Empowerment Through Crafting

Saturday August 10^th 

I love getting to stay home all-day and chill out in my pjs. And that is exactly what I did. We didn’t have any programming until 2:30 so I woke up and continued to work on the scrapbooks for the girls. I finished the books before our session and finished them after dinner by writing each girl a letter.

Our first session was about methods of social change. We looked at different texts in our source books from the torah, NGO descriptions, and various other readings trying to place them into one of the categories. When we started the activity I think we all thought it would be fairly easy to categorize the readings but we soon found that so many of the categories worked together and than many organizations use several different methods of social change with the work they do. From the organizations we all volunteer with the organization that stood out the most and involved many different types was Ma’an, the NGO dealing with Bedouin women’s rights. To end our discussion we talked about which method we most relate to and that we think we will utilize upon returning home. Personally, I feel like the idea of community empowerment and community organizing is the most prevalent method I have used throughout my entire life. Or at least it is the method I feel most attached to. One of the reasons I actually wanted to mentor girls while on this program was because I wanted them to know that they were special and strong too. So much of the work at the shelter focuses on the little kids and the moms that often the older kids can fall through the cracks. Plus, I know what it is like to feel weak and like you can't do anything so I want to make sure that I would be sending on a positive message. I see it as a chain reaction. I empower one person who empowers another and another and so on. My favorite analogy of the day was definitely Kyra's. As we were talking about all the different methods she compared all the methods to a traffic circle, all of the types are connected and you can pick one to start but you can always go back around and choose another exit.

Quote I created for one of the books

Our second session of the day dealt with what we have learned and done on the trip. We started off by listing everything we had done week my week on the program. From learning sessions to funny memories to trips we had taken, everything was listed. We then had to list what programs we thought were personally the top 3 most impactful.  There were so many I wanted to list but I ended up writing down and sharing 4. The first was the American values assessment we did during orientation. Personally, I have learned a lot about how the culture I grew up in and Israeli culture are different and how that effects sustainable change and growth within a community. It has also made me want to change some of the things I do, such as to just go with the flow sometimes instead of always sticking to a plan. The next thing on my list was the visit to Beit Issie Shapiro the weekend of our Jewish Agency Seminar. After volunteering with children who are autistic, knowing that I want to help families dealing with genetic disorders, and growing up my entire life knowing the legacy of my great-grandmother I feel a really special connection to helping kids with special needs. The work that this organization has done and how much they have progressed is truly inspiring and made me very excited to go home and bring back some of the knowledge and ideas to the Children's Institute. Another most influential moment was our visit to IRAC. This meeting was the first time on our trip where I finally felt at home and comfortable with my religious stance. I had spent so much of the trip prior to this meeting feeling alone because it didn't seem like any other reform jews existed but it was nice to be at IRAC talking about issues that are led by the reform movement and issues I have grown up learning about at home. My additional experience I talked about was the night hike we took Thursday night. Despite having a family that loves to hike and be outdoors its never been completely my thing. But the night hike was a lot of fun. And all the struggles with trying to figure out what was going on didn't really bother me. It simply made me realize its okay when things don't follow a plan. Expect the unexpected. 

We ended our night with more downtime and then havdalah in the park where we had our first havdalah together. It was nice to start and end things in the same place. The day certainly wasn't over though. I still had a lot more to do to prepare for my last day of volunteering. Luckily I got it all done.