Irit Tuizer: Student Leader Contributes to Ofakim's Future (photo by Douglas Guthrie).

Ofakim Hadashim literally meaning new horizons is one of the initiatives in Partnership 2000's Young Leadership program in the Negev development town of Ofakim and the neighboring Merhavim region, twinned with US communities in Bergen Country and Metro-West New Jersey.

"Ofakim Hadashim is about a commitment to the future of our town," Irit Tuizer, 25, a fifth year medical student at Ben Gurion University, who initiated the Ofakim Hadashim program. "Most young students go away to university and never come back. So Ofakim is caught in a vicious circle whereby the town loses its best people, making it less attractive for future generations of students to come back to. We seek to break this cycle."

Tuizer explained that Ofakim Hadashim brings together 30 teenagers each week at a local community center. "We undertake two types of activities," she said. "Activities to enhance Ofakim like painting kindergartens and public buildings and activities which are fun like trips to theater and parties."

Within the framework of the Young Leadership Program, now entering its second year, 22 participating students are awarded scholarships in return for investing six hours a week in a project that benefits the community.

"In effect the students put much more than six hours a week into their projects," observed Ravit Buhadana, coordinator of the Young Leadership Program in Ofakim. "The students are expected to initiate and propose a project and then find funding for it. After all that they must implement the project."

Ravit Bahadana: Committed to Ofakim (photo by Douglas Guthrie).

Buhadana noted that other obstacles have to be confronted too. One pair of students decided to conduct a market survey of the quality of service that the various health funds (Kupot Holim) had to offer. The one small problem was that the various health funds refused to cooperate.

"But the students stuck to their guns," recalled Bahadana, "and eventually persuaded Kupat Holim Leumit, one of the largest funds in the region, to let them conduct a survey."

The survey was so successful that Kupat Holim Leumit asked permission to use the survey questionnaire (compiled in both Hebrew and Russian for new immigrants) for use throughout their southern region.

Bahadana herself, 25, an MA student in Management and Public Policy at Ben Gurion University, was born in Ofakim of Moroccan immigrant parents, and is fiercely committed to the town. "It may not seem very special to outsiders," she said, "but its home and I love it."

Bahadana was one of four Ofakim/Merhavia students who traveled to Bergen County/Metro West last March to be guests in the Jewish community there before attending the Young Leadership Conference in Washington DC.

"I was very impressed by the Jewish community in New Jersey," explained Bahadana. "They were so tightly knit, well organized and supportive of each other. And the spirit of volunteerism was incredible."