August 2021


Shalom and Shana Tova from all of us at Athena Fund!

We are just days away from the opening of the new school year in Israel, which once again is filled with uncertainties and challenges.

With that said, we at Athena Fund, together our partners at the Teachers Union, Bank Massad and the Ministry of Education, understand the need to continue promoting our vision. Every school and kindergarten teacher in Israel should have a personal laptop computer and professional training as part of our "Digital Toolbox for Every Teacher" program. That way, teachers will be able to use advanced technology that exists today in the best way possible – for the sake of their students and as a tool for their own empowerment.

During the summer we unveiled our new project – “ImagineBox.” We are now connecting with municipalities and education entities from all over Israel that would like to join this project. There's much excitement about ImagineBox, an innovative project featuring cutting-edge interactive technologies that improve the quality of teaching in schools. I'm hopeful that by the end of this year we will raise enough donations to launch ImagineBox in several municipalities waiting for this “classroom of the future.”

Now what can I wish us all for this new year? First, I’d like to wish us health, prosperity, advancement and self-fulfillment. But most of all, I hope we will have the privilege of doing good for others – promoting, improving and empowering!

Athena Fund continues with determination – for the sake of school and kindergarten teachers and their students – to promote excellence in education that will take our country toward a better future.

I would like to thank you and all of our incredible donors for your trust and generous support.

Shana Tova,

Uri Ben-Ari
Founder and President
Athena Fund

TEACHING IN THE CLASSROOM AND REMOTELY: MORE TEACHERS TO JOIN THE DIGITAL TOOLBOX PROGRAM

At present Israel is once again battling the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a great challenge for the education system – especially after the previous school year.

Last year successfully demonstrated not only the importance of school and kindergarten teachers, but also the need to provide them with appropriate tools to work from home and in the classroom. In the technological age, every teacher must have a personal laptop computer with professional training for leveraging today’s technologies, which continue developing in an increasing rate.

In this upcoming school year, we will continue providing our digital toolbox to school and kindergarten teachers in general and special education. During this year teachers from Kiryat Bialik, Hevel Yavne regional council (RC), Ofakim, Drom HaSharon RC, Netanya, Lachish RC, Jerusalem, Mazkeret Batya, Jaljulia, Al-Kasom RC, Hadera, Jezreel Valley RC, Beit Shemesh and Kiryat Gat will join our "Digital Toolbox for Every Teacher" program.

Other municipalities are waiting to join, and we're raising funds for them as well.

It is important to remember that in addition to the empowerment of teachers receiving the digital toolbox, during their careers each teacher impacts hundreds of students. This enables more effective, more relevant and more interesting learning throughout the country.

IMAGINEBOX: INTERACTIVE DISCOVERY ZONE FOR BUILDING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS

Question – what will the future classroom look like? “ImagineBox” is the answer as Athena Fund sees it.

Based on interactive learning, ImagineBox is an interactive discovery zone that allows not only a deeper understanding of the learned material, but also an actual experience of the material. ImagineBox helps students develop imagination, teamwork, self-learning and other critical skills that are more important today more than ever.

During the summer, dozens of pedagogical teams and workers from education departments in various municipalities visited the Totally Interactive company center at Kibbutz Shefayim. There they experienced the meaning of immersive learning, which breaks from the two-dimensional classroom board and envelops students in an interactive four-dimensional reality that adapts to every possible need.

The demand for ImagineBox is great, and we're working on raising donations for the first ImagineBox deployments, which we hope to launch during this school year.

There's a great understanding in both the education system and business sector that learning as it is today will not remain so forever. And so, we need to do everything possible to advance education and promote the future classroom.

ATHENA FUND ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

Thanks to our efforts to empower Israeli teachers, Athena Fund has received international recognition. Granted NGO consultant status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Athena Fund has been consulting several countries and international entities following requests from UNESCO and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, Athena is a member of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, or Teacher Task Force (TTF), hosted by UNESCO.

As we reported in our last update, on June 15th of this year we have had the privilege to speak at the UN General Assembly, where Uri Ben-Ari discussed about the importance of technology for teachers. We also were invited to host a side event as part of the United Nations' 14th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). Emceed by Noa Tishby, the internationally acknowledged author, producer, actress and activist, this exciting event highlighted important international cooperation opportunities.

In July, Uri Ben-Ari met with Mr. Carlos Vargas Tamez, Head of the Teacher Development Task Force at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. At their meeting they discussed the possibility of Athena Fund joining a coalition of 140 organizations from around the world working for teachers in developing countries – especially during COVID-19. Uri explained that Athena Fund would be honored to share our knowledge and experience in order to promote education and improve the future in developing countries.

Just recently we received an exciting update that the Ministry of Education in Rwanda will be implementing the "Laptop Computer for Every Teacher" program for thousands of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers in the country. The Rwandan Education Ministry had learned about Athena Fund's program from the Teachers Task Force at UNESCO.