Hiwot and Berhanu: Better Parenting

Community

City: Tirat Carmel

Hiwot was a single mother with one son who was 12 years old named Berhanu. All throughout his schooling, Berhanu had been frustrated that his mother was not more supportive of or interested in his education, but the explanation for that went deeper because Hiwot was illiterate. Her understanding of her son’s homework or class load was limited, but Berhanu’s frustration grew all the more. Berhanu had been attending ENP’s Youth Outreach Center in Tirat Hacarmel for a few months, when he saw advertisements for parent workshops. He told his mom about it, and because she could sense that it would mean a lot to Berhanu if she went, she did. Parents workshops are very helpful tools for Ethiopian-Israeli parents to learn and get great advice about how best to integrate into new Israeli society, and how to help their children all along the way. At the workshop, Hiwot learned of the importance of asking questions about her son’s schooling and to ask if he had completed his homework. The very next day when Berhanu came home from school, Hiwot surprised him by engaging in what he had done that day, and Berhanu was incredibly grateful to the ENP for the encouraging support and advice that it had given him, and now his mother as well.