Western Galilee college launches women’s empowerment business program

A round up of local affairs.

By COMPILEDTAMARA ZIEVE
Netanya in Purim wonderland. (photo credit: CHEN LEOPOLD AND NURIT MOSES)
Netanya in Purim wonderland.
(photo credit: CHEN LEOPOLD AND NURIT MOSES)
NORTH
Ahead of International Women’s Day last Sunday, the Western Galilee Academic College launched a women’s empowerment program as part of a special track for business management students, designed for women managing small or medium-sized businesses in the North. The initiative is a joint venture of the Western Galilee Academic College, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Empowering Women and the Pratt Foundation.
Within the framework of the program, 24 business ventures (selected out of 68 candidates) will receive tools for finance, management, advertising, public relations, training and workshops to increase sales capacity, marketing and business development.
The course consists of weekly meetings throughout the year, supervised by unit director Ronit Moore. The students comprise a broad spectrum of ages, professions and sectors of employment.
All the students in the program will receive full scholarships thanks to the patronage of Cherie Blair, who also supports some of the college’s other projects for women’s empowerment.
Man shot outside his home in Nahariya
A man in his 60s was shot outside his home in Nahariya on Sunday morning. He was shot in the lower body and was taken to the hospital.
Police launched an investigation into the incident.
Dozens of dogs rescued from Hadera warehouse
Following a complaint received by the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry’s center about the presence of dozens of dogs in a closed warehouse in Hadera, which the owner reportedly visits every three days, a team of inspectors from the ministry’s Veterinary Service went to look at the warehouse. They found a sealed building with no windows or vents.
They couldn’t see the dogs from the outside but could smell a strong odor, as the warehouse had not been cleaned. All attempts to contact the owner of the warehouse or the owner of the dogs who rented the warehouse failed.
After making an appeal to the court, the ministry was granted permission to enter the place to save the dogs. In cooperation with the Let the Animals Live organization, the Hadera municipality’s veterinary authority and the Israel Police, the inspectors entered the warehouse and found 35 dogs in contaminated cages in a dark, dirty, foul-smelling unventilated building.
Most of the dogs were pregnant females and young mothers. All the dogs were filthy from accumulated urine and feces.
As the conditions violated the Animal Protection Law regulations, the dogs were taken for medical treatment and then to a rehabilitation facility.
When they have completed their rehabilitation, they will be offered for adoption by Let the Animals Live.
CENTER
Netanya celebrates Purim à la ‘Alice in Wonderland’
Tens of thousands of people, including street artists, actors, musicians, circus performers and acrobats, took part in Purim celebrations in Netanya last weekend to mark 150 years since the publication of Alice in Wonderland. Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg showed up in a Queen of Hearts costume. The event was held in Independence Square and on Herzl Street, and participants dressed up according to the theme, including characters such as the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter. The Marsh Dondurma musical group performed, as well as singers Rinat Gabay and Shiran Sendel.
Bat Yam school wins National Education Award
Bat Yam’s Yad Mordechai elementary school has won the national education prize for schools. The school competed against hundreds of other schools for the honor. Twelve schools made the short list. In January the jury visited the schools, and last week it pronounced Yad Mordechai the best school in Israel. The prize will be awarded in Jerusalem in June in the presence of the president and the education minister. The National Education Award is given every year by the Education Ministry to educational institutions in appreciation of their work while reviewing educational and social pedagogical achievements.
School principal Avivit Misterial said the news that her school had won the award was very moving.
“The award is the result of professionalism and collaboration of the entire school’s community,” she stated. “We are proud of this mark of honor, and we promise to continue climbing to the summit of education, focusing on personal education and striving for excellence in all areas.”
She thanked the local authority and the school’s supervisor for having faith in the school’s educational aspirations. Bat Yam Mayor Yossi Bachar said that the city puts education at the top of its priorities, adding that the proof is the increase in the number of matriculations; in the grades; in the certificates of excellence received by many of the city’s students and schools; and now in this prize.
Bereaved Palestinian and Israeli women call for peace on Women’s Day
Bereaved Palestinian and Israeli women gathered on Sunday, International Women’s Day, in support of a peaceful solution to the conflict, under the banner “Together in pain, together in hope.”
The Parents Circle Families Forum, which organized the event, stated, “We women who are never consulted on decisions to go to war, we who are never asked to the cease-fire table or indeed to the negotiations for peace, ask you to bear witness to a monument dedicated to the future victims of the conflict. We have built a room with multiple graces. Our lost loved ones are screaming, ‘We don’t want you here.’” The monument, which was unveiled at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, will be taken to various places in Israel in a plea for people to “give their mandate to life, to give their mandate to reconciliation, to give their mandate to rekindling the peace process, to give their mandate to stop the killing.”
The group stated their intentions to send a message, for all women who attend, to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, asking them to do everything in their power to create a better future for the region.
The Parents Circle Families Forum is a grassroots organization made up of more than 600 Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost an immediate family member to the conflict. Its goal is to create a framework for a reconciliation process to be an integral part of any future peace agreements.
SOUTH
Two boys arrested for vandalizing cars
Police arrested two 15-year-old boys over the weekend for damaging a number of vehicles in a parking lot in Eilat. The suspects were taken for questioning last Friday night, during which one of them admitted to the crime and said he wanted revenge because the owners of the vehicles had parked in his father’s parking spot. The two were released at the end of the interrogation and were put under house arrest for five days.
Beersheba gets new Marmalade park
A park called Marmalade was inaugurated in Beersheba’s Gimmel neighborhood last week. The park covers 4.5 hectares and cost NIS 11.5 million. It includes roller skating areas, a Frisbee area and walking, running and cycling tracks. In the center of the park is a seating area, as well as fitness facilities, a huge complex of swings and a natural swimming pool.
The park is located on Ben-Gurion Boulevard, next to the Beersheba North/University railway station, acting as a link between the university’s campus, the Soroka Medical Center, a residential neighborhood and an employment area. The municipality chose the name Marmalade because the park comprises a huge harmonious marmalade of colors, expanses and materials in its various trails and tracks that will attract people to the different areas. The park was built around pine groves and has created a new topography of grassy hills.