Kav La’Oved, the HMW was able to fill a critical deficiency in existing services by assisting foreigners under arrest and slated for deportation. Through trips to detention centers, we came into contact with other groups in need of assistance including survivors of sex and labor trafficking, unaccompanied foreign minors and refugees. In addition to direct service, our work has expanded to include legal advocacy, public policy activities, public education and training of government officials. Hotline organization and staff have many awards: we were honored by the Sderot Conference for Society (2007) and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (2001). In 2009, we received the National Prize for Combating Trafficking in Persons from the Israeli government.

Since November 2015 we have worked in camps, shorelines, ports, and the local hospital in the city of Mytilene, and mainly at Lesvos Solidarity - PIKPA Camp, which became the core of our fieldwork activity in 2016. Later, as a response to the EU-Turkey deal, we expanded our work to the north to Diavata Camp, Elpída Center, and Floxenia Housing Project on the outskirts of Thessaloniki in mainland Greece. In addition to our work at the camps, we ran significant emergency work during the height of the refugee crisis. We also initiated several emergency operations. These included work on-board rescue boats of our partners Proactiva Open Arms, mental health mobile clinics on shores and ports, and our work with hospital staff once refugees were referred there.
Our work in Greece included activities we held for children and adults. We tailored detailed activities to contribute to the resilience of the refugees, prevent the deterioration of their mental health, and enhance the communal empathy and support mechanisms. The activities, implemented by a team of native Arabic speaking mental health professionals and well-trained volunteers, support the refugees’ recovery by empowering them with tools and skills to cope with the traumas they have endured. They conducted daily activities for children that included recreational activities and non-formal educational activities. We led weekly activities for adults that included crisis intervention for individuals and families in need, as well as support group sessions which included gender and age sensitive groups for men, women and teenagers. From these group sessions, we were then able to earmark particularly vulnerable cases which we later treated on an individual case by case basis. We also conducted dyadic activities for infants and their primary caregivers. Furthermore, our team often assisted with translation and interpretation between other professionals and the refugees since our culture and language gave us an added benefit.