There are 2.5 million students in Israel, 350,000 of whom do not own computers. How to enable young people to study while the pandemic is raging? The FSJU Israel is trying to answer this difficult equation …

March 2020: schools close. The education system is shifting into a new millennium. That of distance education. No one is
really ready or trained to face this revolution that is propelling the computer to the rank of master of ceremonies. Even less disadvantaged populations. In the outskirts, where it is already difficult to make ends meet, the purchase of a computer is always postponed until Greek calendars … The problem is that today if it does not there is no computer there is no school. General confinement, then regional, teaching in “capsules”, repeated absences of teaching staff affected by COVID, the school year will be done by Zoom. Except for the 350,000 children from disadvantaged homes. 
This is an unacceptable situation for the FSJU Israel, even though the government intends to fund 140,000 computers. “Following discussions with public authorities, grassroots associations, and a meeting with the parliamentary adviser to the chairman of the Knesset education committee (Plan Galant, Minister of Education), we understood that thousands children would not have access to knowledge and education during the pandemic, ”explains the director of the FSJU Israel association, Myriam Fedida. According to current data, the peripheral areas will be the most affected with a computer for 150 children, against the more central areas in which there is a computer for 4 children. With the support of donors, FSJU Israel has therefore initiated this emergency program so that in this period of the second wave of the Coronavirus and full containment, education and teaching are accessible to all young people. “Thanks to everyone’s mobilization, we hope to be able to acquire several thousand computers for the children of Sderot, Netivot and other disadvantaged regions of the country. Leaving the most vulnerable populations to fend for themselves could encourage hundreds of children to “drop out” from the education system, which we cannot accept. We must react urgently! “.