has abstract
| - A New Dawn in the Negev is a Bedouin-Jewish co-existence NGO that provides programming for Bedouin youth-at-risk. It is based in Rahat, the only Bedouin city in Israel. Over 600 Bedouin youth aged 5–18 per year participate in their programs. New Dawn was founded by Jamal Alkirnawi, a Bedouin social worker who worked for Ben Gurion University as an academic counsellor for Arab students. He observed that the Bedouin students were at the greatest disadvantage, as they grew up in great poverty, struggled to reconcile modern culture with traditional Bedouin life, and often experienced significant culture shocks on attempting to attend university at mainstream, Hebrew-speaking institutions. In 2009, Alkirnawi established New Dawn to empower Bedouin youth, offering English, Hebrew, IT and music classes, and providing opportunities to meet people and cultures outside of their own communities. The organisation is very diverse, with Arab and Jewish Israelis on the Board, Christian, Jewish and Muslim volunteers, and international volunteers from the UK, America, France, Czech Republic, Germany and Canada. New Dawn also uses its programs to promote Bedouin life, culture and issues to potential tourists and visitors to Rahat. In February 2017, a delegation of 35 politicians and law-makers from the German Bundestag met with New Dawn and other Bedouin NGOs to discuss life in the Negev and the residents' struggle for social rights and political recognition of the nearby unrecognised Bedouin villages. (en)
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