Cherish Our Children International believes in providing children with a solid foundation for healthy physical, intellectual and emotional development. We value enriching experiences that teach critical life skills and lead to independence. We value young people as leaders and are committed that they have real opportunities to contribute in the world. We believe in children helping children and we honor adults who embrace and empower young people to reach beyond their current experience and realize their dreams. When COCI started work in Israel with children from divergent ethnic and religious backgrounds, we saw enormous potential for children to pave the way to peace. In partnering with the Hapoel “Keter” organization, COCI found an extraordinary forum for young people to learn trust, leadership, teamwork and confidence. We believe these programs provide a bridge to peace and we are honored to support the children and their families who are making it happen.
Hapoel “Keter” Tel Aviv - Education and Social Project
View the Bridge to Peace video.
Cherish Our Children International supports the Bridge to Peace program of the Education and Social Project, Hapoel ‘Keter’ Tel Aviv, in large part through generous contributions from The Bridgeway Foundation.
The Education and Social Project of Hapoel “Keter” Tel Aviv gives 23,000 disadvantaged children and youth all over Israel the opportunity to realize their full potential. The opportunity to play soccer, be coached, wear the premier league soccer team's uniform, participate in tournaments, and be invited to home games of Hapoel "Keter" Tel Aviv's team motivates children and youth to participate. The programs provide tutoring and educational enrichment activities, directly linked to soccer training and practice of the highest quality. They motivate children to succeed in school and integrate sports into their daily lives. They give these children a sense that they belong to something very big, very successful, and very Israeli, that they themselves can be winners, and have a stake in the future.
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Cherish Our Children has supported this program in recent years, with a specific focus on creating and empowering “mixed teams” where children from a broad diversity of backgrounds play together, including Jewish, Arab, Bedouin, Druze and Ethiopian children and youth. These children who are attached to a long history of violent conflict play together on the same team. Their families cheer together on the same bleachers, they wear the same team colors and learn to trust each other and play together, literally towards a common goal.
The overall project team includes hundreds of tutors, educational counselors, soccer coaches and volunteers. Most of the tutors, counselors, and coaches are university and college students who receive a tuition scholarship from Hapoel Tel Aviv. These students are from the same communities in which the program takes place, making them accessible role models for the children and adding another component in the contribution of the program to local community development. Players from the senior professional club also take part, using their stature as role models to convey positive values.
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The project involves children of long-time Israeli families as well as new immigrants; children at risk in sheltered boarding schools; children of Ethiopian immigrant families; youth in prison, and children with special needs…all of whom at long last can don a uniform, have a coach, and proudly take the field like other kids!
Together with Tel Aviv University we offer certificate courses to train youth as assistant counselors and coaches. Ceremonies recognizing excellence in educational achievement are held on-field preceding home games of the premier league team. We offer educational enrichment activities in fields as diverse as classical music and computer literacy.
The programs have been effective in reversing delinquent behavior and improving scholastic achievement. School principals and teachers, parents and local community leaders tell us that the program has made a real difference in individual lives, in the schools, and in the broader community. There is consistent evidence of dramatic impact on attitude, behavior, and educational achievement.
The potential reaches far beyond what has already been accomplished, potential to expand the program and deepen its educational and social impact, potential to develop and to heal and to be a bridge to peace.
