Ma'agalim youth renovate IDF base
Ma'agalim youth renovate IDF baseMa'agalim

Ma’agalim, an Israeli organization which aims to empower at-risk youth in grades 11 and 12 from the geographical and social peripheries of Israel, this week took on the task of renovating the front lot of a base belonging to an elite unit of the IDF’s Nahal Brigade.

The initiative took shape after Ma’agalim students from a school in Kfar Saba met with the commander of the unit, who told them that the lot was run down. The students responded enthusiastically to the challenge, taking it upon themselves to transform the lot into an aesthetic one, and add to it a memorial for fallen soldiers from the unit.

Using funds raised by American Friends of Ma’agalim and with help from landscape architect Noam Pick, who volunteered his time, the students purchased the necessary materials and, in a single day of hard work, achieved their task.

We managed to raise a budget from a number of people and especially from  Boaz Bagbag from New York, who just a month previously had visited this base and heard about this  unit's special needs

In appreciation for the students’ work, the soldiers of the unit invited them for a festive lunch and put on an impressive display of weapons. The students returned to their high school happy and with a strong belief in the power to influence and to do good.

According to Assaf Weiss, founder and director of Ma’agalim, “The students’ work for the soldiers and the leadership skills they showed left a deep impression in all of us, along with huge appreciation, and give us the strength to continue the work of Ma’agalim.”