Meeting Chan

By -
By Ada Malamud
ENP Volunteer
Tel Aviv



My experiences volunteering for Ethiopian National Project have been fulfilling and I have learned so much about Ethiopian culture and immigration to Israel. It has been difficult sometimes working with the children at the youth outreach centers. They are older, between 13-17, and many of them know very little English. I am with them during their summer time so the drive to learn English is even less. It has been a challenge motivating them to learn and practice. When I do meet a child that is eager to practice and learn their English I enjoy talking to them informally, learning about their background and interests in hopes of motivating them a a little to continue their goals. I met one girl in particular who was very driven and inspirational.

            Her name was Chan and told me she was the best English speaker in her class and I didn't doubt her for a minute. I had walked over to her and her friends in hopes of having a conversation and soon we were all sitting together in front of the computer googling pictures of Chris Brown and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Chan pointed to the boy behind me. I looked over my shoulder at the thin little boy. His dark textured hair was dyed blond and styled in some way only soccer players can appreciate. He laughed with his friends in Hebrew at something the poor trying math teacher had said. “I like him. He’s cute, don’t you think?,” smiled the girl. She pinched my cheeks with her thumb. “Cute like a baby.” I grinned and nodded.

            Chan was 13 years old and already she knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. “I want to be a psychologist, writer, or interior designer,” she said with such conviction that made me feel silly for dreaming of being an actress/singer when I was her age. She told me that if any of that was going to happen knowing English was necessary. She told me about her parents who had immigrated over to Ethiopia years ago. Her father was a builder and her mother was house cleaner. We talked for a few more minutes before it was time to go and I hugged her goodbye. We switched outreach centers the next week so I never got to talk to Chan again. I’m positive with her drive to learn and openness to the opportunities ENP offers her she will reach her goals one day. 

-->
ENP’s Youth Outreach Center in Ramla is supported through the generosity of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County.
 

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