Students in Sderot
Photo: Amir Cohen
Sderot students benefit from World ORT laptops
Students from Sderot have been able to use laptops provided by World ORT to complete exam-related work in the safety of their school’s bomb shelter
Students from Sderot have been able to use laptops provided by World ORT to
complete exam-related work in the safety of their school’s bomb shelter.
Two weeks ago, World ORT donated 15 laptops – a mobile computer laboratory – to the Sha’ar Hanegev High School, near Sderot, within 24 hours of learning that many lessons had had to be cancelled because of a lack of reinforced classrooms; the computers arrived within hours of a classroom being destroyed in a Qassam attack. By the end of last week, World ORT had given the school an additional computer laboratory comprising 15 laptops.
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Meanwhile, World ORT donated another 15 laptops to the Shikma high school at nearby Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, which has also come under Qassam attack.
Laptops in a bomb shelter (Photo: Courtesy of World ORT)
Shem Gulst, the Head of Computer Implementation at the school said:
“The laptops have been used to teach computer skills in special education classes. And some of the special needs students were given permission to take their exams on the laptops instead of writing them – without World ORT’s computers these students would not have been able to take their matriculation exam. This is particularly important because, for safety reasons, the exams are not held here on campus but in another school out of range of the rockets.”
World ORT Director General Robert Singer said: “It is sad that innocent young people are forced to conduct life-affecting studies deep underground. But we are delighted that the material support we are providing is helping them to focus on the brighter future their education will bring them. It is humbling to see how World ORT is contributing to the frontline’s fight against terror in a truly constructive way. The pen – or in this case, the computer – is proving to be mightier than the terrorists’ sword.”
World ORT is planning other projects in the area such as the reconstruction of the sports field at the Shikma High School, which was ruined by heavy trucks bringing reinforced classrooms.
“The children desperately need a physical outlet for the tension and trauma they are experiencing,” said Sherrie Gazit, World ORT’s Projects Manager in Israel. “They can’t use the sports hall because it’s too far from any shelters – when the siren sounds, the children have only 14 seconds to find cover.”
