ASB Argentina
We are a group of 20 Northwestern students planning to spend our spring break doing community service in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Schools from around the country are teaming up with Hillel Argentina to help improve the surrounding communities in Buenos Aires. We are dedicated to alleviating third world poverty and improving the plight of the international Jewish community. We will be working with both interfaith and Jewish community organizations on projects dealing with education, infant care, literacy and more. We will be partnering specifically with an under-resourced school to improve the quality of education for its students by painting murals in outdoor play areas, improving the music-education facility, and building a library so the students can access books and improve literacy. We will also volunteer in a childcare center that serves underprivileged families. By completing our service projects and spending time with the people of Buenos Aires we will prove to them that those facing the challenges of third-world poverty are not alone.

We have been fundraising so that we can make a donation to one of the causes that we will be working with (to be determined). If you are interested in making a donation, please contact Shauna Perelman at perlman.shauna@gmail.com. Please note that she will be out of contact while we are on the trip from March 20-28.

And don't forget to check out what our friends are doing on the ASB Cuba trip at http://asbcuba.tumblr.com!
March 18, 2009
This is a photo of The Tel Aviv School in Buenos Aires. ASB Argentina will be working with the Tel Aviv School, a K-7 Jewish day school for kids. The school was founded in 1939 in Buenos Aires in  “La Paternal” neighborhood. It is the only remaining  Jewish school in its area. It offers a Jewish educative bilingual program (Hebrew, English and Spanish). Parents who work all day can leave their children with the “Maternal kindergarten” program for the whole morning and afternoon. They also offer substantial scholarships for children whose parents’ jobs are relatively unstable. The economic crisis in 2001 significantly affected many of the families who rely on the school and put a large financial burden on the school. This caused -       The decrease in the number of students of the school. -       Political instability and permanent changes in the board directory -       Permanent rumors about a possible close of the school. -       Lack of a strategic plan to face the crisis -       Lack of maintenance and deterioration of the building. In 2005, the school started a process of improvement that would have been impossible without the support of some local Jewish organizations, such as JDCLA (American Joint Distribution Committee’s Latin American office), AMIA (the Jewish umbrella organization for Argentina) and CISSAB (a JCC). The work was focused on: -       Improving and strengthening the new board of directors. -       Improving the image of the school through publicity. -       Improving the conditions of the building, bringing new families to the school. -       Improving and re-organizing the scholarship system. -       Improving the pedagogical program of the school. -       Creating a new lab of informatics and installing modern software. -       Creating a new position in the organization, the institutional director, and hiring a person with the required profile and skills. -       There was a growth in the number of students, especially the youngest. Today Tel Aviv School and its community are proud of the increase in its number of students (now 221 kids), as well as having more stability in general. The continuity of this school is very important considering that it is the only Jewish school in the neighborhood of “La Paternal” that has been able to survive thus far.

This is a photo of The Tel Aviv School in Buenos Aires.

ASB Argentina will be working with the Tel Aviv School, a K-7 Jewish day school for kids. The school was founded in 1939 in Buenos Aires in  “La Paternal” neighborhood. It is the only remaining  Jewish school in its area. It offers a Jewish educative bilingual program (Hebrew, English and Spanish). Parents who work all day can leave their children with the “Maternal kindergarten” program for the whole morning and afternoon. They also offer substantial scholarships for children whose parents’ jobs are relatively unstable. The economic crisis in 2001 significantly affected many of the families who rely on the school and put a large financial burden on the school. This caused

-       The decrease in the number of students of the school.

-       Political instability and permanent changes in the board directory

-       Permanent rumors about a possible close of the school.

-       Lack of a strategic plan to face the crisis

-       Lack of maintenance and deterioration of the building.

In 2005, the school started a process of improvement that would have been impossible without the support of some local Jewish organizations, such as JDCLA (American Joint Distribution Committee’s Latin American office), AMIA (the Jewish umbrella organization for Argentina) and CISSAB (a JCC).

The work was focused on:

-       Improving and strengthening the new board of directors.

-       Improving the image of the school through publicity.

-       Improving the conditions of the building, bringing new families to the school.

-       Improving and re-organizing the scholarship system.

-       Improving the pedagogical program of the school.

-       Creating a new lab of informatics and installing modern software.

-       Creating a new position in the organization, the institutional director, and hiring a person with the required profile and skills.

-       There was a growth in the number of students, especially the youngest.

Today Tel Aviv School and its community are proud of the increase in its number of students (now 221 kids), as well as having more stability in general. The continuity of this school is very important considering that it is the only Jewish school in the neighborhood of “La Paternal” that has been able to survive thus far.