Yerucham
Yerucham is a small development town in the southern region of Israel with a great community feel. There are many community initiatives, and it is evident that the resident of Yerucham want the town grow and flourish. It has a town square, and it is the kind of place where the supermarket and restaurant workers will recognize everyone who comes in. The people are very friendly, and always willing to help, and in turn not bashful about asking for help from the Nativers. There are community events, where you will always see people you know from your volunteer work.
Each Nativer will have a host family, who will host you almost whenever you would like, whether during Shabbat or the week. Yerucham is small and quiet, and unlike anywhere else you will experience on Nativ, or have probably experienced at home; but it will be a unique, enlightening, and fun-filled four months.
Yerucham Volunteer Opportunities
Working in schools
A big part of the volunteering in Yeruham is spent improving the English language skills of the kids. Most of the group works in one of the schools at least part of the week, and they were very happy to have Nativers. In this job, you will work directly with kids, mostly helping them with their English lessons. On Nativ 30, Nativers worked at five different schools: a religious elementary school, the high school, the yeshiva high school, and the religious girls high school.
Magen David Adom
Because Yeruham is small, so too is the Magen David Adom staff, which meant that these volunteers got a lot of hands on experience during calls. An average MDA shift is from 7am – 3pm. On most shifts the Nativ volunteers will be alone with the driver, thus the Nativers play key roles in many cases. They also developed great relationships with the ambulance drivers and medics. The Nativers volunteering with MDA spend a week of their vacation taking in the 60 hour training course, which is held at the Fuchsberg Center and become certified volunteers for MDA.
Gan (Kindergarten)
Nativers can work at a few different gans, as teacher’s assistants. They help out in the classroom and play with the children. This is an especially fun age to work with, and the Nativers volunteering here often visited their gan classrooms on breaks from their other jobs. This also proved great for some Nativers with weaker Hebrew because talking to little kids is a great way to learn Hebrew. One of the gans is a Bedouin Gan, and the Nativers who have volunteered there have gotten to know a part of Israeli society that even most Israelis don’t get to experience!
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