Jerusalem Rotary Club Project List

Community Services and Allocations Committee

Over the past decade the Community Services and Allocations Committee has been an active component of the JRC. The projects in which it has been involved cover a wide range and some of its allocations have gone to institutions with clearly identified needs and where the contribution can make a difference. While the committee focuses to a large extent on activities in the Jerusalem area it has not lost sight of deserving needs in other parts of Israel and more distant regions of the world.

The club is grateful to other Rotary clubs that have joined it in Matching Grants partnerships that together with additional funds from the Rotary International Foundation have enabled it to undertake a number of worthwhile projects. Where possible the club seeks projects that promote understanding and tolerance between different groups and that in its own way takes peace between peoples in the region further forward. These projects include:

1. Nursery Project -Gan Harmony. A nursery school that takes children from all sectors of society and trains nursery school teachers to create similar institutions in the Arab sector communities. Matching Grant with a club in the USA.

2. St. Vincent's Home for Severely Handicapped Children. This home on the outskirts of Jerusalem in the village of Ein Karem takes care of children who are so severely handicapped that their families are no longer able to care for them. The home has a small residential staff and depends on volunteer helpers from all over the world. The project helped improve the living conditions of the volunteers who often stay for extended periods. Matching Grant with a club in the USA.

3. Gan Shalom at the YMCA. The Peace Nursery School based at the Jerusalem International YMCA. The children are drawn from Jewish and Arab Muslim and Christian homes. There are both Arab and Jewish Israeli teachers and classes are conducted both in Hebrew and Arabic. Besides a large Matching Grant project that helped equip a specialized playground with safety flooring, The JRC is the channel for many donations from other Rotarians to help ensure the long term viability and stability of the nursery school. Matching Grant with a club in the USA.

4. Pediatric Ward Project: Equipping a classroom at Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. The Pediatric Department of the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus constantly has a number of children who require long term hospitalisation. This project assisted the hospital to equip and refurbish a classroom where children can continue with their school studies while being treated. Matching Grant with a club in France.

5.Centinnial Project - Playground in a Seam Neighborhood. The area of Musrara sits on what was the Jerusalem seam where poor Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of East and West Jerusalem abut. The area needed a safe paying area for children of both communities. Matching Grant with a club in the USA. This was our Club's contribution to the city of Jerusalem on the occasion of Rotary International's 100th Anniversary. Both of the Jerusalem Rotary Clubs participated in this project.

6. The Video Conferencing Unit at the Herzog Hospital. The Herzog Hospital, the third largest in Jerusalem, has earned a worldwide reputation for the quality of the work it does. Amongst others it is recognized for its advances in acute geriatric care, the treatment of psycho-trauma, long term respiratory support for infants to adults, physical rehabilitation, complex and skilled nursing, research in behavioral genetics and training programs for health paraprofessionals. The project helped establish a video conferencing centre that enables the hospital to share its experience with other hospitals anywhere in the world and to gain from the experience of others. It allows doctors to consult with their specialist colleagues in other countries and to participate in case conferences on a mutual support basis. Since its establishment the video conferencing unit has been extensively utilised. Matching Grant with a club in the USA.

The activities of the committee are ongoing and it is planning future projects that are at different stages of development. These include:

1. The music room for the Jerusalem School for the Deaf. This school provides an essential service to hearing impaired children from all communities. There is a requirement for a specialist music room and instruments that will enable these children who come from all sectors of the community to participate in music activities that encourage participation and rehabilitation. The project has been approved by RI. The Matching Grant partners are from Brazil and Turkey.

2. The Jerusalem Tisch Family Zoo. The Jerusalem Tisch Family Zoological Garden's educational program has developed a therapy program using animals from its collection to assist children with special needs. The children have been diagnosed with autism, deafness, learning disabilities and other developmental challenges due to mental, behavioral or emotional problems. This is a cross ethnic project where children from Arab and Jewish homes can participate. To help with the children care for the animals a small agricultural type vehicle is required for feeding and cleaning the animals. To help purchase this vehicle, the Rotary Club in Turks and Caicos Islands, a British territory in the West Indies, has expressed interest in joining the JRC in a Matching Grant.

3. Water project for a village in Turkey. This initiative of a Turkish Rotary Club will provide a source of clean water to a village in Turkey. The JRC will be an international partner in this Matching Grant.

4. Talitha Kumi School in Bethlehem. A German Rotary Club has been helping support this school for some years. It is now proposing to assist the school further and it requires the JRC to help monitor the implementation of the project. Given the international nature of the JRC it is possible for it to undertake this task and to overcome the political and security problems on the ground.

5. Telemedicine Training in Developing Countries. The Video Conferencing Unit of the Herzog Hospital in conjunction with its various specialist departments is developing a series of training packages for health para-professionals. It has already piloted a course for Ethiopian Women Nursing Aides and Caregivers that has proved to be successful. It proposes to develop this course, and potentially others, using a combination of distance education and local support packages. The proposal has aroused considerable interest and there have been tentative approaches for partnerships and suggestions for project sites in Ghana and South Africa. The complexity of this project will require participation of several clubs in the Matching Grant and monitoring on the Jerusalem and local project site. Discussions for this project are ongoing.

The larger projects that require Matching Grants are only one part of this committee's brief. The other is the allocation of funds that require urgent disbursement and smaller amounts that will be of immediate assistance to an institution or community group that has a perceived need. Several of these contributions include:

1. Tsunami Relief Project of 2005. After the devastation of the tsunami in 2005 the JRC joined clubs in India and the UK to buy bicycles for school girls from fishing villages where everything had been destroyed or lost. The combined effort enabled almost 900 bicycles to be distributed.

2. St. John's Ophthalmic Hospital Jerusalem. Together with a contribution from a club in the USA we were able to help the hospital purchase a bed for specialist eye operations.

3. The Shleymut Project: restoring sufferers of post traumatic stress to health. This organization provides therapy through horse riding. The JRC channeled a donation from a Swiss donor to the project.

4. Helping the North. After the Second Lebanon War there was a need to support the towns on the northern periphery of Israel to overcome the damage of the rocket barrages that they suffered. Money from an American donor was the basis for the JRC contribution.

5. The Full Schoolbag Project. The club contributed to this district project to ensure that every child going to school had all the requirements to start the school year.

6. YMCA Youth Leadership. Every year the club makes a donation to this project that brings young Arab and Jewish youth together on a non-denominational youth leadership training programme.

7. Argentine Book Project. The Eshkol book project for needy students in the Argentine received books from a number of the members of the club.

8. The Trudi Birger Dental Clinic. This dental clinic provides dental services to poorer Jerusalem families across the ethnic spectrum. International Rotary Dental Volunteers come and work at the clinic for varying periods of time. Their stay in Jerusalem is sponsored by the JRC on behalf of Rotary International.

The Jerusalem Rotary Club Foundation. This amutah (non-profit NGO) was established in the 1960s to provide scholarships for students in technical high schools studying high- tech subjects. It is totally separate from the Community Services and Allocations Committee. Each year for the past 40+ years it has awarded around 60 scholarships to the selected students. The relevant Jerusalem schools nominate about 500 students for the awards and a selection committee reduces the number according various criteria, both academic and social, and to the funds available to the Foundation. To date more than 2,500 scholarships have been awarded.