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African Refugees Gain an Education in Tel Aviv, Israel
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Larry Butchins Jerusalem ---- March 15, 2010 …. . In the old part of Tel Aviv, near the central bus station, African refugees are engaged in an educational project which will equip them to cope with the hustle and bustle of modern Israel – the country to which they fled to escape persecution, torture and death, to reach the safety of a country which has given them a temporary haven. The refugees, mainly adults – some of them doctors, professors and engineers, others illiterate and ill educated, are pursuing their goal of gaining a basic education in English and Hebrew at the new education center opened early this year by the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC). The building is owned by the organization itself, with the objective of offering a better standard of education for the African refugee community of Tel Aviv. Joanna Packer, the team coordinator for the ARDC education department explains: "The center is generally run for the community, by the community, with “some volunteers coming from the community itself. For example, we had a woman come in to register for a Hebrew class and she saw on the list a woman who was registered to take French literacy." "She said: 'I'm from Cameroon, and have a degree in English and French and I would love to teach'." For Packer, the move to the new building fits the ideal of the community taking ownership of the project. "To have this place is so important; these are our desks and our chairs which we worked hard to get donated. In our old premises we'd rented the space so it never really felt like home ... there were very, very small classrooms so we couldn’t fit more students and there was a piano in each room taking up a lot of room which in my mind could have been another table for five more students." There are an estimated 20,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Israel who have fled armed conflict, civil war and fear of persecution in countries such as Eritrea, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ivory Coast. In many cases, they crossed the border from Egypt with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing, yet find they have few legal rights and little access to education, health and social services. “Without even 'survival-level' Hebrew or support from the government, these men, women and children are extremely vulnerable,” says the organization’s Web site. The center is largely for adult refugees, with varying levels of educational backgrounds and language skills. Packer explains: The classes range from pre-beginner, for basic literacy, to advanced, which aims at full communication, in English and Hebrew, as well as offering French literacy classes (largely for members of the illiterate mother-tongue French-speakers from the Ivory Coast), and are taught largely by American, British and Israeli volunteers. "In an English class we have a couple of students from Congo, who are very highly educated, one of them has a PhD and they might be sitting next to someone in their class who has huge gaps in their education, who has no real experience of being in a classroom before." It is clear that education is vitally important to the African refugee community here in Israel. Established in 2004, the ARDC was at first primarily a humanitarian aid provider, dealing with the crisis of many African refugees without shelter or clothing. The situation was exacerbated by an influx of thousands of refugees in 2007-8, and at this stage the ARDC was reliant mainly on foreign volunteers. But, as the situation on the ground began to develop, the needs centered less on just food and a roof over their heads, and more for rights, at which stage the asylum and advocacy projects came to the fore. Now, at the start of 2010, advocacy and aid are still the largest parts of the ARDC budget, but the focus is beginning to turn to the future, and the new education center, as well as a pilot counseling and psychotherapy scheme, is indicative of this. However, the Tel Aviv, Israel center's biggest problem remains a gross lack of resources. They rely on donations from the local community and philanthropists. Asked what the future holds for the center, there seems to be complete agreement among the community and staff as to what should come next. "Students are always coming, asking for computer literacy classes and we just don’t have the resources right now," says Packer. "I began planning and in no time I found experienced teachers, who've taught computer literacy classes, willing to donate their time to teach these classes. We have the space now, we just need the computers, and we have no shortage of students who want to study." There may not be adequate resources for this ambitious step just yet, but in the meantime, the new center should at least help to maximize what little there is available, and hopefully help to equip some of the least fortunate of Tel Aviv society with the basic language skills which would mean so much to them, while at the same time building a community. "One of the most beautiful things is that on the last day of class everyone gets a diploma," says one of the teachers. "They’re
all cheering and supporting one another."
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