Building Shared society in Israel
Pears Foundation funds a number of organisations dedicated to building a society in Israel that is truly shared among its residents, one in which every Israeli has an equal stake.
Pears Foundation's partnership has been vital in ensuring that AJEEC-NISPED is able to offer innovative programmes and promote Arab-Jewish cooperation locally and throughout Israel. Through our long-standing partnership, the Foundation has developed a keen and nuanced understanding of our needs as an organisation. We know that we can count on Pears for support that is appropriate and relevant, in line with our priorities and that will benefit tens of thousands of people - Arabs and Jews, students and professionals, families and community leaders.Ariel Dloomy, Co-Director
AJEEC-NISPED
Pears Foundation wants to play its part in building a shared society in Israel; one that offers equality, empowerment and peaceful co-existence for all those who make up Israel society – religious and secular, Jews and Arabs.
Promoting shared citizenship
Since 2014 we have given core funding to The Abraham Initiatives’, whose model of Advocacy through Action creates models for policy change which can be adopted and tailored on a national scale and to Co-Impact, which tackles the under-representation of Arab citizens in the Israeli workforce. We also fund Merchavim, which helps Israeli citizens, of all backgrounds, to learn about the other, value diversity, and create fairer classrooms, schools and communities.
Funding invested: £1.1million
Supporting the Bedouin community
AJEEC-NISPED (The Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation – Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development) is dedicated to strengthening active citizenship in Israel through education and economic empowerment. Its focus is the Arab Bedouin in the South of Israel, a community of 160,000 which constitutes the most disadvantaged sector of Israeli society in all areas of life: economic, social and educational.
The organisation works to revitalise the traditional Bedouin community values of self reliance and mutual aid, believing they provide a powerful impetus for transforming communities.
AJEEC’s programmes include community volunteering, early childhood education, socioeconomic development, health promotion and Arab-Jewish partnership.
Pears Foundation has been supporting AJEEC-NISPED since 2008 with unrestricted funding.
Funding invested: £1million
Leadership programmes for young adults
Citizens Build a Community is a grassroots organisation established in 2004 by local residents and professionals living and working within the mixed city of Lod, whose population consists of almost completely separated communities of Jews, Arabs, Bedouins and others. Lod has suffered from huge deficits that have led to the abandonment and closing of many social services. Citizens Build a Community focuses on the various needs of Lod’s diverse and at-risk neighbourhoods, with a particular focus on supporting young people from the Arab community.
In order to create a new generation of leaders who will be more engaged in the community, Pears Foundation has supported a programme that works with young people from the Arab community who are not in education, employment or training. The programme gives them leadership training, citizenship education and volunteering opportunities and supports them into employment.
Merkaz Ma’ase engages young people in a year of volunteer service after they have graduated from high school. The programme addresses social gaps in Israeli society by working with at-risk youth, particularly in the peripheral regions of Israel.
The International Award for Young People is the Israeli branch of the International arm of the Duke of Edinburgh’s award . Across its four areas of Physical Recreation, Skills, Adventurous Journey and Community Service, young people are equipped with essential life skills to make a difference to themselves and their communities. The programme is accessible to anyone regardless of background or prior experience and we have been funding them since 2004.
Funding invevsted: £1.9m
Pears Foundation also gives unrestricted funding to the Hand in Hand integrated schools network, which you can read more about here and the New Israel Fund UK, which works towards equality and democracy for all Israelis.