Galila Foundation added a new colleague this year, Efrat Noy who together with her friends has founded the sustainable agricultural farm in kibbutz Hokuk in the north. A farm with organic produces that will be sold at prices that will able to keep the farm and the employees. The organic crops are seasonal which are harvested from the field each week, packaged in the local packaging factory in baskets and sold to the locals. Ostensibly the idea is beautiful, healthy and simple. The performance is more challenging, mainly because of the educational goal of the farm which is to employ teenagers at the ages of 15-18 who have dropped out from other educational framework and found a home on the farm which can receive them. The boys and girls who work on the farm, meet the definition of youth at risk and the hard-agricultural work is a way to start a normative life for them. The farm managers are therapists and the goal is to enable this youth to work on the farm in which they will be able to find their way to a normative life, will not fall out of the educational framework and eventually enlist in the army. The work itself is hard work in agriculture, every day in all weather conditions.
As part of Beren Fellows program we worked with Efrat on the business plan of the farm and there is no doubt that to be successful and put the farm on the northern map, they need at this stage philanthropic aid, but they are definitely on the right track. After seeing the enthusiasm, passion and determination are the instructors and the boys and girls in the program, we chose to join them to the Beren Fellows program and support activities and educational pioneering.