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British Council Israel’s sport programme makes available the UK’s ideas and experience in using sport for personal development and learning. We aim to get the best out of young people, creating opportunities for them to explore values and other cultures; to become leaders and active citizens and to bring together different communities while helping them realise their own potential.
The children and youth involved in our projects come from across Israeli society. They are part of the British Council’s global sports network, benefiting from a truly international sport experience learning to ‘Think Global – Act Local’.
4 Israeli Delegates will be attending the YAP Youth Forum designed to promote cultural and disability awareness through discussions and workshops. 240 disabled and able-bodied young people from around the world who demonstrate the ability, commitment and capacity to take on a volunteer leadership role to promote the Paralympics Spirit, will be provided with the training, support and encouragement to make their advocacy a reality. The young people will attend some of the Paralympics events taking place in Beijing. For additional information visit our website.
The Young Advocates Programme (YAP) is the British Coucnil China region’s primary response to the opportunity presented by the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. It has recently been recognised by BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) as a formal part of the Cultural Olympiad. For more infromation go to the YAP website.
Israeli Delegates:
Alon Hakima
Alon is a 27 year old student of Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya. In July 2006, during the second Lebanon war, he was seriously wounded. During his long recovery, he was introduced to many voluntary organizations in Israel and abroad and decided to volunteer with youth at risk upon his release from hospital. In July 2007, Alon represented Israel in the United States and spoke to various organizations and communities about the situation in the Middle East and his own personal story. During his trip, he had the opportunity to meet with President Clinton and UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman. In May 2008, "One Family" invited him to tell his story to the Jewish community in London. During his visit, he met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Israeli Ambassador Mr. Ron Feroshore.
Aon has recently set up an organisation named “Amichai” in memory of one of his soldiers. The organisation help youth living in boarding schools.
Keren Drumer
Keren is 23 years old and studies Sociology and HR at the Western Galilee college. As a young teenager she was a very active swimmer and horse rider. She was even a candidate for the Paralympics in swimming during the late 90's. Sport is a very important factor in her strive for independence as a disabled young person. Keren took part in the Wings programme, which helps young people with disabilities serve in the army and volunteer in their communities.
Orel Galilee
Orel is a 23 year old student of Law at the Natanya Academic College. Two years ago she served as the first officer in the IDF with a physical disability. She has been an athlete all her life. She swam for Hapoel Emek Hefer team for the disabled and for the last few years has been sailing as part of Etgarim’s activities in Israel. Orel has been lecturing in front of disabled people, encouraging them to become active citizens. Orel will be accompanied by her sister, Mor Galilee, who is 20 and currently serving as an IT instructor in the IDF. Mor has been active as youth leader in the “Noar Haoved ve Halomed” youth movement.
The British Council "Youth ,Sport, Action!" programme, is inspired by the Olympic values. The vision of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games is "to stage inspirational Games that capture the imagination of young people around the world and leave a lasting legacy." As a world authority in education the British Council is responding to this vision through a global initiative which will build on our experience, reputation and connections through our work in sport and youth.
As follow-up to the programme's activities last year, we held a conference in Albania which aimed to sustain and re-enforce the cross-regional/UK networks . It also aimed to capture and deepen the cross cultural learning through a regional training workshop for sports and youth professionals from the region and their UK partners on Sport and InterCultural Dialogue, developing their role as advocates and facilitators for taking forward the Olympic ideals and core values in their countries. Participants were representatives of local NGOs and equivalent bodies in leading positions from each country as well as youth activists involved in activities focusing on citizenship, social inclusion, leadership, sport and education.
Representatives of the Israel Youth Award and the Perach initiative attended the conference.
Countries involved: Albania, Greece, Israel, Macedonia, Turkey, UK
As part of the Youth, Sport, Action! programme we run theSea of Friends project. This is a joint initiative of the British Council and youth organisations from Israel, Azerbaijan and the UK. It aims to empower young people from these countries to manage and operate a transnational project, which builds on the Olympic ideals and uses water sports to bridge between communities and help the environment. In Israel, we are working in partnership with the Israel Youth Award and the Daniel Rowing Centre .
The project was launched in April 2007 in Macedonia, where 200 European young people met to plan joint community projects. Since their return, they have worked on projects to promote sport, tolerance and environmental awareness in their countries.
After running projects locally, the young people are now working internationally with exchange visits between the three countries. Participants are touring their host countries and working together on community outreach and water sports festivals. In August 2007, all European teams came together at the City of Manchester stadium in the UK for a big celebration of their achievements.
The Israel Youth Award is affiliated with the Duke of Edinburgh’s international award scheme. It’s aim is to educate teenagers (14-25 years old) to tolerance between cultures and to make their spare time more useful by encouraging them to take part in physical activities, services to the community, expeditions and develop hobbies.
From the press:
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To read what the participants say about the project click here
Dreams and Teams is a global initiative in partnership with the UK’s Youth Sport Trust (YST) to promote leadership and personal development; citizenship and cross cultural understanding. The project, active in over 30 countries, also brings together education and sports professionals from around the world. The programme trains Local Tutors, who then train young people as Young Leaders and organise sports festivals in their communities.
In Israel, we work with the Ministry of Education’s Unit for the Advancement of Youth, giving Young Leaders unique opportunities to work as a team with youth from different cultural backgrounds. They learn how to take responsibility and contribute as a group to the wider community. Our Young Leaders focus on arranging sports festivals for children with special needs, using special YST ‘Sportability’ kits and their own creative ideas.
Over 12 tutors and 40 young leaders from around the country are active in the programme and have organised and delivered sports festivals for over 1000 children, including children with special needs.
In 2005 the project "went international" when two major events took place.
In September 2005, Mirit Almog, youth worker from Tel Aviv Municipality, Ina Tritkov from Lod and Ahmed Sultani from Tira presented the vision for the future of the Dreams and Teams project both in Israel and worlwide during an international camp which included Young Leaders from over 20 countries.
Approximately 300 young people and 150 teachers from around the world particiapted in this four-day residential camp, taking place at Loughborough University. Over the four days, two progressive, parallel programmes for young leaders and teachers helped .the teams shape their vision and share their experiences.
In November 2005, 13 young leaders from our Dreams and Teams programmes travelled to Newcastle for a week’s visit with young people from the Consett YMCA. They were trained on the UK Youth Sport Trust ‘Top Link’ programme and worked together to deliver a sports festival in a local primary school.
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Football for Peace (F4P) is a sport-based co-existence project for Jewish and Arab Israeli children which has been running in the Galilee region of Northern Israel since 2001. It is an initiative of the British Council Israel and Brighton University (UK), seeking to promote equality, inclusion, respect, trust and responsibility through football. Student coaches from Brighton University visit Israel to work with local sports coaches and co-ordinators and run specially designed football camps for communities in the Galilee.
In May 2008, a delegation of sports professionals from Jewish and Arab villages in Israel will travel to the Sports University in Cologne, Germany to train in the Football 4 Peace values based approach to coaching and working with children. Researchers from the Wingate Institute and Wingate Collage will join the delegation to meet with their UK and German counterparts to plan for an extensive research project which will aim to measure the impact on children who take part in the project.
Football 4 Peace is a partnership project of the British Council, the Israel Sports Authority, Brighton University’s Chelsea School of Sport and the Sports University in Cologne, Germany.
In January 2008, British Council is hosting a conference for young people in Greenwich prior to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland (23 to 27 January) and we are proud to be sending, an outstanding young Israeli to participate. Yehoshua Vaysman will be part of a contingent of 60 young people aged 16 to 19 from around the world, who will lay down challenges for the world’s leaders. They come from varying backgrounds as well as countries but will have one common experience: they are all activists for change. Each one of them has decided that they cannot wait for the world’s leaders to solve the world’s problems. They are taking command of the future. They are not passive recipients of education; they are not passive consumers; they are not passively unemployed. They want the world’s leaders in politics, in business, in civil society to do more than listen. They want the world’s leaders to support the younger generation in the design, in the implementation and in the success of the plans for the future, and to hold them accountable to the younger generation.
Yehoshua Vaysman is 17 years old from South Tel Aviv. Yehoshua immigrated to Israel from Russia at an early age and since then he and his family have been living in a marginalised community. Yehoshua is taking part in a unique leadership programme, Kav Hazinuk (“The Starting Line” in Hebrew), which hand picks high-potential youth from difficult socio-economic backgrounds and empowers them to unleash their hidden talents. Together with other Israeli youth, Yehoshua travelled the country and built a vision for education to the Knesset. In addition, Yehoshua is involved in environmental action and has set up a baby sitting agency to help young people in his neighbourhood.
Please contact us if you require more information.
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