acquiring a profession. This place gives me self-confidence and pride.”
There are some “fairy tale” stories coming out of the Ethiopian community
in Israel. For example, in February Yityish Aynaw was crowned the first-ever
Ethiopian born Miss Israel. She even met and dined with President Obama
when he took his first presidential tour of the country in the spring of 2013.
The story of Megemeria and its students, however, is no fairy tale. It’s fair
to imagine that the recent graduates, who are initially being paid the same
minimum wage salary they received while studying, are still struggling financially.
But, Orna says, the skills they’ve learned give them the opportunity to grow
their income and break the cycle of lower education, higher unemployment
and poverty still plaguing the population. While at Yvel and Megemeria, the
graduates will, she says, “get wage increases according to their progress.”
As well as having great hopes for the Megemeria students, Orna is enthusiastic
about the tiny company’s future prospects. She says, “We need to start small
and grow to what we believe Megemeria will eventually be: an international
social business that will employ hundreds of people and be a great model of a
socially responsible business that other companies can follow.”
and everyday-life skills to help them better adapt
to Israeli culture. Training is free and students are
provided a monthly stipend equivalent to the
minimum wage for Israel, with many of the funds
coming directly from Isaac and Orna. Additional
backing has been provid VB'