www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0GyNTk9ffw

2. Record Your Own Video Card Here

(If your webcam doesn’t immediately work, click on the wrench icon to change settings and you should be all set!)

3. Email Us a Short Holiday Note to Put In Your Video, at Ari@FriendsofOfanim.org

4. Let Ofanim Send You a Personalized Video Card For the Holidays!

See How Others Are Spreading Their Holiday Wishes with Ofanim!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsHRGups4ik

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yb0XzRgfnQ

Ofanim’s work transforming communities in Israel’s periphery using innovative mobile classrooms received some exciting recognition in today’s national press coverage. Our very own Vice President, Angelica Berrie, is featured as the “Donor of the Day” in this morning’s Wall Street Journal for significant contributions to our groundbreaking charity. Take a look below! While Angelica’s support represents a major leadership gift to Ofanim, our unique buses continue to drive education to deserving students because of the collective contributions and leadership of our donors. We are so grateful that you have chosen to support and sustain this critical work. “Education is one of the most universal ways to leapfrog a country,” says Angelica Berrie in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal.   “These kids can do such sophisticated things,” and Ofanim provides them with an opportunity and “curriculum that inspires them to be creative. That spoke to me.“ Click to read the full article and learn how Russell Berrie’s legacy is creating a lasting impact on communities in Israel’s periphery. Looking ahead, we intend to build on our impact in 2011 – 2,600 students served in 60 communities, operating 8 buses – so please stay tuned for more news from Ofanim, one of Israel’s most exciting and innovative philanthropic efforts. Again, thank you for your involvement; it means the world to us and thousands of Israeli children!

If you want to see more from Angelica click: http://vimeo.com/23053193

With a new social media initiative focused on storytelling and impact, Ofanim looks to change the philanthropic paradigm…again!

The Story:

Two resident social entrepreneurs from Philadelphia, David Gloss and Ari Kushner, put their heads together this summer to develop a new social media platform that would increase visibility, awareness and fundraising to Israel focused nonprofits. What came out of this dialogue is the Israel Conversation Project (ICP).

Friends of Ofanim travelled to Israel this summer to, among other things, join and participate as the first philanthropic sign-on to “the Conversation”. In so doing, Friends of Ofanim was able to capture many of the stories and perspectives from our donors, board members, staff and families in the field that make Ofanim truly unique.

What’s Next for ICP & Ofanim:

Click on the video below to see what Ofanim has in store for the global community come this fall.  Join us to tell your story about what moves you to be philanthropic and how others can support your favorite cause!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnQ3byukRm4

In the meantime, our partners at Here’s My Chance were in attendance at the Presentense Global Fellowship to hear from the ever informative thought leader, Sandy Cardin. Please enjoy the talk, with video provided by PT:

Sandy Cardin’s 4th Annual talk at PresenTense about the Future of Jewish Philanthropy. Part 1.

Sandy Cardin’s 4th Annual talk at PresenTense about the Future of Jewish Philanthropy. Part 2.

Briefly, FIRST’s mission is “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”

This spring, members from FIRST Israel visited the Ofanim Robotics Lab, built and operated in partnership with the Technion (Israel’s MIT) in the North. The two organizations are examining ways to cooperate that give expand FIRST’s activities into the periphery, while also providing Ofanim students another outlet for robotics programing and competitions. Ofanim is interested in the partnership because students from our year-long Technion program will have a sustainable, annual program to continue their engagement with technology and science.

FIRST representatives were impressed with our Technion curriculum, which includes one semester on campus at Technion and one semester with our Mobile Robotics Lab. Ofanim is reviewing a final plan to create four FIRST Robotics teams in the FIRST Lego League (FLL), from Ofanim communities that have gone through the Technion program. The program would launch this fall.

We invite those of you interested in supporting new technology-based learning opportunities to contact Friends of Ofanim Director, Ari Kushner, at ari@friendsofofanim.org or (646) 409-7133 for more information.

For more on the Israeli FIRST program, visit: http://www.firstisrael.org.il/.

Project Ofanim “Drives” to Beersheba

March 31, 2011: For the better part of the school year, busses transformed into mobile classrooms have come to pay a visit to students in Beersheba municipality’s public schools. The mobile units arrive loaded with lab tools and equipment, and staffed by graduate level student instructors from local programs, including Ben Gurion University Medical School. The objective of the visits

are to introduce students to a physics and science program that matches experiential learning and exploration and build positive attitudes towards learning.

In this particular class, there were four study sessions for each class. The session topics include:

1. Magnetic energy, building a compass that was placed on the backs of ducks as they swim in water.

2. Building a complex model, in which the wheels are made of rubber.

3. Traffic patterns that involve jagged wheels and slopes.

4. Electromagnetic-using battery models, dynamo, motors, and horns.

Ofanim was created by volunteers in the Israeli business and high-tech sectors, to benefit children who live in suburban and rural areas in Israel’s periphery.  In these small communities, supplemental educational opportunities are unavailable and students there are falling behind.

The mission of Ofanim is to “to contribute significantly to the well-being of children living in Israel’s periphery in poverty and strengthen the fabric of Israeli society.”

For Hebrew version, click: http://ma.beersheva.biz/index.php?m=ar&artd=5046

“Let me share with you a happy ending to a sad occasion, which happened last year aboard one of Ofanim’s mobile labs.  Thanks to the awareness of one of our Science course instructors in the neighborhood in Afula (in Northern Israel), this instructor woke up in the middle of the night, fearful that one of the children is a battered child.

Generally, Ofanim works in close coordination with school and local community social services, as an important source of support to children and families.

The counselor reported their suspicions to Ofanim’s regional coordinator in the North, who reported it up the chain to the Ofanim Board of Directors.  Today, after extensive inquiries, and after the issue was discovered and treated properly, we were told that the child is very happy.  Now, he speaks of the process he went through with his mother and his family and a big smile came back to him.

All thanks to the awareness of instructors who were present and truly connected with this child on a weekly basis.  This is the power of Ofanim.”

As a way to bring you into the action from this year’s JFN, here is a clip of our favorite philanthropist and Ofanim Founder, Haim Dahan, presenting on a panel about “Strategic Investments in Israeli Education.”  Please enjoy:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMoxdYuDlKs

I was so moved by the transformative thinkers and social entrepreneurs and their inspiring vision for the future.  These are the types of visionaries we must support if we wish to see a stronger, more vibrant future for the next generation.

Our 2011 Report (click to access the proposal; results scheduled for Fall 2011) will use two methods:  a formative evaluation of the manner in which Ofanim is run and an assessment of the results (a summary evaluation) that will relate to the results of Ofanim’s activity in a forward direction (actions to be taken in the future, during the course of the assessment) and backward (actions taken in the past and for which there is documented information).

The assessment will provide quantitative information in the form of answers to the questionnaire and qualitative information in the form of the interview transcriptions.  The quantitative information will be encoded using an encoding program and will be entered into SPSS for Windows for statistical analysis.

The quantitative information will not include a separate special analysis stage.  The analysis will be part of the planning and management of the field work.  As part of this analysis, a focusing technique will be utilized in which preliminary interviews will be analyzed in order to identify key topics to be defined for the subsequent interviews and for analysis purposes.

We are proud of our efforts to maintain a high level of efficiency, transparency and quality services to today’s generation of at-risk youth in Israel.  We hope you take a few minutes to appreciate our goals and our impact in communities where, in most cases, we are the only nonprofit in operation.

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Educational opportunity changes lives. Learn how Israel’s neediest youth are being helped.  Ofanim provides critical education to children in remote, poor villages through innovative mobile classrooms outfitted with the latest in technology. Hi-tech entrepreneur and founder Haim Dahan will present his inspired project to empower Israel’s next generation.  Graduates of Yemin Orde Wingate Youth Village—nearly destroyed in the Carmel Mountain wildfire—go on from lives of trauma and displacement to become productive members of their communities. Watch a brief video about the fire’s aftermath and meet visionary educator Dr. Chaim Peri, who will answer questions about “The Village Way” to transform residential education in Israel. Shimon Peres acclaimed Yemin Orde as “what Israel is meant to be.”

This is part of the “rolling” reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in which five conference sponsors are given ten-minute segments to present programs they care about.  Receptions take place in breakout rooms surrounding a central area where drinks and hors d’oeuvres are served. JFN staff will shepherd attendees into each presentation in a timely fashion.