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Tzfat

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In spite of Tzfat’s reputation as a spiritual center, a growing number of the city’s 30,000 residents live in devastating poverty. This “capital of the Galil” is a city plagued by unemployment, and much of Tzfat’s population live on a subsistence level in public housing. Recent immigrants from the FSU, who comprise nearly 20% of the city’s population, in addition to the significant ultra-orthodox community, are especially prone to abject poverty.

 

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The Tzfat Citizen Rights Center

In the midst of this alarming situation, YEDID’s Tzfat Citizen Rights Center provides low-income citizens with empowerment and practical tools to break the cycle of poverty. This center started as a small satellite office, but it has expanded to become an integral part of the fabric of the city of Tzfat. With the generous contributions of many volunteers, under the supervision of Director Sharlie Shriki, Center is able to assist over 80 clients each month. The demographic makeup of the clientele (see pie chart) reflects the young nature of the city of Tzfat (43% of the city's population are aged under 19).

 

Recent Activities

In 2010, the Center in Tzfat assisted in 1,149 new client cases, the majority concerning debt management.  Moreover, the Tzfat Center runs several community educational initiatives.  MILIM is an extra-curricular program that provides kindergarten Ethiopian-Israeli children with a jump-start before entering first grade, thus increasing their chances of future academic success.  The Center ran groups in two local absorption centers in the 2010/11 school year. This is the fourth year running that the program has taken place in Tzfat (with funding from the UJIA).  The Center has also implemented other empowerment programming for the Ethiopian community, including parent's empowerment groups and men's empowerment groups.

 

The Tzfat Center is currently running two Let's Get to Work! employment readiness courses for chronically unemployed women currently subsisting on welfare benefits. The courses are being run in partnership with the local National Insurance Institute.  The Center also ran two groups of Youth Financial Literacy Training for high school students. 

 

 

The Tzfat Center is generously supported by

The Pears Foundation 

 

 

30 Nov 2011
MILIM Pre-school for Ethiopian children in Tzfat a success!
31 Ethiopian immigrant children started grade one with confidence this year, thanks to YEDID´s MILIM program.

2011

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