Dear Friend of Athena,

The current school year is coming to a close. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need to provide school and kindergarten teachers with a personal laptop computer and training in order to continue teaching and keeping in touch with their students. Even now, when we are returning back to normal, many municipalities continue providing their pedagogical teams with vital digital learning tools with the help of Athena Fund and our partners – the Israel Teachers Union, Bank Massad and the Ministry of Education.

In addition, for the last year we have been developing a first-of-its-kind cutting-edge project in Israel – ImagineBox. We believe it will help fast-forward education to the classroom of the future through the use of breakthrough technologies that already exist on the market but have not yet been introduced in the education system (read more in the update below). 

In the last few months we have been introducing ImagineBox to municipalities and potential supporters throughout Israel and internationally, and the response has been incredible. The vast majority of them are excited to see modern technologies adapted for use in education. The possibilities are indeed endless, and we at Athena Fund are excited to pioneer this movement towards the classroom of 2030.

I am happy to send you this update on what we have been doing, including a sneak peek into ImagineBox.

Wishing you and your family a healthy and fun summer,

Uri Ben-Ari
Founder & President
Athena Fund

ImagineBox: Interactive Discovery Zone

Do you remember classrooms from your school days? They probably looked almost exactly the same as they do today – four walls, desks, chairs, a board and a teacher standing before the students, explaining the lesson material. Of course, today we have Power Point presentations, Kahoot (a game-based learning platform) and other technological tools. Yet students continue to sit at their desks trying to follow teachers’ explanations as they summarize the material in their notebooks.

Now imagine coming into a classroom that has no board and no tables. There might be a few chairs set against one of the walls, but that's it. The teacher enters the room and turns off the lights. In an instant, the walls are transformed into an interactive environment – any environment – and you (and the students) suddenly find yourselves exploring a pre-historic cave, the Western Wall and its tunnels, or a coral reef under the water... Continue Reading

More Teachers Received the Digital Toolbox

For over 13 years, Athena Fund's mission has remained empowering teachers by providing every teacher in Israel with digital tools and professional training. This vision will not be completed until every teacher in Israel’s education system has tools fitting the digital age we're living in and the know-how for using these tools effectivley in education.

During the last months, school and kindergarten teachers from Golan Regional Council, Shafir R.C., Katzrin, Yanuh-Jat, Petah Tikva and Be'er Tuvia R.C. have joined our programs.

After the summer vacation, and with hopes that we will return to a regular school routine in September, more school and kindergarten teachers will be joining our "Digital Toolbox for Every Teacher" program. These include teachers from Al-Kasom R.C., Hevel Yavne R.C., Hadera, Drom HaSharon R.C., Lachish R.C., Beit Shemesh, Jezreel Valley R.C., Mazkeret Batya, Netanya, Ramla, Ofakim, Jaljulia, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Bialik and Dimona.

Additional municipalities are waiting to join the program and we're in the midst of raising funds for them.

UN Conference on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

There's no doubt that Athena Fund's appearance on the world's largest international stage – as part of the 14th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) 2021 – was a major milestone in our endeavors.

Uri's address, which was broadcast at the United Nations General Assembly on June 15th, and our first virtual side event on June 18th with over 100 participants from numerous countries including the US, Russia, South Africa, UAE, Bahrain, Poland, UK, Israel and more, were a resounding success. As a result, Athena Fund’s 13 years of activity received widespread exposure and recognition.

We hope that other countries will adopt and duplicate our various projects, giving their teachers vital tools for educating the world’s children.