February, 2016 | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Qualifying Paramedical Professionals, Improving Health Care in East Jerusalem

Slowly but surely, we’re helping to improve health care, accessibility to health care, and paramedical professionals’ workers rights in East Jerusalem.

Yesterday we began a second course to train physical therapists to pass the Israeli Ministry of Health certification examination, which will take place in May 2016. This is part of our larger program to train recent graduates of paramedical professions to pass the Israeli Ministry of Health certification exams that we’ve been developing since 2012. Since the program began, we’ve helped some 70 nurses, occupational therapists, and physical therapists to pass their Israeli certification exams, when it would otherwise have taken many years to achieve these results.

This success has brought brought additional development – in light of the success in the first three fields. we were asked to develop courses for medical lab technicians and speech therapists. We’re in the process of doing so, and will be sure to provide updates here.

Physical therapists course

We have 20 physical therapists in the current course. Last time we were very successful – 6 passed, on a test that is considered very difficult even in the original Hebrew. We wish them success, Bi-najah, Be-hatzlaha!

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Hadassah Foundation for their support of this program.

Naomi Roff2016-02-20T08:38:00+00:00February 8th, 2016|Blog, Education, Employment, Employment Accessibility, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs, Supporting employment in East Jerusalem|

Residents of South Talpiot – Taking Charge of their Future

Deliberative democracy means enabling all residents, regardless of socio-economic or ethnic background, to take part in changing their future. Such processes can take place in rich neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods, and everywhere in between. Over the past few years we’ve indeed run the gamut of neighborhoods – from Baka’a to Arnona to Gilo, Romema and Kiryat Hayovel. Now we’re concentrating on South Talpiot.

Community Meeting in South Talpiot

South Talpiot has a very interesting mix of populations. There are many veteran immigrants from Middle Eastern countries. There is a large contingent from Ethiopia (the Municipality built a special community house for the Ethiopian community a few years ago). There are those who are a bit better off who have moved into recently-built hi-rise apartments, and more. There are those who are recognized by the local welfare office and are used to receiving services. Very few are used to having a say in determining what kind of services they will receive. Very few are used to being active and having a voice in the future of their neighborhood.

Discussing specific initiatives

We’re starting to change all that. On February 3, the Greater Baka’a Community Council, together with the local welfare municipality branch and with our assistance, held a first social entrepreneurship meeting in South Talpiot. We were nervous about how many people would come – in the end there were 80 of us! This included the entire spectrum of diversity of residents – the true meaning of what deep democracy processes are trying to accomplish. And just as often happens in Open Space Technology meetings, the issues addressed – all pertaining to everyday life in the neighborhood – also ran the gamut – from physical and environmental development of the area, neighborhood approach to urban renewal, finding solutions to parking issues, activities for children, and much more!

A total of 11 initiatives were discussed, and we’ll be following up with them, together with the community social worker and other professional staff from the Greater Baka’a Community Council. Congratulations to all involved on a fabulous jump-start!

Naomi Roff2016-02-13T14:14:44+00:00February 6th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Larger Baka Community Council, New Immigrants|

Cultural Competence at the National Insurance Institute in East Jerusalem

Would you believe that the East Jerusalem branch of the National Insurance Institute (NII) is becoming culturally competent? Yes, this is the same Israeli bureaucratic welfare institution that’s gotten a bad name for its being cumbersome and unwelcoming, especially for the city’s Arabic speakers. Being an Israeli institution in East Jerusalem these days, especially if people are looking to you for support, is also rather difficult.

This is where we salute the branch’s workers, especially the upper management, who recognized the complexity of this situation, and sought to better accommodate the public they serve. Several months ago we were approached by the director of the East Jerusalem branch to develop a system of cultural competency. This is the first cultural competency work that has been done in any NII branch throughout Israel.

East Jerusalem National Insurance Institute

Over the past year we’ve been meeting with and observing different staff members, adapting our training modules to the particular model of the NII. Last week (January 27) we had our first training session with the workers. Much of the session focused on social-political tensions in interactions with clients. Many of the workers were happy to have gained tools to enable them to do their jobs better.

This session was the first, and we’ll continue to follow up and mentor the management and workers. One of the subjects of future workshops will be ‘Linguistic Simplification,’ which means to simplify the often jargon-laden text of NII forms into simpler language that non-native speakers can understand. In fact, the West Jerusalem branch liked the idea too, and soon we’ll be giving a workshop on Linguistic Simplification for the West Jerusalem branch as well!

Stay tuned for further updates from the National Insurance Institute – Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2016-11-25T13:54:09+00:00February 4th, 2016|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Government Institutions, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

Arabic Classes Live Arabic Culture

Last night, our Arabic classes not only practiced their Arabic, we opened a window to the richness of Arabic culture. We hosted author Sheikha Haliwa, who read from a number of her poems and stories. She told her life story – about growing up in an unrecognized Bedouin village near Tivon that was destroyed by the government in 1991, about studying in junior and senior high school at a Christian school in Haifa, and about her marriage to her cousin in Jaffa, where she currently lives.

Sheikha Hilwa speaking

We had about 40 of our students in levels 3-5 attended the amazing evening.

Enraptured audience

These evenings have become an integral part of our Arabic classes. You can read here about last year’s program. We can hardly wait for the next one, scheduled for the end of February! These evenings during the year are for our more advanced students, and we’re planning a special tour in May for our beginning students.

Thinking about studying Arabic? You’d better hurry – classes are already filling up fast for next year!!! This year we’re breaking records, with 180 students in 12 classes, over 5 levels. We’ve added a new teacher – Gali – to help out Anwar and Suha. We have classes going in the mornings and afternoons, most days of the week, and we’re already planning for next year. Many thanks for the Jerusalem Foundation for their ongoing support of this project.

Naomi Roff2016-02-07T16:50:26+00:00February 2nd, 2016|Blog, Courses, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Language Center|

Emergency Readiness Networks in Jerusalem – Expanding the Network

We’re proud to announce – another 3 neighborhoods (Old City, A-Tur (Mount of Olives) and Sheikh Jarrach) have finished their Emergency Readiness Network (ERN) training! A total of 64 Arab men and women are trained to be first responders in a wide variety of emergencies, such as fires, earthquakes, auto accidents, and more. Their role was and continues to be immeasurable in helping their local community, before the ‘official’ emergency responders are able to arrive.

The Old City Team

We now have a total of 11 ERNs, and we’re continuing to expand to more neighborhoods.

Training Exercise

We thought they’d be busy with a huge winter storm that passed over Jerusalem last week, just like the past few winters. In previous years the brutal storms – several inches of snow, cold temperatures, high winds – wreaked havoc on the physical infrastructure of East Jerusalem, which is weak to begin with. Each time, local ERNs worked round the clock to clear roads, distribute blankets, heaters and food, find solutions for those whose homes had flooded, rescue those who were trapped, take the sick to hospitals – in short, helping residents weather the storm as best as possible. Last week’s storm came and went without much fanfare, but we’re positive that the ERNs will be ready when it does.

Planning on map

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Sobell Foundation for their support for this program.

Naomi Roff2016-02-01T17:52:14+00:00February 1st, 2016|Blog, Emergency Readiness Networks, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

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