Women's American ORT: Action Alert

news update archives 1999

ORT and JDC Help Reopen Kosovar Elementary Schools

ORT Returning to Cuba After 40 years

ORT and JDC Training Kosovar Albanian Refugees to
Rebuild Their Lives

ORT Working with Albanian NGOs to Document
Kosovo Atrocities

ORT and JDC Help Reopen Kosovar Elementary Schools

Thanks to the combined efforts of the World ORT Union and the American Joint Distribution Committee the lives of Kosovar children have resumed a degree of normalcy. As of the first week in September, all Kosovar primary school students returned to school. There are now 17 primary schools operating, 16 in the capital Pristina.

When Eli Eliezri, who represents both ORT and the JDC, arrived in Kosovo in June, he found "children hanging around the streets with no activities because no schools were operating." Initially, ORT/JDC worked to repair and reopen two schools that were abandoned and vandalized during the recent war. For the past 10 years, Albanian children had been barred from attending one of the schools. The two schools now enroll 2,500 students, ages 6 to 14. In addition, 1,200 adults have registered for evening classes in English at the schools.

The success of this undertaking led the Kosovar government to ask ORT/JDC to reconstruct, repair and reopen the other schools. Once the buildings are repaired, ORT plans to furnish the schools with computer laboratories and provide teacher training. English will be taught via EnglishSpace (www.campus.ort.org/english/), an ORT interactive multimedia program for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). In the next phase, ORT is considering the supply of mobile training labs equipped with generators that will permit students in remote villages to access computer classes and obtain vocational skills.

ORT Returning to Cuba After 40 Years

ORT and the Cuban Jewish community have concluded an agreement that will bring the Jewish high technology leader back into Cuba for the first time in 40 years. Robert Singer, Director General of the World ORT Union, visited Cuba in late June at the invitation of the Cuban Jewish community. He was accompanied by Dr. Gaby Meyassed, Director of ORT Mexico and Dr. Miguel Jusidman, who heads the Cuban Jewish lobby in the Mexican Jewish community. Following their meetings with leaders of the Jewish community of Cuba including its President, Dr. Jose Miller Fredman, ORT agreed to provide a fully-equipped computer lab and set up a computer training program for children, teens and adults. The objective of the adult program is to improve employment opportunities and salaries for Cuban Jews. In addition, a CD-ROM library of Hebrew language instruction and Judaica will be available at the computer lab to encourage young Cuban Jews to study Hebrew and Judaism.

ORT's Cuban history goes back to 1935 when an ORT committee was established there. An ORT school was opened in 1943 to help meet the needs of recently-arrived refugees from Europe. It closed in 1945 when the war ended and many of the refugees went to new homes. In 1947, following a visit by former American ORT Executive Director Philip Block, an ORT Vocational Center was founded in Havana to teach watchmaking, dressmaking, and leather work. Although the program proved popular, political changes and a dwindling Jewish population led to its closure in 1959. ORT's new Cuban program will be funded by ORT Mexico. The World ORT Union will also explore the establishment of ORT International Cooperation projects in the country to assist other segments of the population.

ORT and JDC Training Kosovar Albanian Refugees to Rebuild Their Lives

The World ORT Union and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) are combining resources and experience to create the ORT/JDC Kosovar Refugee Training Project. JDC has contributed $400,000 for the project from the JDC Kosovo Emergency Relief Fund. ORT, which is the world's largest non-governmental training and educational organization, has begun providing vocational training and instruction to Kosovo refugees. Courses are being offered in masonry, plumbing, carpentry, furniture,electrical wiring, metal working, sewing, and shoe making in Tirana, Albania's capital. Both men and women have enrolled in these special ORT classes. ORT is committed to continuing this project, even after the refugees return home.

ORT has been actively working in Albania since 1995 to strengthen the country's civil society. The ORT Democracy Network program includes an integrated package of technical assistance training and grants under a five-year, $3.75 million USAID contract. ORT's International Cooperation programs are funded independently of its worldwide network of schools, providing technical training in a Jewish environment. ORT's experience in training refugees in new job skills goes back to post-Holocaust Europe when ORT played a major role in the DP (Displaced Persons) camps. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) coordinates the Coalition for Kosovo Relief and Assistance, a 42-member organization including Women's American ORT, part of a coordinated response of the North American Jewish community to the crisis in the Balkans.

ORT Working with Albanian NGOs to Document Kosovo Atrocities

ORT is working with non-governmental organizations in Albania documenting human rights violations suffered by the ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees streaming into Albania to escape the Serbian military action in their home province.

On the eve of Passover, March 31, ORT's International Cooperation Program staff in Albania held a meeting in Tirana, capital of Albania, with representatives of 20 other NGOs (non-governmental organizations). According to ORT country director Juliana Hoxha, a team with human rights representatives and attorneys was formed to document cases of human rights violations through interviews with refugees now in Albania. Evidence of violations will be presented to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and other legal channels. Information will also be posted on the Internet.

Those organizations actively working with the refugees are drawing up a list of concrete needs and detailing how the cooperating NGOs can assist them in their efforts to care for the over 200,000 refugees now in Albania.

Women's American ORT President Pepi Dunay of Boca Raton, Fla., commented, "As Jews we are very sensitive to this human tragedy, since we've experienced centuries of expulsion. We're fortunate that ORT was already working in Albania and can quickly mobilize a team to document the crimes that have been committed against the Kosovo Albanians."

ORT has been actively working in Albania since 1995 to strengthen the country's civil society. The ORT Democracy Network program includes an integrated package of technical assistance training and grants under a five-year, $3.75 million USAID contract. ORT's international cooperation programs are funded independently of its worldwide network of schools providing technical training in a Jewish environment.

Groups working with ORT on the refugee crisis include the Albanian Group for Human Rights, Albanian Women's Center, Albanian Youth Council, Albanian Foundation of Civil Society, Albanian NGO Forum, Association of Professional Journalists, Albanian Committee Against Violence and Racism, Albanian Foundation for the Reconciliation of Disputes, Pan-European Movement, Association of Democratic Culture, Association of Young Researchers of Social Sciences, and Professional
and Businesswomen.

And in Israel...
In response to Israel's offer to take 100 refugee families, ORT has volunteered to assist Israel's Ministries of Absorption, Foreign Affairs, and Education, as well as the Jewish Agency.

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