Publication date: 29/07/2020

The annual registration

Dear Friends, Students and Alumni,

During these challenging times, Keren Hanan Aynor thanks you for your ongoing partnership and wishes you good health!
Most of our students have now completed their exams and we continue to provide them with scholarships, guidance and accompaniment in preparation for the upcoming academic year.  Due to Covid-19, half of them are now unemployed and they need our help more than ever!

A Journey of Courage and SacrificeA. M., age 47, married with  6 children.
A is humble, hardworking and overcomes difficulties with a smile. She is currently a second year nursing student at the University of Haifa.
When she shares her background with me and her Aliyah story, her voice shifts.  She becomes more confident and driven and I can imagine her as a ten year old girl in Sudan in 1984. Her story is one of  struggle, danger, separation, incomprehensible courage and ultimately, a journey of ” many miracles” as she calls it, on her return to Zion. 
The family left their Ethiopian village in secret in the middle of the night, encountered  violent attacks by robbers, a lack of food and water, getting lost along the way and other dangers as they journeyed with five small children and their mother in her final weeks of pregnancy. She describes in detail the attempt to make it to the airlift and the anguish and tragic separation from part of her family as she , her mother and the now newborn baby fall off the transport truck on the way to the air pad.
As she describes her new found responsibilities, aiding her mother and a newborn baby in unimaginable circumstances, we both choke back a tear or two.  Her father has somehow been separated from them with her other siblings. Such incredible courage and strength of spirit were demanded of her at such a tender age. Her story ends and then begins again when she is reunited with her family in Israel almost a year later and she can now realize their dream of return to Zion after 2000 years.

Fast forward to 2020.  A works at a “Tipat Halav” (baby wellness) clinic. She chose to pursue an academic degree, in order to better integrate into a management position at her workplace. She is incredibly hardworking and dedicated to succeeding at any cost. 
A describes her first semester as being very  successful. It went smoothly and she did not encounter   any major  challenges while balancing between her studies, job and family. She passed all of the exams other than the advanced English test, which has now became her main challenge. She says that the difficulty learning a new language that she never learned before and did not have to use thus far was very significant. She is reading as much as possible in English and supplementing with additional classes to improve her language skills.
The second semester began with  online courses due to COVID-19. The sharp transition from frontal classes to online courses was very difficult she admits: an increase in the number of papers to be submitted, online exams and the difficulty dealing with studies and family simultaneously.
A strives to succeed by dedicating more time to her studies and the increasingly  digital environment.
She is incredibly grateful for Keren Aynor’s ongoing support both financially and emotionally.  A feels that the guidance is helpful and she very much appreciates what the scholarship has done for her and her family as she continues with her studies. We commend her on her dedication to her studies, especially in these challenging times and her ability to juggle a large family, her work and her studies.  She is truly an inspiration!