Destau: Leaps and Bounds

Youth in School

~ Dambulo, ENP Youth Advisor in Netanya

City: Hadera

Last year, in seventh grade, I started to go to ENP’s SPACE Program in Hadera. I did not want to go but I was talked into it by my teachers at school. I was a poor student and I lacked motivation. I know my parents love me very much but they had given up on me. I didn’t have any faith in my abilities and as I wasn't producing anything of quality I forgot what I could do—I didn’t know what I could do. When the program first started I only half attended. I thought it was dumb and that it was a waste of my time because I wouldn’t learn anything. But it was fun so I wound up going more and more often. My advisors at the center talked to me and tried to convince me that I could do a lot more than I was and I believed them. I started going to school more regularly and stopped being as much of a disruption. To the surprise of everyone, mostly myself, I started doing really well in school. I even improved on my level exams and went from level 3 to 2! I was able to test into my first choice [junior high] school and I was invited to attend an ENP sponsored summer program. I am so thankful that people cared about me even when I didn’t think that I had anything worth saving.