Founded 60 years ago by the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America), Kfar Silver was built near the southern town of Ashkelon to serve as an educational and agricultural home for the many children who arrived before and during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Today, Kfar Silver is a rural boarding school serving 610 students aged 12-18, of whom 220 are residents. Day students and residents study together, jointly participating in school and student village activities.
Most of the boarding school students at Kfar Silver show incredible bravery, persevering and thriving through seemingly insurmountable challenges. Some 100 residents are teenagers from the former Soviet Union who have decided at the age of 14 to make Israel their home, leaving their parents behind. The majority of the remaining 120 residents are youth-at-risk from all over Israel who have enrolled at Kfar Silver after struggling with the educational system in their local community, which didn’t allow them to flourish or succeed. Some of these children have been referred to Kfar Silver by the Ministry of Social Services. Relocating to the village gives them the chance to escape dysfunctional family backgrounds and benefit from the wide range of educational and extra-curricular opportunities available on campus.
Both gifted students and students struggling with learning difficulties have a variety of needs, which are met through a host of programs offered by Kfar Silver, with the help of World ORT in order to ensure that each student at the village reaches his/her potential. Close to 400 students arrive every morning from the surrounding area to study at Kfar Silver’s elementary, junior and senior high schools as day students. These day students are often from more stable home lives, but are also typically from a low socio-economic background or from immigrant families with less support than their more affluent peers. Many of these students are high-achievers who need extra support, which is provided at Kfar Silver through World ORT’s supplementary programming.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Your Support will enable World ORT to provide the following services :
Supporting an Inviting and effective Learning Environment: Improving Physical Infrastructure
World ORT proposes to embark on major improvement projects throughout the campus. These capital campaigns include improving general infrastructure such as: pipelines, electricity, lampposts, roads, pathways and public spaces, as well as renovating the kitchen and dining hall, junior and senior high schools, boarding school buildings, agricultural farm, staff residences and the science center.
Supporting Disadvantaged Students: Providing Basic Needs
Vouchers will be handed out to the neediest students to ensure that they are set up for maximum achievement.
Supporting Educational Challenges: Fulfilling Students’ Potential
World ORT has devised several programs and provided funding to enable additional study hours, to promote educational support for Kfar Silver students showing promise and for weak students who are encouraged to make the effort to improve.
Regional Physics Research Center
World ORT proposes to establish a regional physics research center in the Science Building of Kfar Silver’s High School, working in conjunction with the main physics research center at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
PROGRAM SUPPORT
World ORT has secured a pledge of $5 million from the Gerald Ronson Family Foundation, conditional on raising matching funds towards the renovation of the youth village, including the implementation of pedagogical programs.
We are seeking matching funds, with naming opportunities, in order to ensure that a generation of in-need children receive an essential academic and social education, to help them aspire to future success for them, their community and Israel.
Due diligence has been carried out and work begun on the first phase of development, to renovate the youth village and strengthen infrastructure, ahead of future expansion.
Further finding is required with naming opportunities available, in order to complete the renovation of Kfar Silver and to provide a high quality education, in a safe, modern environment, for its students.