SHATIL Everett Social Justice Fellow Rama Bor got a byline the other day -- and a chance to influence hundreds of thousands of people.
Rama's op ed, "Country, City (Animal Vegetable Mineral)" -- the name of a popular Isareli children's word game -- appeared on Ynet, Israel's largest internet news site, on March 23. In it, Rama bemoaned the distressing deterioration and neglect of Israel's downtown areas, a process that hurts small businesses, the poor, the environment and city residents. Providing an analysis of the economic and political reasons for this state of affairs, Rama argued persuasively for the renewal of city centers, calling on the government to take action based on approved government programs. Using colorful metaphors ("The center is the city's beating heart and pumps life through its arteries",) Rama lauded Israeli cities like Kfar Saba, Tel Aviv and Haifa that are pouring resources into reviving their downtown areas.
The piece expressed the opinion of the Forum for Environment and Society, a coalition of environmental and social change organizations in Be'er Sheva, of which SHATIL is a part. Rama's internship includes media consulting to the Forum and to SHATIL-led Coalition for Public Health in Ramat Hovav, a polluted, factory laden area of the Negev near several unrecognized Bedouin villages.
Rama said the writing of the op ed piece was a challenge. "Each organization has its own agenda and its own opinions. Each one thinks something else should be written. I had to take the consensus views and write something meaningful and newsworthy and interesting that everyone would approve of."
The Forum is running a series of town meetings, each on a different topic and in a different neighborhood, with the goal of formulating a green vision for Be'er Sheva. To raise awareness, the Forum decided to try to get an op ed piece published in anticipation of the latest town meeting, which was devoted to the topic of city centers.
Rama's first byline in a non-student paper appeared in Ynet on International Human Rights Day, December 10, shortly after she began her Everett internship at SHATIL Be'er Sheva. It focused on the human rights of the Negev Bedouin. Another of Rama's pieces on the environmental impact of the IDF's plan to move all its training bases to the Negev also appeared on Ynet.
"Social change organizations are busy with actions, but in order to recruit people and interest as well as funders, you have to have exposure in the media," Rama says.
Rama says she is happy that these topics are getting the exposure they deserve. She works closely with SHATIL media consultant Ayelet Danon, who, she says, "actually taught me how to write, what to put in and what to leave out, how to edit, how to talk to editors."
A third year student in education and politics and government at Ben Gurion University, Rama is a third generation sabra from Afula who decided she wanted to experience a new part of the country. She has always volunteered she says, and so have her parents. "It's gratifying and gives me an opportunity to see things I would not otherwise see," she says. "It widens my perspective and opens me to new ways of thinking."
Rama says she is learning a lot from her Everett internship. "I didn't know about the environmental problems at Ramat Hovav. I didn't know much about Bedouins or the issue of the unrecognized villages," she says. "And I'm learning how to work with the media and about how social change organizations work."
Her work with SHATIL has convinced Rama that she wants to continue working in a social change organization.
"Civil strength has the power to change the present and the future," says Rama. "Social change organizations help people to formulate the problems, to raise awareness and give citizens the tools and the strength to believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference."
