LIFE inspires and enables a lifetime of vision-driven leadership, as a professional in Jewish or not-for-profit settings, lay leader, activist, academic, journalist, politician, corporate responsibility leader, social entrepreneur, artist, policy expert and more.

Naomi Siegel at the closing ceremony for LIFE, 2008-9:

Dan completed his army service and has been involved in social issues, including a short stint volunteering in Kenya. Dan is considering studying Medicine and is interested in how he can serve humanitarian causes though being a Doctor.

India: Because the Byrraju Foundation has partnerships with 220 agencies such as Government, Corporations, NGO, and Universities, managing Alliances and Partnerships (A & P) is considered of strategic importance.

Dan developed a Manual through which department heads can better manage the many inter-organizational relationships and collaborative programs in their departments. He researched world best practices and interviewed the Indian organization’s department heads before he prepared professional tools and methods by which to measure the maturity and mutual benefit of Alliances. Dan led this project and assisted Deb on the water project.

Israel: Dan interned with Brit Olam (www.britolam.org) and contributing to the work of Natan, a coalition for humanitarian aid that Brit Olam helped found (named after Abe Natan, a famous Israeli humanitarian and peace activist). Dan created the foundation for the medical unit of Natan whose members will be ready at a moment’s notice to go to trouble spots in the world to offer medical humanitarian assistance. Based on data bases and agreements with Hospitals, Dan has started recruiting Doctors to this volunteer unit and planning the initial training they will receive. He started to create the protocols for how such an operation will function in real-time.

Deborah (Deb) Frais, 29, London, UK

Deb has worked for six years in Human Resource management for in international aid organization in London. Deb is moving into the environmental sector.

India: As India moves along the continuum of industrial and urban development, the possible replication of western patterns of energy production and use constitutes an environmental danger. With a population of 1.3 billion people, this would exacerbate current negative environmental trends with disastrous consequences.

Deborah’s project was to create a conceptual and research framework of energy uses and sources in a typical Indian village. Deb completely mapped and created a measurement framework for this process and also surveyed potential technologies and sources of sustainable energy that could be used as energy use grows in Indian villages. Deb led this project and worked with Dan on the partnership project.

Israel: Deborah interned with Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI, www.spni.org.il). In the Jerusalem area, there are reportedly over 10,000 underground water cisterns that have, over the years, stopped being used. Deborah’s project was to collect data on these cisterns and to develop a comprehensive picture of what the costs and benefits might be of rehabilitating and reactivating these potential water management resources. Covering the water-savings, economic and community-building and educational impact as well as potential impediments to implementing her report, Deb reported her findings to the SPNI Board of Management and the Jerusalem City Environment Forum chaired by the Deputy Mayor.

Josh Zuckerman, 23, Michigan, USA

Josh completed his BA in political science and has set out to gain experience in different fields before going on to his MA. His passion is development and advancing a sustainable world through better public programs and policies.

India: Byrajju supplies clean drinking water to over three million people. While the water quality has attracted international acclaim, the harder challenge is to encourage higher percentages of villagers to use it (currently between 40-90% usage). Increased clean water use decreases child mortality, increases longevity and raises health levels and (therefore) material standard of living. While there are myriad theories why more people don’t use it, little hard data exists as the basis for program improvement.

Josh’s project was to create a research plan that future interns can carry out. The recommendations included mapping existing practices of water distribution, looking at best practices internationally, field research and potentially implementing experimental pilot changes to gauge their impact.          

Israel: Under Nir Barkat, the new Mayor of Jerusalem and Naomi Tsur, the new Deputy Mayor for Planning and the Environment, the Jerusalem Municipality has moved quickly into developing policies to make Jerusalem a sustainable city. This is a high priority area.

Josh’s project is to create a policy handbook as the basis for policy decisions to be made by the City. He has based this on the work of cites around the world which have recognized excellence in the way they advance sustainable practices and policies in their city. Josh delivered his report to the Jerusalem Environment Forum and will be used in an International Mayoral Conference on Sustainability being hosted in Jerusalem by Mr. Barkat in October, 2009.

Michal Yaffe, 26, Tel Aviv, Israel

Michal has her degree in art and education and she has experience as a teacher. Her art has been exhibited in Tel Aviv galleries. She seeks to engage in social issues through art.

India: Choosing to Intern in the Department of Education, Michal and Naomi were asked to make field observations and visited some schools. They shared their observations that the education they saw was very frontal and held few opportunities for students to express themselves. They were invited to develop a project to advance the use of Arts to enable creativity and expression in the Foundation’s schools.

Michal and Naomi created two projects based on integrating arts and engaged learning into the classrooms.  First they created teaching tools using visual arts, drama, music, etc and carried out a teacher training which 8 local teachers attended.  The second project was an art curriculum using locally available materials at low to no cost, with a focus on recycled and environmental art. The Foundation intends to implement this project in the coming school year in the rural villages they work in.        

Israel: Michal interned with the Social Gallery in Musrara (here, Hebrew) where she assisted to bring to fruition the yearly social art festival. This was a hands-on role which gave Michal experience in the operational side of a large-scale arts event focused on social issues and social change.

Michal also focused on completing several film projects which for she created most of the footage earlier in the year. LIFE connected her to an Israeli TV station that may highlight the experience in India on their premier world current affairs program. She is also working on smaller web-based projects and a longer, documentary-style film about Arab building workers in Jerusalem.

Naomi Siegel, 25, Michigan, USA

Naomi completed her BA in Philosophy and is qualified to practice and teach Reiki (energy healing). With wide-ranging interests, she is particularly committed to advancing wellness through alternative health.

India: Choosing to Intern in the Department of Education, Naomi and Michal were asked to make field observations and visited some schools. They shared their observations that the education they saw was very frontal and held few opportunities for students to express themselves. They were invited to develop a project to advance the use of Arts to enable creativity and expression in the Foundation’s schools.

Naomi and Michal created two projects based on integrating arts and engaged learning into the classrooms.  First they created teaching tools using visual arts, drama, music, etc and carried out a teacher training which 8 local teachers attended.  The second project was an art curriculum using locally available materials at low to no cost, with a focus on recycled and environmental art. The Foundation intends to implement this project in the coming school year in the rural villages they work in.        

Israel: Naomi treated people affected by terror/trauma with Reiki at The One Family Fund and documented the motivations and attitudes of those coming to her as a contribution to understanding the status of Reiki in Israel and how people in the community view it. Naomi also created a network of English-speaking practitioners in alternative medicine and linked them to each other and The One Family Fund through the internet.  Naomi organized 17 practitioners of massage, reflexology, and energy healing to provide volunteer treatments at a large event hosted by The One Family Fund.

Shachar Reem, 26, Kiryat Ata, Israel

Shachar completed her BA in social anthropology in France and plans further study. One of her passions is to help groups in distress or conflict through the insights of anthropology, including in international settings.

India: Involving communities in their own destiny is one of the most important factors for sustainable development of rural communities. To make this happen in the 200 villages Byrraju works with, it is important to combine villagers, planners, policy makers, government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) in decision making about programs at the village level.

Shachar located organizations in India and internationally with the most successful practices of community involvement in sustainable rural transformation. She provided tools for Byrraju professionals to be able to translate this knowledge into even better professional practices.    

Israel: Shachar’s internship was with Shatil (www.shatil.org.il) where she did research work as part of a broad team working on a three-year, European Union funded project on improving Israeli women’s status in the workplace. As Shatil is Israel’s premier capacity building organization, working there affords Shachar an opportunity to understand the field of social change from a unique perspective.

Shachar also began developing a project with a Minister from the Congo interested to partner with B’Tzedek to advance leadership development work.