On Friday, May 5th we had the pleasure to host a delegation of Mexican members of Keren Hayesod at the Eshkol Regional Council. An integral part of the State of Israel's 60th anniversary festivals, this event was leaded by Daniel Liberant, a truthful friend of the Eshkol area.

The Mexican delegation was hosted by the Head of the Regional Council and by a group of people from the region, including: Chava Milah - P2K Chairperson, Moshe Morag -former Director of the Education Department, Ravit Ochayon-Michal - Partnerships Director Eshkol-Mexico-North Eastern New York, Tal Klamer - Living Bridge Coordinator and Uri Berva and Dario Taitelbaum from Gvulot, who promote and take part of the joint activities with the community of Mexico.

This delegation, brought to Israel within the frame of the "March of the Living" program right after its visit at the concentration camps in Poland, came to Hevel Eshkol as the Regional Council's guests. This idea started to develop during Dario Taitelbaum's visit in Mexico and was realized thanks to Daniel's leadership. He managed to gather an excellent and varied group of people including Managers of United Jewish Appeal, donors, Managers of the Jewish National Fund and public opinion influencing people from the partner community, which numbers about 40,000 Jews.
 
After gathering and having lunch at the "Zula" restaurant in Kibbutz Be'eri, the delegation members visited the Kibbutz's kindergartens, so that they could see how the protected education facilities look like and how the various protection methods work (protection cupolas, protected structures and cabins). Following that, Chayim Yalin made a presentation called "Eshkol - Reality and Challenges" by which he explained the visitors about the program for the construction of a protected educational campus and additional projects in the social-educational field.

Chayim invited the friends from Mexico to become "partners in a special national program which purpose is to strengthen the community resilience within the Regional Council's communities".

After a tour in the fields that meet the limit with the Gaza Strip guided by Chayim Yalin (in which the visitors were escorted by security officers and wore flak jackets for the first time) the delegation members met Vered Tal, principal of the unified and protected school to be built according to the security needs of our area.

Vered explained the educational rationale behind the establishment of a unified and special high-school in the region, which purpose is to meet the needs and wishes of a wide range population of pupils and parents. Moshe Morag, former Director of the Education Department in Eshkol, stressed the importance of the integration of informal education (workshops, youth movements, sports) within the frame of the educational campus as part of a holistic educational concept grounded on a high quality value-based education for the youth of the area.

In his concluding remarks Chayim Yalin thanked the visitors and said "we see ourselves as partners to the Mexican Jewish community, and have the historic opportunity to instill this partnership with dimensions never seen till now".

On behalf of the delegation members, Dany Liberant said that "it is them who are grateful for the invitation, the hospitality and the opportunity of getting a close glimpse of a reality about which we normally read in newspapers". Dany also said that the based on the joint history of work and activities with the region, they will positively consider the Regional Council's proposal of becoming partners in the Joint Campus project.