A highly polyglot population providing expert instruction in participants' mother tongues.
Numerous international organizations, NGOs, and donor countries have taken advantage of MASHAV's unique training program, sponsoring or co-funding with MASHAV trainees from their partner countries. These organizations included the FAO, UNDP, UNESCO, USAID, the Soros Foundation, UNICEF and Winrock International.
Since 1958, MASHAV has trained almost 200,000 course participants in Israel and abroad from over 140 countries.
Shalom Clubs
MASHAV maintains contact with former course participants through its network of Shalom Clubs. These clubs serve as a forum for MASHAV alumni to participate in professional and social activities relating to their field of specialization. Members are invited to attend local lectures by skilled experts, to exchange ideas and to organize technical cooperation and humanitarian assistance as well as holding cultural functions. Members of the Shalom Clubs play an integral role in determining the focus and scope of programming. Today, there are over 70 Shalom Clubs in partner countries' capital cities and many more in other locales.
Among the highlights of this year's activities:
Vietnam - The Shalom Club organized a number of medical camps in remote provinces.
Georgia - In Tbilisi the Club conducted free electrocardiogram checkups as a way of discovering ischemia diseases of the heart.
Ecuador - The Shalom Club organized a first aid course in Zabala-Caldaron, a remote village near Quito, which provided some basic first aid information to a population with limited access to medical assistance. The Board of Directors of the Shalom Club donated basic medical equipment. Following this successful activity, the Board decided to establish Health Brigades to offer medical assistance to other regions.
Dominican Republic - Shalom Club members, including doctors, offered medical assistance to people over 65 years of age in Sabana Perdida, an underprivileged neighborhood of Santo Domingo.
El Salvador - The Shalom Club has been tirelessly working for the benefit of the victims of the earthquake that shook the country. Brazil - The third meeting of MASHAV graduates from Latin America and the Caribbean took place in August with 210 members and 30 companions from 17 countries.
Uruguay - The Club organized, along with the Israel Embassy, the first "virtual" meeting of Latin American Shalom Clubs over the Internet.
Peru - The Club honored the 1,500th participant in MASHAV training courses from Peru, Sylvia Eliana Malaga, in a special ceremony.
Shalom Magazine
MASHAV publishes Shalom Magazine for Alumni of Israel Training Courses. The magazine is published 3 times a year in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian. It is sent directly to all former MASHAV course participants. Shalom Magazine also appears in an Internet edition on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website.
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