Dear friends,

Dr. Judith Antonelli has just returned from a long family trip to South America, and so I am filling in this month with the opening piece for our newsletter.

Our goal in the newsletters that we send is to bring you an updated picture of the activities in some of the programs that you fund in the Partnership region.

Despite the geographical distance between Afula-Gilboa and the SNEC communities, we try, by means, to paint a vivid picture of what is happening within the Partnership, as well as other events in the region.  Our steering committee, composed of 12 wonderful volunteers as well as municipality representatives, convenes regularly and is very active and involved in everything pertaining to the Partnership activities in the region.  Our educational programs - Yaniv and Non-Violent

Communication - are moving forward; the "Women for Women" Center has become well-known in the entire region, a success above and beyond our wildest expectations.  The new center, which opened with your support, serves all the women of the region who recognize it as a source for assistance in matters regarding women's status in society and the family.  In the center there is a group of

volunteers who were specially trained for their mission.  In addition to individual counseling, the center also offers series of workshops of women's empowerment.  The drug prevention program for youths has been able to reach the "hard core" of troubled teens on the edge of an abyss from which it is hard to return.  This program has helped and literally saved a number of youths.

In all these areas, as well as others addressed by your designated gifts, your support has affected a significant change in Afula-Gilboa.  For this we are all very grateful. 

In January we will hold a joint steering committee meeting in SNEC.  Dr. Antonelli, two volunteer members of the committee and I will travel to SNEC to visit the communities and participate in the joint steering committee.

I look forward to seeing you soon,Eshel Fram