ינשופים הדרכה (ע"ר)

Yanshufim, a non-profit organization founded in 2013 strives to fortify and strengthen Israel's next generation by providing every child with equal access to education and opportunity. Our goal is to unleash the latent potential within Israel's social and geographic periphery by eradicating educational inequalities. We identify where we are needed, develop holistic informal educational programs, and then implement them in elementary schools throughout Israel. Yanshufim’s innovative curricula seek to increase children’s confidence by empowering them, exposing them to new fields of study, encouraging their natural curiosity and creativity, helping them develop critical thinking skills, and helping them and their families build a safe, supportive, just, and equal community. Our programs are carried out using experience-based learning methods and we make sure that all activities are fun, engaging, value-based, and ultimately geared towards achieving our goals. Supported and supervised by Israel’s Ministry of Education and the municipalities we work with, our educational methods are implemented in diverse after-school programs. Most children we work with are identified by the Israeli government as at-risk children. They include the children of refugees, asylum-seekers, work immigrants, Arabs, and Jews. We believe that working with these children at a young age is necessary in order to prevent recurring social gaps by addressing the problem of inequality at its root. Our goal is to create real and long-lasting educational and social change. Yanshufim's diverse programs focus on social equality and address Arab-Jewish partnership, female empowerment, at-risk and underprivileged children, access to education, and the needs of the refugees and asylum-seekers. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic led to unprecedented social and educational challenges. Many children we work with are defined as children at risk, and the pandemic has greatly affected their well-being. In March, the coronavirus outbreak led to a full lockdown, and a shut down of the educational system, which also led to a halt in the flow of financial support from our partners. A team of Yanshufim workers and volunteers managed to recruit dozens of people and acted on a voluntary basis to address the acute needs of the children and their families following the outbreak of the first wave. Today, we continue to operate our programs within the country while constantly adapting them to the changing needs and reality. We need all the help we can get in order to continue to run our programs during these complicated times, to expand our response, and to provide as many children as possible with essential educational programs.