Israel

The israeli-palestinian conflict, which is still very much ongoing, and without clear prospect of resolution, puts the region in a situation of instability and uncertainty. The circumstances create a sense of isolation of the population from the rest of the Middle East, which increases the malaise of the weakest layers of society.

In some Israeli communities the social tensions of the area are exacerbated by areas of structural poverty that involve thousands of young people at risk of deviance and social exclusion.

The project “youth of Light” is a laboratory for peace that welcomes young people from both cultures (Arab and Jewish) who find themselves in serious economic and cultural poverty. By means of the laboratory – which consists of the production of handmade candles – and living together, these young people manage to develop a true collaborative spirit, and contemporarily they undertake a professionalizing course that offers them an economic remuneration.

New Life for Children started the “youth of Light” project in 2008.

14 years after the start of this project, the activities of the laboratory have broadened to include hundreds of other beneficiaries through workshops in schools in the Israeli territory, aimed to promote values of tolerance, peace and cooperation amongst students. 

• Provide the necessary technical abilities to our beneficiaries to become “master wax craftsmen”, supporting them in overcoming personal difficulties in relating to society.
• Educate the beneficiaries in expressing their emotions in the correct way and to relate to members of society belonging to different cultural groups than their own. 
• Increase the beneficiaries’ work opportunities by developing their professional skills. 
• Accompany the beneficiaries in a correct integration into the world of work. 
• Reintegrate those young people into society  who have developed different types of dependencies.

• Each young person at risk is trained to become a “master wax craftsman”, and in the meantime supported in developing their ability to integrate into a social context. 
• Each young person at risk has acquired basic professional skills and has been integrated or is in the process of being integrated into the world of work.
• Each young person is reintegrated into their own community successfully and actively contributes to its improvement. 
• The pedagogical skills of the educators are reinforced.