“In 2016 I had the privilege and honor of attending the MASHAV/UNESCO co-sponsored course on ‘Youth-at-Risk: Preventing Student Dropouts and Facilitating Reintegration’. To say that this experience was amazing is an understatement. It literally transformed my life both personally and professionally.” – Lusanda Magwape, MASHAV Fellowship 2016 Participant.
Lusanda Magwape spent a month in Israel, where she took part in a MASHAV course in the field of education. MASHAV is an official Israeli program that is committed to improving the lives and living conditions of communities throughout the developing world. While completing her course Magwape was also hosted on a kibbutz, giving her even deeper insight into Jewish culture.
“I looked forward to Friday and Saturday nights as the dining hall was transformed into an eclectic display of salads, meats, desserts and of course wine; with families from the kibbutz community dancing and singing as they celebrated Shabbat,” she explains.
The “Youth-at-Risk: Preventing Student Dropouts and Facilitating Reintegration” course that Magwape completed balanced theory, professional visits and practical assignments. One such group assignment involved writing a proposal to establish a youth café that would empower young people with different vocational skills. The course participants had to incorporate into the proposal, the entrepreneurship and IT skills that they had learned at Machshava Tova, a non-profit training center.
Access, training and empowerment
The visit to Machshava Tova was a memorable one for Magwape. The organization provides technological access and training to underprivileged populations through their computer centers, which are spread throughout Israel. This particular center teaches its youth beneficiaries how to fix computers that are received as donations and also empowers them when they donate these fixed computers back to their communities.
“This ‘pay-it-forward’ element is a value that we strongly believe in and encourage within our organization. It is within this inspirational context that through my organization, Dream Factory Foundation, we started the process to start our own Emergent Business and Coding Academy upon my return from Israel,” says Magwape. “For me, this was not just an assignment but a personal mandate which I am proud to have realized.”
Magwape’s Emergent Business and Coding Academy is a six-month skills development learnership that empowers unemployed youth (over 90% are of “black” ethnicity and over 70% of whom are women) with computer science, business and job-readiness skills. The academy’s business course offers modules in marketing, innovation, business planning, costing, and communication, to name but a few, as well as offering participants first-hand job experience by posting them as part-time facilitators in schools. In two years the academy has provided over 450 youth and women with coding skills; 85% of participants received post-academy opportunities (i.e. further tertiary, self-employment); 35 internship jobs were created for unemployed youth; and the initiative was awarded the Google Rise Award in 2017.
Collaboration between Eswatini and Israel
“It was an informative training session that was relevant to our farming systems and the facilitators were willing to share their experiences with the team. They did an exceptionally good job.” – Training report feedback from Irrigation Technologies and Planning MASHAV course.
The Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (ESWADE) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) technical team took part in an eight-day “Irrigation Technologies and Planning” course in November 2018. The course was held at the ESWADE main office and was conducted by an Israeli delegation from MASHAV.
ESWADE had been tasked by the Government of Eswatini to implement irrigation infrastructure for small-holder farms and so the main purpose of the training was to equip the technical team with essential design procedure and methodology skills.
The course was more a bilateral discussion between the professional trainers from Israel and the Eswatini technical team, which was more effective in knowledge dissemination. It involved both practical boardroom lectures and professional field tours, aiming to practically view what had been discussed during the lecture sessions.
The facilitators’ material was “interesting” and “highly relevant”, visual illustrations made content “easily understandable” and the discussions were “truly inspiring”, while the participants also “gained vast knowledge” on the field tours. Future collaboration between the Government of Eswatini and Israel was recommended in the report, as Israel was recognized as providing value in terms of their advanced irrigation technology.
Want to know more about MASHAV?
MASHAV courses take place in Israel and abroad, where the participants who travel to Israel can spend between three weeks and five months in the country. Each year 30 – 40 courses are offered, in five languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Russian. The courses are based on the needs of partner countries and are offered in the fields in which Israel has a comparative advantage and accumulated expertise.
The courses are designed to present each participant with concepts and ideas, which they then use to find solutions to the unique development issues facing their own country. In addition, participants are encouraged and expected to share their new skills by training others. Over the past 60 years, close to 270 000 participants from approximately 132 countries have attended MASHAV courses.
Interested persons, both government and non-government organizations, and the private sector in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Madagascar and Mauritius need to apply through the Embassy of Israel in Pretoria. Please call 012 470 3504 or visit www.embassies.gov.il/pretoria