Abba Eban Institute to award Tikkun Olam Makers for repairing the world
The award, established by the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy at the IDC Herzliya, will be presented at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference on Thursday, November 21 in Jerusalem.
By ALAN ROSENBAUMTikkun Olam Makers(photo credit: Courtesy)
Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), one of the three winners of the 2019 InnoDip Award for innovative diplomacy, is a global movement of communities that creates and disseminates affordable solutions to neglected challenges of people living with disabilities, the elderly and the poor. The award, established by the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy at the IDC Herzliya, will be presented at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference on Thursday, November 21 in Jerusalem.CEO Edun Sela explains that “the idea of Tikun Olam – the Hebrew term for ‘repairing the world – is to create communities around the world that focus on big societal challenges in their community – specifically around what we call the neglected needs of people that are not addressed by the market or the government.” The elderly and the poor, he explains, frequently lack the resources or the influence to have products developed to meet their needs. Sela says that Tikun Olam Makers started from the idea that Israel, with its startup culture and mentality, can harness this type of technology and create a model that will be relevant for communities around the world. “Our signature event,” notes Sela, “is a ‘Make-a-thon’ event, which brings together the elderly, or people with disabilities or the elderly, together with makers – engineers, programmers, designers – who work together to create an open source public domain solution. The idea is to democratize the product development process, so that anyone around the world can have access to whatever is created in Tel Aviv, in Medellin, in Kazakhstan, or any other location.”Providing a concrete example of what TOM does, Sela mentions Inbal, a wounded Israeli army war veteran, who as a result of her injuries, was no longer able to use a regular surfboard. She met with engineers at a TOM Make-a-thon event, who created a specially modified surfboard that met her needs. Thrilled, Inbal was able to resume her surfing. Tikkun Olam created the completed specifications required for replicating the project, uploaded it to its website, and now anyone may download it and create their own. Sela cites an additional example of Noam, another IDF veteran with standard prosthetic arms, that requested an additional pair of 3-D printed, lightweight, prosthetic arms for use at home. The Tikkun Olam team successfully created them at an event held in Singapore in conjunction with the Israeli embassy. The 3-D arm design was subsequently used by others outside Israel, thus making an Israeli innovation available to anyone to download and create.The public committee chaired by Amb. Ron Prosor chose Tikkun Olam Makers as a winner for its “innovative vision on how society should look like. They hitched technology to the basic Jewish value of tikkun olam and show that Jewish moral is relevant than ever. TOM impressed the committee by its scale of impact on people with disability every-day’s life.”Gidi Grinstein, TOM founder, says, “Tikkun Olam was designed with the understanding that the stature of nations in the world in the 21st century will emanate from their contribution to humanity and from their authentic relations and experiences with local leaders around the world. We will bring the best of Israel in person to hundreds of communities around the world. With the goal of helping 250 million people, TOM will help make Israel the highest per capita contributor to humanity.”
