Enrichment, empowerment and fun: first experiences as a new volunteer

By -

Written by: Leoni Groot
Jerusalem


Providing my help to an organization that makes a difference in the world: this was my idea before I left the Netherlands…

I sent ENP an email that I would like to volunteer to get more practical experience, and help them to empower the Ethiopian community. Not long after this, I got such an enthusiastic email back that made me feel welcome immediately. This didn’t change after my first entrance in the youth center in Petach Tikva and the office in Jerusalem. The warm feeling other volunteers, professionals and especially the youth gave and still give me is wonderful!

The idea to volunteer came up few months before finishing my BA of Cultural Anthropology in Utrecht, the Netherlands. I felt I needed to do something else before commencing my Master’s program: Learn something new? Volunteer? Travel? Why not a combination?! Last year I visited Israel for almost three months to conduct a research study about experiences of the maturation process in the army among citizens in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. The amazing experience that I had in Israel, and the dynamics of the country intrigued me to go back and visit Israel again.

And here I am again, dedicating myself and helping out ENP in whatever needs to be done for six months. I volunteer twice a week in the youth center in Petach Tikva, providing English classes and hanging out with the youth. By doing this, I hope they will feel more comfortable to speak English. In addition, I tutor a girl with her English homework in one of the schools in Petach Tikva. Once a week I come to the headquarter offices in Jerusalem. There, I brainstorm with other volunteers about new cool ideas for the ENP, and ways to raise funds for the organization, attend meetings and upload items on the website. All these things I make my volunteering experience dynamic, interesting and wonderful, and above all the greatest experience in Israel!

One of the nicest things about this experience is that I get to learn about a new community in Israel, with its own manners, customs, food (which I hope to taste soon J), music and history. In other words, by being here in Israel I’m not only learning more about Israeli culture, but also specific cultural aspects of Ethiopian-Israelis and Ethiopia. All this together enriches my personality, and above all me as an anthropologist.

ENP is a well-organized organization. I see how everyone, with its roots from all over the world, works extremely hard to empower the Ethiopian community. To keep the development and progressive results within this community in the future as well I realize The Ethiopian National Project still needs more volunteers who want to make a difference in their own lives and in other people’s lives. This is why I call everyone to join this amazing national project and have a wonderful time with us!


Location: Jeruzalem, Israël

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Roni's Story

By -
     Recently, Roni Akale, the Director-General of ENP enlightened the interns on all he has done to get to where he is today, in Israel, the home for the Ethiopian Israelis where they longed to live for 2500 years. Ron was born in a town near a City called Golda where he grew up in a Jewish family. His childhood was quite different than the average American or Israeli. For example, his school was a village where he would walk 34 kilometers both there and back everyday. When the school day was over and it was time for homework Roni had to depend on the sun for light. He then explained how he worked as a bookkeeper for 3 years. This was his life until his friend convinced him to go to Jerusalem.  At just 20 years old Roni began his trek to Israel. The travelers were unaware of how far away their village was from Sudan which is vital information considering getting to Israel from Ethiopia is done by going through Sudan. Even though this detail caused some panic, no...
Read more

Learning what it means to be an Ethiopian-Israeli

By -
Image
  June 20th - Natanel’s Story On Thursday, June 20th, the other interns and I had the privilege of talking to Natanel, an Ethiopian-Israeli medical student who is a part of the ENP community. Natanel told us about his family’s journey from Ethiopia to Israel as well as his personal experience growing up in Israel. Not only was it eye-opening to hear directly from Natanel about his story, but to see how ENP has made a significant impact on his career and success. Natanel’s family came to Israel in 1984, walking by foot from Ethiopia, through Sudan, to Jerusalem. The journey Natanel’s parents endured took 3 to 4 weeks to complete. Growing up, Natanel would always go with his mom to the doctor’s office to translate for her. Only speaking Amharic, his mom had great difficulty navigating medical appointments, so Natanel would relay information between his mom and the doctors for years. This routine inspired Natanel to go to medical school, as he fell in love with the medical world a...
Read more

Orly’s Story

By -
  Recently, ENP gave all of the interns the fantastic opportunity to hear a Dental student, one of ENP’s scholars, a chance to share her outstanding story with us. She started off by giving us the basic information about her dentistry journey; such as where she goes to school, how long the program is, how she knew she wanted to pursue dentistry, bad experiences in her career, etc. The 26 year old goes to the University of Jerusalem and is in the middle of her 7 year program. She explained how both medicine students and dentistry students have to go through 3 years of medicine school, 3 years in a clinic and one year shadowing a doctor in the field of desire. Orly shared how she always knew she wanted to help people, but didn’t know how she wanted to pursue this. When the art of dentistry got introduced to her she fell in love with it. Her father had diabetes, which caused her to study the facts related to diabetes and the mouth and soon found herself very interested in dentistry ...
Read more