HWB volunteer since 2018
How did you become associated with Humans without Borders
After retiring in 2015 I looked for a meaningful new pursuit. I happened to hear about Humans Without Borders from a friend and contacted the organization on the same day.
As a former member of the Socialist Zionist Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, and later of one of the movement’s kibbutzim, I have always been concerned with the issue of Arab-Jewish relations – first within Israel, later also in the territories – and now I had a chance to do something practical about it.
What do you do for HWB
I began my activities by joining the volunteer driver corps, in which I participate to this day. In addition, I have helped raise funds, joined the executive board, and recently have taken on the responsibility of running the HWB Hebrew website.
Volunteering at HWB gives me the opportunity to be part of meaningful humanitarian action that can and often does save lives. It naturally has its political and economic ramifications too, but these are secondary to the main aim. When I became involved in HWB I also started intensively to learn spoken Arabic, so that I could communicate with the children’s families and with the children themselves. Knowing the language gives this activity a deeper meaning, beyond its technical aspect.
What does volunteering mean to you
On the personal level, the main challenge for a volunteer is the need to persist; on the organizational level, it is recruiting volunteers who can fulfil the increasing need of the Palestinian population for these services, and who do so with utmost care and diligence. This is no easy task in the face of the generally unfavorable public and social feelings regarding the complex relations with the Palestinian population.
HWB is a purely voluntary organization that takes humanitarian action to benefit a weakened population. This, to me, sums up its essence.