1. Empowering Narkis Community,2015
Bondi Saporta
Innovative Project
From Vision to Reality
Empowering Narkis Community,2015

2. General Background
The Narkis neighborhood was originally built in 1975 as a new community that attracted mostly young families from all over the country to come and build their life in Bet Shemesh. It was a nice place to start a family, green, clean and with great schools.
In 1991 the gates of the Soviet Union were opened and a big wave of new immigrants came to Bet Shemesh. A few years later the Ethiopians started to move to Bet Shemesh as well, and they all came to the Narkis neighborhood
Today 480 families live in the HaNarkis neighborhood, among them 360 Ethiopian families. Over 600 Ethiopian children attend the various elementary schools around the city, and around 400 attend the high schools.
e. 

3. The needs of the community
The Ethiopian Immigrant Community in Beit Shemesh is a poverty stricken community. They barely have any Hebrew language skill, almost no professional skills , and most of them are currently unemployed. There is a strong feeling of despair and hopelessness that drives many of their youth to violence, alcohol consumption, petty crime and therefore suffer from a lack of success in school.
The neighborhood has been physically neglected by the municipality and social services for over 15 years.
With 23 buildings, and 60 entrances, 480 families lived in the dark. No lights in stairways, banisters falling apart, walls with peeling paint that had not been painted in years and the outside of the buildings looked terrible, garbage all over and no one who cares enough to clean it up.
We needed a rehabilitation plan for the Narkis neighborhood.

4. Vision and planning
Keren Shemesh promoted innovative strategies to empower the Narkis community with the knowledge, skills, methods and tools necessary to improve their quality of life .
The planning will be done by the community and for the community with strong support from the professional staff of Keren Shemesh

5. Our GoAls
1) Rehabilitation of the physical environment in this "slum like" area.
2) Imbuing the community with the knowledge and skills they will need in order to form a communal leadership.
3) Recruit volunteers and representatives for the process of improving the quality of life in the Narkis neighborhood.
4) Repair all lights and banisters in every entrance to every building.
5) Partner with other agencies that will see that this is a community that is investing in itself and in making a change. We need help.

6. How we did it?
1) We hired a coordinator to supervise and oversee the project.
2) We recruited 24 University students who managed the program under the joint supervision of the coordinator.
3) Each student took responsibility for one building in the Narkis Community Project. They created individual Building committees and then the Communal Steering Committee.
4) Each student received both a scholarship of 5,000 NIS and a budget of about 9,000 NIS for every building to repair the banisters, fix the lights in the stairways and paint. .

7. How we did it?
5) We were able to form individual building committees in 21 out of the 23 buildings.
6) We had over 1200 volunteers join from both our community and other surrounding communities working together to help make a change.
7) We approached local companies in our industrial zone and we received both materials and help in repairing the banisters and lights in the stairwells.

8. Summer activities in the narkis project
There are approximately 1000 children In the Narkis neighborhood, among them :
600 elementary School aged children, and 400 High School aged children.
No summer activities were planed by the municipality or various social agencies for any of the Narkis children.
As part of our empowering project, Keren Shemesh planned 2 major programs:
1) A Summer camp for 100 children aged 8-11 for 3 weeks. 80 of the children were from the Narkis neighborhood while the other 20 were from disadvantaged families from the surrounding area.

9. Summer camp for the children of Narkis
Outdoor activities

10. Making breakfast for the campers
Every morning volunteers prepared
Breakfas breakfast for our 100 children participating children.

11. Children of narkis taking responsibility
2) Recruit 20 High School students from the neighborhood and “employ” them for one month to clean, paint and beautify their own neighborhood.
This turned out to be the best idea of all. They did a great job!
Along with the work, once a week we provided social activities such as going to a water park, bowling, BBQ, and going out for pizza to name a few.
Each day we provided lunch.
These teens make up a great team to guarantee that their neighborhood remains clean.
Each of these students received a scholarship of 1250 NIS to be used for their upcoming school year.

12. Children of Narkis beautifying their neighborhood

13. “This is my neighborhood, I want to keep it clean”,
, As said by :Nati Mula, A14 year old,
kid from theNarkis neighborhood

14. Amazing what colors can do
“I think I want to
be an artist….”
Miriam Tamano,
Shachar School Meriam

15. From concept to completion
Activities
dates
stage
Forming thinking groups and raising ideas from the community, building working plans and fund raising .
May-October,
2014 A
Recruiting 24 university students and calling for other volunteers to come join us.
December 2014 B

16. From thinking to preforming
Activities
date
stage
Students going from door to door, getting to know the community and explaining about the project. Identifying the needs and forming committees in every building
January- March, 2015 C
Recruiting professionals and volunteers for work on fixing the electricity and banisters. Absorb over 300 volunteers and together with the Narkis community start painting the stairways
March- April 2015 D
Second round of meetings with members of the committees, taking responsibility for completing the work in their buildings and signing a new contract with the Electric company.
May- June 2015 E
Planning summer activities for the children of Narkis. Summer camp for children aged 8-11 and a work program for the High School students. Our staff prepared programs and took responsibility
June 2015 F

17. From thinking to preforming
Activities
Date
stage
The work of 20 High School students from the neighborhood started and we “employed” them for one month to clean, paint and beautify their own neighborhood.
3 weeks of Summer Camp for the children of the Narkis neighborhood.
July- August 2015 G
Starting with the process of electing a new community leadership for the Narkis neighborhood.
After Shmita Year we will began with gardening in some of the more popularly used areas.
This great project will come to its completion on October 31st 2015.
September- October 2015 H

18. NRKIS NEIGHBORHOOD

19. The Narkis project, what it looked like before we started:

20. The Stairwells before

21. The Surrounding area before

22. No one seems to care about …

23. The Keren Shemesh staff, the process of learning and planning:

24. Students meeting with the community

25. Working on the Banisters and lights in the stairwells

26. Volunteers painting and beautifying Narkis

27. Volunteers making A change

28. Placed BENCHES AND GARBAGE CANS ARE ALL OVER THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Next to every entrance we installed benches and garbage cans. People can sit, meet and hang out.

29. As the director of Keren Shemesh I wish to express our deepest gratitude