The IDC

Zemhret Redi, Muhialdin Bakini and Adam Bashar with their IDC television teacher, Raffi Miller. At
IDC, these young men are being exposed to the top technology available in today’s media world
“I ARRIVED AT A SHELTER LOCATED ON
LEVANDA STREET IN SOUTH TEL AVIV.
THERE WERE 150 OF US IN ONE ROOM WITH A
SINGLE BATHROOM STALL. THE CONDITIONS
WERE INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT AND WE HAD
NO WAY OF EARNING MONEY” - Zemhret Redi
Life is still not easy for Beyene, who is now in his first year at the New
School of Psychology. He studies by day and works by night to afford his
tuition. But he is a free man, with refugee status granted by the United
Nations and living in a place where he can speak his mind and write his
thoughts freely, without fear of repercussions.
The same can be said about Zemhret Redi, who in 2007, fled Eritrea,
where he was studying at a local university. “I arrived at a shelter located
on Levanda Street in south Tel Aviv,” he recounts. “There were 150 of us
in one room with a single bathroom stall. The conditions were incredibly
difficult and we had no way of earning money.”
So what brought about this dramatic change in Redi’s circumstances?
“First of all, I was very fortunate to meet someone who offered me a job,
which I immediately took. That job was at the IDC Herzliya cafeteria. Then,
on one of my first days at work, a man named Jonathan Davis, whom I
now know is the Vice President of IDC and Head of the RRIS, sat down for
coffee. He asked me where I was from, and after I told him about myself
and having been a student in Eritrea, he asked me why I was working at
54 < IDC Winter 2010
the cafeteria instead of studying. He explained to me that I could attend
the International Program. From that moment on I waited eagerly for
registration for the following academic year to begin and I registered on
the very first day possible. This gave me incredible motivation to work hard
in order to cover the costs of tuition.”
Says Davis, “One of the hallmarks of IDC is to create leaders who will go on
to make the world a better place. Yikealo, Zemhret and the other refugees
here risked their lives in search of freedom – freedom of religion, freedom
of speech – and I hope that the RRIS will enable them to realize all of their
future goals and to inspire many others in the years to come.”
A THOUSAND STORIES
Beyene and Redi are just two of over a thousand refugees who came to Israel
looking for asylum, each with a story that is permeated with sadness and
tinged with hope. For Beyene and the five other refugees at IDC, that story is
on its way to a happy ending.
Meet Daher Said, a 23 year-old Somalian who grew up in poverty. As
tribal minority members, Said’s family suffered terrible persecution and
violence: In 1996 the militia looted his home, and over the next 4 years,
his father, mother and younger sister were brutally murdered. Orphaned,
Said and his younger brother survived in Somalia for another two years,
as Said finished high school, and then fled to Egypt. There Said became a
member of the African and Middle East Refugee Assistance youth group and
began studying English and computers. However, as a Somalian refugee he
faced discrimination, and in 2007 he made his way to Israel, where he filed
for asylum. Said found a job working in IDC’s cafeteria, and as he began to