Helping Israel's neediest families

GAIL LICHTMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

"I never believed things would get this bad," said Orit, 42, a divorced, Israeli mother of seven from Tiberias in an interview with Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot.

"My son is serving in a combat unit. He gives me his salary but it still isn't enough. I can't pay our bills and now the electricity is going to be turned off."

Orit, who worked as a bookkeeper for 12 years but is now unemployed, was fortunate to find help through a recently inaugurated program of the Bank Leumi Group – Project Equal Opportunities.

Started in conjunction with Yediot Aharonot, the project involves adopting 400 of Israel's neediest families and providing them with the help they need and want - be it educational, financial, social or health care related. Assistance is extended through the local branches of Bank Leumi, with bank employees and managers playing an active role in helping the families.

Orit received help in paying her bills and buying food and, for the first time in 10 years, her children received new clothes and shoes.

Project Equal Opportunities is only one of a number of programs the Bank Leumi Group has created to help bridge the ever-widening social gap in Israel. With unemployment hovering around 11 per cent and poverty increasing, social equality has moved to the top of Israel's national agenda, alongside defence.

In addition to poverty-stricken families, Leumi has taken under its wing high school dropouts – teens from development and disadvantaged areas – and gifted young entrepreneurs, in the hope of giving them the tools and motivation to succeed.

In 2003, Leumi invested more than $2 million US in supporting or sponsoring educational, health-care, cultural or community projects.

The Bank Leumi Group was founded in 1902 as the Anglo-Palestine Company. By its financing of the infrastructure in the pre-state years, it was the financial instrument behind the creation of the state of Israel.

Education for teens

In keeping with its Zionist vision, and to mark its 100th anniversary in 2002, Leumi created the Centennial Fund for Tomorrow's Generation. The fund finances and participates in the management of educational projects for teens from disadvantaged and development areas throughout Israel. More than 3,000 youth from all sectors of the population – Jewish, Arab, Druse, new immigrants and native-born – are taking part in its various projects.

"Through its support of educational projects, Leumi is contributing towards the building of Israel's economic future," said Yona Fogel, first executive vice- president for marketing and strategic development at the Bank Leumi Group, and the person responsible for leading the fund initiative. "In this way we are contributing towards creating equal opportunities in Israeli society and strengthening the next generation."

The Centennial Fund concentrates on teaching academic skills, values and social involvement and encouraging personal leadership. The aim is to enable every teen taking part to fulfil his or her potential.

The educational assistance extended to Project Equal Opportunities families is carried out through the Centennial Fund. And, as in Project Equal Opportunities, bank employees and managers play a role in the projects through investment of their time and skills.

University support

The Centennial Fund's projects are run in co-operation with several of the country's universities, as well as nonprofit societies working for social progress, with each project taking a slightly different approach.

For Israelis, the matriculation certificate is their passport to higher education. Yet, fewer than half of all high school seniors nationwide graduate with this certificate, and these numbers are even lower in disadvantaged and development areas.

The Centennial Fund has several projects that assist youth from disadvantaged and development areas to complete either full of partial matriculation certificates.
At the University of Haifa, a program aimed at the weakest high school students works to help them complete enough points to qualify for a "technological certificate" and entry into post-high school technological training programs.

At Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya, the program is for high school students with college potential. The aim here is to take students who, because of their socioeconomic standing, probably would never consider college and encourage them to think about higher education by supporting them in their studies and exposing them to Israel's universities.

Working with the nonprofit society Youth Leading Change, Leumi supports eight learning centres that provide a second chance to those who would not ordinarily take the matriculation exams either because of low academic achievements or because they are no longer attending school. The centres provide instruction in math, English and Hebrew language, which brings the students up to matriculation level. Moreover, the centres work on instilling motivation and self-confidence.

"By investing in education, Leumi aims to reduce the social gaps in Israeli society in places where significant deprivation is present," said Fogel.

In addition, Youth Leading Change runs a leadership course called Acharai (After Me) for teens from low socioeconomic strata. The course combines physical fitness in preparation for the Israel army with training in leadership skills, and includes lectures on democracy, Zionism and Jewish heritage. Participants are encouraged to take part in voluntary projects in their communities.

Young entrepreneurs

Bank Leumi also sponsors the Young Israel Entrepreneurs, a branch of Junior Achievement International, which enables junior and senior high school students from all over Israel to learn how to initiate and manage businesses. The students set up a company, develop and market products and services, and raise capital, all under the guidance of Leumi professionals.

This year, more than 3,000 students from 100 different localities took part. The winners were a group of 28 ninth- and 10th-graders from the Rodman school in Kiryat Yam, near Haifa. Their idea – a simple plastic strainer that fits over the top of food cans for draining out the liquid.

"Like most of those in the group, I didn't have a clue about what business involves," said Ma'ayan Azugi, 15, one of the winners. "Bank Leumi helped us to get started, gave us advice and financed us. We now have a company, a prototype and plans to begin manufacturing our device. We have even had inquiries about marketing outside of Israel."

"By supporting business-related educational projects," concluded Vogel, "Leumi is contributing to the building of an economic, business and managerial reserve for the Israeli economy." Leumi also hopes that its efforts will pay off in helping to alleviate poverty and provide Israel's youth with the skills necessary to find their successful place in a more equal society.

Gail Lichtman is a writer with Israel Press Service.

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