Dream comes true for Ragar children!!!
JGI Austria/Ragar Village Peace Program 2005-6
A letter for JGI Austria:
Great news! After discussing with all the children of Ragar what they needed
most in their lives today - with your donation - they all said a days field
trip far away from the village to feel freedom for the first time, to have
fun, play in the play ground, and go on a Safari to see wild animals of
Africa roaming free. So, we made their wish come true!!! We planned
everything months in advance and arranged for a field trip for all of
Ragars' 200 young children on Thursday the 7th of April to the
Tel-Aviv Safari Park.
The Ragar village council got four big buses rented and all the kids ready
for the wonderful day ahead. They had to drive for over three hours from
Ragar in the northern border to Tel-Aviv on the central Israel coast. The
kids saw the Mediteranian sea for the first time and saw the Israeli
landscape in all its spring beauty. First, the kids stopped off for
breakfast at the Rochtchild Botanical Gardens along the way and reached the
Safari Park at 13:00 hours. The children were joined by about 25 adults
along with my father and I. We were fortunate to have the Safari zoo
Director Mr. Yehuda Bar so kindly donated all the entrance fees at no charge
at all for Ragar. With your donations we could get the children on the
road! - My father will send you all the recepts shortly. The kids all had
tremendous fun driving through the 2 km long Safari tour and saw all the
African wildlife running free almost like real Safari.
At the end everyone went to the closed part of the park to see the
chimpanzees, Orangutans and gorillas in their enclosures, the children were
taught to say hello to the chimps on the way and had much fun talking to
them. The kids were excited extremely to play in the play ground at the park
and spent a long while going on the rides, it is obvious they had such great
fun for the first time.
Melissa, you made these childrens dream come true, Ragar village can't find
the words to thank you. In their lives of uncertainty you gave hope. Thank
you.
The peace letters you sent and an Indian peace pole will be given at the
"Ragar JGI Austria Peace Program Conference 2005" at the end of this month
>in the village. We hope to hear from you very soon. Can't wait for Jane to
hear the news!
UPDATE: Wed, 15 Feb 2006
Hope you are doing wonderfully!! Sorry for this belated reply, we were waiting for
Bassam Khatib and the Ragar kids to receive the hundreds of presents we got for them
with the extraordinary USD$500 donation from Pat Cleveland's "Dewey Elementary"
Chicago - Roots & Shoots group last month!!! The Ragar kids received the gifts a few
days ago and the pictures are attached here!!! The kids were so happy and organized a
beautiful Ragar gathering in the community center in Ragar village. The 500 kids of
Ragar are FINALLY happy again and this will help them heal from their horrific
trauma of war. Thanks to Pats' amazing efforts with her Roots & Shoots Dewey
school team and Leigh Libling with her toy donations and Dan Creely, from TEAM at
North Eastern Illinois University, for the giant Native American Peace Pole sent and
planted in Ragar (the peace pole still stands today high and bright even after the war!)
and you Melissa, Bea & Frank and all of JGI Austria for the fantasticly successful
partnership, support & love for Ragar village with the wonderful Ragar fieldtrip
adventure and everything!! Together we all helped make peace in Ragar!!! HOW
EXCITING!!! I think we all deserve a round of applause. How wonderful that our
Peace Program is so successful and against all the odds of war! The future is now a
little brighter for the kids of Ragar.
Hope to hear from you very soon!
Lots of love,
Itai
________________________________
Melissa Tauber
Geschäftsführung/Executive Director
Jane Goodall Institut - Austria
Probusgasse 3
A-1190 Vienna
cell phone: ++43 676 550 90 34
phone office: ++43 1 318 60 86
mail: [email protected]
www.janegoodall.at