Kiryat Bialik

Opportunities for Assistance:
Make a Difference in Kiryat Bialik

Your support will help create a brighter future for Ethiopian-Israelis in Kiryat Bialik!

*Amount
*Currency
*Frequency

The Challenge

Kiryat Bialik is a city that is located north of Haifa. It is one of the five Krayot (plural of Kirya). Kiryat Bialik together with Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Motzkin, Kyriat Ata and Kiryat Haim form a cluster of cities in the Haifa Bay area. The city is named after the poet Hayim Nahman Bialik, who was one of the pioneers of Modern Hebrew poetry.

Educational and social needs of Ethiopian-Israeli youth in Kiryat Bialik

Many Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, and Argentina have settled in this Krayot suburb of Haifa. 37,000 citizens are settled in this town, 770 of which are Ethiopians. 113 of these Ethiopian-Israelis are between 13 and 18 years old. In Kiryat Bialik:

• Around 110 new immigrant families arrived in 2011;
• There are nearly 300 Ethiopian-Israeli families living in this city;
• 25.8% of the population is younger than 19 years old;
• Many families cannot support their children with curricular-educative activities, because they face economic difficulties;
• Many Ethiopian-Israelis have lower academic achievement than other Jews in this town.

ENP's Response

Meeting the needs of the Ethiopian-Israeli youth, ENP provides the teens both with scholastic assistance as well as with a youth center in order to face the social and educational challenges. ENP noted some key successes of the Scholastic Assistance Program:

• Nowadays (2013) 74 students participate in the program
• 100 % of the 2010-2011 9th grade students were tracked in matriculation streams in high school. In other words, none have been tracked out to boarding schools outside the city.
• In 2009-2010 43 % of the 12th grade students achieved matriculation eligibility. This is a significant improvement from 2007-2008 when 33% of the students achieved matriculation eligibility.

The ENP Youth Outreach Center is open five days a week and offers enriching extra-curricular activities where youth feel at home and can meet with their friends. This youth center in Kiryat Bialik:
• Has around ninety Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers that regularly attend.
• Has another ninety non-Israeli teenagers frequenting the center, which benefits the integration of Ethiopian teenagers into Israeli society.
• Offers a big range of activities that varies from different music workshops  to leadership trainings in order to empower the youth socially and educationally.

Did you know that…
The center is equipped with satellite television, which makes it possible for the teens to watch Amharic (the native Ethiopian language) programs.