Asia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China  India  Sri Lanka

China

ORT is forging stronger links with China and has signed a cooperation agreement with Nanjing Trianjiabing High School in a move that will strengthen its international trade curriculum.  The agreement paves the way for student exchanges between the ORT Strasbourg in France and the Chinese high school starting in 2007.  It will also help Chinese teachers improve their French and English with protracted stays at ORT Strasbourg, during which time they will assist ORT staff who teach Mandarin to post-high school students of International Trade.

India

ORT India serves over 3,500 Jews in Bombay and its outlying areas. The program serves as a vehicle for the Jewish community to demonstrate its commitment to social justice and economic development in the spirit of tzedakah. Students in the Jewish education classes claim to be descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and learn Hebrew and Judaism as preparation for formal rabbinical conversion.

ORT India provides training courses in Jewish education, computer literacy, graphic design, electronics and mechanics and office software, as well as Jewish education, hairdressing and early childhood education. Housed in the Jewish Community Center, ORT India operates the only kosher bakery in the country, providing kosher bread and confectionery for the local community. ORT India Pre-Primary School provides a popular and sought-after service, while also training students in child care.

An Information Technology course, recognized by the Government of Maharashtra includes courses on nutrition and food technology. The IATA (the International Air Transport Association) training course provides vocational training for those wishing to work within India’s tourist industry. The course includes the use of computer reservation systems and graduates receive IATA-UFTAA diplomas.  ORT India also operates a summer camp.

ORT India has played a vital role in providing vocational training to students from Mizoram and Manipur for 25 years. Since 1980, young students from these remote, hilly provinces have been brought to the ORT India School and Vocational Training Centre in Mumbai to learn trades as well as enhance their Jewish knowledge.  ORT India set up a computer center in Manipur.

ORT India also collaborates with the taglit-Birthright program to send young Jews who have not been to Israel on free, 10-day trips to the Jewish State. Last year, 40 ORT India 18-26 year-old students from across India completed the country’s first ever Taglit-birthright program of Israel.

While ORT has been working for 25 years to reconnect India’s Bnei Menashe to Judaism, the effort was revitalized after Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, formally recognized them as “descendants of Israel” in 2005. The Bnei Menashe are an 8,000-strong community from Mizoram and Manipur in north-east India that claims descent from the lost Biblical tribe of Menashe, one of the 10 tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrians some 2,700 years ago. The ORT-Manipur Computer Centre trains students in the use of computers.  Its hairdressing and beautician courses have a one hundred percent success rate in enabling successful graduates to find work. Having a computer center in their midst helps them acclimate to a Western lifestyle and attain urbanized skills so they can better fit in with Israeli society if they make aliyah. With ORT’s help, scores of Bnei Menashe made aliyah last month.

ORT India also collaborates with the Taglit-Birthright program to send young Jews who have not been to Israel on free 10-day trips to Israel. Already, ORT India has administered the selection and preparation of two groups this year and it is in the middle of organizing a third group. Twenty people have been selected from nearly 60 applicants to join the group, which left for Israel on January 1.

Tsunami Recovery

After the 2004 tsunami that devastated mush of southeast Asia, ORT implemented post tsunami training and trauma counseling to areas of India and Sri Lanka as part of the recovery effort.

ORT experts identified local initiatives and partners in order to contribute to the long-term recovery process. With funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Coalition for Asia Tsunami Relief, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, ORT provides the Education for India’s Islanders project in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands as well as a Vocational Training project.

Many of the schools were completely destroyed and authorization was received from the government of India to rebuild the schools. ORT is supporting various schools including: the Chouldari School, CFO Nallah School and the Chainpur School on Middle Andaman Island and the Bloomsdale School on South Andaman Island.  The schools have reopened and many were completely rebuilt. As a result, new courses of study were introduced to help the local population gain new job skills and help rebuild the local economy - computer education, school administration software, accreditation program, management training, aptitude assessment and evaluation, teachers training program, morals and values education, child youth and development (including yoga), disaster management, extracurricular activities, social service awareness and student, teacher and staff awards.

Sri Lanka

Tsunami Relief - On December 26th, 2004, 898 members of the Women’s Development Federation lost their lives due to the tsunami. ORT implemented post tsunami training and trauma counseling to areas of India and Sri Lanka as part of the recovery effort. The ORT sponsored training consists of income generation skills including:  hand embroidery, sewing, cooking, and cosmetology. 

As a result, more than 300 children received trauma counseling, displaced children and orphans received counseling and more than 400 women have received vocational training to help them provide for their families.  Many of the women are now the sole source of income for their families.

ORT experts identified local initiatives and partners in order to contribute to the long-term recovery process. With funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Coalition for Asia Tsunami Relief, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, ORT provides the Education for India’s Islanders project in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands as well as a Vocational Training project.

In Sri Lanka, ORT worked with Shilpa’s Children Trust and Women’s Development Federation, to provide technical assistance and training programs that will help the tsunami survivors rebuild and begin to return to normalcy. The partnerships are based on results-oriented initiatives focused on: vocational training and livelihood recovery and trauma counseling for displaced children and orphans support. 

These partnerships also resulted in a project called the Improve Agriculture and Livelihoods Project which ensures that the parents/guardians of tsunami affected children in Shilpa’s sponsorship program in four villages of the Hambantota district (Panwewa, Udanawewa, Gonnoruwa and Hendilla) are able to financially support their families once the relief program is discontinued.

The project involves creation and installation of irrigation and sprinkler systems to improve production of cash crops like cashews, fruits and vegetables. Other benefits include access to clean drinking water, improved local facilities and improved road access which results in more opportunities for reaching lucrative cash markets. A total of 186 families (approximately 750 individuals) benefit from the Improved Agriculture and Livelihoods Project.