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'The project is a part of who I am and what I've achieved'

From the moving speech Neomi Meshasha gave to the ‘Broadway Hits’ audience in Herzliya

My name is Neomi.

I am an attorney at the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office and studying for my Masters Degree at Bar Ilan University.

My parents made aliyah to Israel through Sudan in 1984 with my four siblings. I am the youngest and the only one to be born in Israel and raised in Nazareth Elite. My parents arrived in Israel at a relatively older age, not knowing the Israeli mentality and culture. However, they knew how to motivate and push their children to reach high achievements and education. Thanks to them, all my siblings have academic degrees.

I came to the ESRA Students Build a Neighborhood Project in Hefzibah at the beginning of my first degree at the age of 22, when I was a young and shy girl, finding independence for the first time. In the framework of this project, I have been living in Hefzibah for the past six years. I am part of an elite student cadre where every student brings his own life story, mission and willingness to help empower the community. Very quickly, I understood the meaning of the project in the neighborhood and the importance of our physical presence there.

My pupils, their families and the whole neighborhood have all been involved in every step of my journey.

Today, at the age of 27, I can say with confidence that I have blossomed and matured within the project and the project is a part of who I am and what I have achieved. It has left its mark on my life. The fact that I am part of a community, a neighborhood and a group of students, has helped me in the development of my personality and my sense of community involvement, which has become an integral part of what I am today.

People always talk about the benefit for the pupils, their improvement in school grades and the benefit to the community. However, I have not only been a donor in this project, but have myself been helped, too, in becoming a positive role-model to this community.

Thank you for your generosity towards this community project and towards myself. Thanks to this project, we are able to give hope to the people of this neighborhood, we give the children a chance to dream and aspire to reach for the heights, and we show them that everything is possible – if they only will it!

Neomi Meshasha 

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Friday, 29 March 2024

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