Society For The Protection of Nature in Israel - Education

Education

SPNI’s education programs reach Israelis of every age and sector - over 50% of Israeli children and teens are involved in SPNI education programs! SPNI believes that by fostering young people's connection to the land, heritage and to their own communities, we grow a generation that gives back to Israel in establishing a strong society, concerned with preserving Israel's natural treasures for all time.

• Children Make a Difference – Lively student participation in SPNI's Children Make a Difference program and the connections developed between students from across Israel during large events like the annual children's conference have resulted in the development of a national network of environmentally active young people that take part in environmental campaigns and events. For their part, participating schools are obliged to adopt environmental thinking and green management in cooperation with the community and the neighborhood.
• A Beautiful Israel - All across Israel, children and youth are working to clean up the environment. A Beautiful Israel incorporates adoption of sites, intelligent use of resources, and litter clean-up actions into the eco-education process.
• Obligated to the Environment – All Israeli 10th grade students are obligated to volunteer in their local communities, a minimum of sixty hours throughout the school year through the national education program "Personal Accountability", which teaches youth consciousness of civic responsibility. SPNI's "Obligated to the Environment" program extends students' options to the realm of environmental work.
• Orienteering - SPNI’s youth organization uses nature education to nurture future influential leaders for a sustainable Israel. From Afula to Beer Sheva, Orienteering groups meet weekly and offer about 18 hikes a year.
• Multicultural Orienteering – Programs vary from on-site lessons and field trips for Ethiopian and Caucaucus youth, helping them integrate and to come to truly know Israel. Donor-sponsored Multicultural Orienteering activities provide opportunities to strengthen the feeling of personal and social belonging and personal empowerment by dealing with physical and emotional challenges.
• Eco-Community Centers – (in Hebrew known as MaLaShim, which is an abbreviation for "Merkaz Limudei Sadeh") – SPNI operates a network of about a dozen Environmental Community Centers primarily serving development towns with limited social services, whose populations face multiple difficulties such as unemployment and poverty. Malashim offer in-school and after-school fun activities that relate to the environment and nature, including occasional nature trips for the whole family. Over the past three decades, Malashim have become a vital part of local educational and extracurricular programming. Some Malashim bring together underprivileged Jewish and Arab children and some serve populations heavily affected by terrorism, for example in Sderot.