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.