This year has been a year of "firsts" for our Partnership in student delegations: the first year that three student delegations came to the region for visits of several days, the first ever visit from a Sydney student delegation, and the first year that two student delegations from different cities visited at the same time and participated in joint activities.

In the beginning of December the student delegation from Sydney, a group of 12 students from various schools on a six-week program to the Alexander Muss Institute for Israel Education, spent five days in the Arava, at the same time as a nine-student delegation from the King David School in Melbourne.

King David delegation at the Peace Observation Point

Students from both delegations took part in activities together, and with their Arava peers, including getting to know the region, a workshop on Jewish identity, and a torch race and Hannukah party at the local school on their last afternoon in the Arava. Feedback from both delegations has been extremely positive, with some of the local students even visiting the Sydney students at the Muss Institute in Hod Hasharon after the delegations left the Arava.

Sydney students with a baby crocodile at the Arava Crocodile Farm

King David students in an Arava greenhouse

At the end of December the traditional delegation from Bialik College in Melbourne arrived in the Arava for an eight-day visit. Reciprocal visits between Bialik College and the Shittim School in the Arava have been taking place almost since the inception of the Partnership, and this delegation has been as successful as always. Five students and a madrich criss-crossed the Arava, visiting all of the places of interest, making presentations at the school, hiking and participating in field activities and more, creating another link in the enduring bridge between us.

Hopes have already been expressed to coordinate next year's Bialik delegation to fall at the same time as the other delegations. We hope that this year's successful integration will be the beginning of a new and fruitful Arava-Australia Partnership tradition.

Bialik College delegation at the Peace Observation Point

Bialik students hike the "moonscape" near the Observation Point