Tackling COVID-19 Impact Head-On with Summer Activities in Youth Movement’s Arab Branches

Leaders in Arab branches of Dror Israel’s youth movement are preparing and adapting educational responses to deal with fallout of coronavirus crisis in Israel’s Arab communities

Dror Israel’s youth movement, with some 20,000 Arab youth members, is the only youth movement in Israel to operate on a large-scale in both Jewish and Arab communities. Last Tuesday, the team of educational coordinators from the Arab branches met to plan this summer’s activities in their communities amid the ongoing uncertainty and distancing strictures of the COVID-19 crisis.

The last six months have brought with them all kinds of new challenges requiring fast and flexible solutions – taking quick stock of new conditions, re-writing programs, finding creative solutions to unexpected changes, and more. Youth movement counselors have had to adapt all activities to meet the requirements of the Ministry of Health.

“Over the last few months, we’ve seen an increase in cases of domestic violence and violence between youth. We see the Arab towns struggling with these new challenges, and at levels that didn’t exist before the coronavirus. We see ourselves as leaders in Arab society, and as such, we can’t just stand by and not do anything,” said Khaled Masrawi, youth movement coordinator for Arab communities in Israel’s central district.

“We talked about health and safety, violence and murder in society and within families, and how we can address this matter educationally. We also talked about raising awareness in Arab society about following Ministry of Health guidelines regarding the coronavirus, and serving as positive examples for Arab society and the young generation,” Masrawi concluded.