20% of all Israeli teenagers must work after school to help support their struggling families. Some of them work up to 35 hours a week after school. What are their chances to get good grades, make it to college and gain lucrative employment? That’s where the Sulam L’Atid NGO (meaning “A Ladder to the Future”) comes into the picture.
At the Sulam L’Atid Project we offer impoverished Israeli teenagers a package deal: “Reduce your after school work load, and in return our volunteers will provide you with free tutorials. In addition, we’ll ‘pay’ your family for your active participation in our tutorials with vouchers for them to buy food and clothing.”
The system works. Pupils accepted to the Sulam L’Atid Project work less and learn more. Their grades improve. Their self confidence grows. For the first time these students succeed in high school.
Now we’re preparing for next year’s school year. To carry a pupil through a year of our tutorials it costs the Sulam L’Atid NGO $1,000 a year. The money you donate goes entirely to our students’ families, because everyone in our organization works on a volunteer basis. Some of them are lawyers, doctoral students, a teacher at a school of education, etc.. Join us in giving these children of Jerusalem a ladder to the future.
(Our thanks for the video to Reliya Akrap, Inbar Rothschild and Ziv Appleberg and for the indoor stills to Zohar Shitrit.)
With 11 days left and our tutors for the coming school year falling into place, our goal is to continue having concerned individuals join our goal of being able to provide services for more students and their families.
No donation is too small! No donation is too large! Each donation is a way to impact the lives of these high school students in a positive direction. Hope we can count on you to join us!
Life…Chai….$18….providing education….providing food….it is all inter-related and can be accomplished by a meaningful donation to a LADDER TO THE FUTURE….helping impoverished students and their families who live in Jerusalem find joy in life! JOIN us in this endeavor.
One way to know the effect of an educational program, is to ask those who are receiving its services about its impact on their lives. This student from a LADDER TO THE FUTURE shared his perspective in the following way:
“Hello. My name is M.Z., and I am a 10th grade student in Jerusalem. I want to tell you about the help I receive.
The first time I met Z. (M’s volunteer tutor from the Sulam L’Atid NGO) I discovered that she could bring me to a high level of achievement. At that time in my language and literature classes I didn’t understand my homework or the classroom tasks. After a few lessons with Z. I found that my grades were improving. My teachers in these subjects didn’t understand how I’d made such a leap in my studies. I would finish my assignments quickly, and all my answers were good.
After my first year (of tutorials) with Z. she suggested that I could learn with her the next year, too, and if I wanted, also during the summer. Thanks to her my grades on my report card improved, and that motivated me to improve in all of my subjects. It was an amazing feeling to know what I am capable of doing. I began to believe in myself, that I can learn well.”
You too can help students gain a positive view of their ability to learn and contribute to society.
A post by a friend: A ladder helps us get to something that is unattainable otherwise. It could be a symbol that we need help to reach our goals and we cannot just rely on ourselves.
Helping youth reach their goals is a matter of providing a ladder to the future. Keep sharing with your friends the good that they can do!
25 donors and a little more than 25% of our goal met with 28 days to go. We love having donors join us in this endeavor. We can see a brighter future for our students with your help. Please make sure your friends know about the good works for a Ladder to the Future.
Winning an honorary award from the Covenant Foundation is no small accomplishment. In 2014, that was the experience of a LADDER TO THE FUTURE (sulam l’atid). This premier Jewish education foundation recognized that breaking the cycle of poverty through education is worth supporting. Hope you will do the same!
A Ladder to the Future (Sulam L’Atid) is not only about academics.
Our volunteer teachers have a commitment to their pupils that goes beyond grades. Last year when a wave of terror struck Jerusalem some of our teachers drove to their pupils’ homes to continue their tutorials in order to assure that the children wouldn’t have to get on buses again after school.
Often over and beyond the scope of their tutorials our tutors are in touch with their pupils’ mothers and have developed the sort of relationship that allows them to share the clothes that their own children have outgrown.
Then there was our field trip to the Israel Museum, which for some of our pupils was their first visit there. One of our teachers told us how her student was so enthralled to have visited the museum that at the end of our guided tour her student thanked her with a polite kiss.
When our volunteer English tutors from the States went home at the end of the school year there were many tearful farewells. We at A Ladder to the Future have our pupils’ academic success targeted, and are proud to be more than the facilitators of good grades.
What could be finer than the smile of a high school student, who after being accepted to the Sulam L’Atid Project, not only found that she was interested in her studies, but that she was good at them? The combination of her academic talents, our free tutorials and the vouchers to buy food and clothing, which we give to her economically struggling family in return for her cracking the books, resulted in her achieving a grade of 100% in mathematics during the last trimester.
Sulam L’Atid promises great results.
When a tutor is excited about the work of a student you know how much progress is being made.
Here is a comment made by one of our Sulam L’Atid tutors:
“My pupil came to her lesson, today. At one point we went out to the garden and slowly but surely she succeeded in writing an inspiring poem about the garden. I am so happy for her, because when we began our series of writing exercises I had told her that eventually she’d write a poem. (It’s a subject dear to my heart, because I write poems and have published a book of my
poetry.) My pupil replied that that would never happen. Today she was in awe of what
she had written. I intend to print her poem for her and have it pressed between sheets
of plastic so that I can give it to her as a sign of her success.”
More comments like this one will occur because of the wonderful individuals who are contributing to our organization. It should make you feel proud to be a part of this success story.
Perhaps you’d like to hear the story of one of our students that we’ve been helping:
Our pupil, O., came to Israel from Ethiopia as a young girl. A little while later her father went back to Ethiopia for good. A few years later her mother died. She and her sisters fought the system not to be split up. This year we’ll be tutoring O. for the fourth year, because she wants to be a doctor, and we’re determined to help her achieve her goal.
We need your help to get this done, because in return for O’s learning in our free tutorials we give her vouchers to buy food at the rate of $25 a lesson. It keeps her in school, out of the work market, and on track to becoming a doctor.
There are a few ways you can help: You can make a single donation or you and your friends can pull together as a group to support one child.
By reaching a goal of just $1000 we’ll be able to help O. for a whole year. Each contribution given to Sulam L’Atid goes in its entirety to the children we service who come from the periphery of Israel . We tutor our students, supervise our lessons, and manage our organization only through volunteers.”
And don’t forget to let all your friends in on this, too. Open hearts and hands can make a big difference.
With appreciation for all you do to improve our world,
Take a look at what the mother of one of our students said about the SulamL’Atid Project: “We’ll be happy for people to know and see the help, the support, the understanding and the love of all of you toward the students and their families, that you help and give and dedicate your spare time to us. Thanks to you, our children succeed in their studies, and this gives them confidence and motivation to continue and not to give up… and you make us happy, and you give us a good feeling that we are not alone and that there are good people like you who lend a hand and help us believe
and stand on our own two feet and not fall down… Thank you very, very much for the financial support that helps immensely in times of deprivation and hunger. There aren’t enough words to describe all the good that you do.
Remember to tell your friends about the goal of Sulam L’Atid and how you’ve tried to be a part of the solution.
Remember that every person you connect with is a potential donor to this very good cause.
Remember that by joining hands we can accomplish much!
We’ve received 14 wonderful donations. What do our donors have in common? They believe in helping young people face a more secure future. They understand the power of staying in school and focusing on one’s studies.
We have reached 15% of our goal and we still have 38 days to go! Help us spread the word. BE THE CHANGE. Tell your friends after making your own donation.