Dalall Ltvuri proudly exclaims that she was able to purchase her living room furnishings with her earnings as a nursery teacher.
“I am doing something besides housework and making a contribution,” said Ltvuri from her home in Rahat, a Bedouin settlement of 40,000 in the Negev region of Israel.
Ltvuri is one of a handful of Bedouin women who have established family nurseries in their homes. At maximum capacity, she can handle up to six children ages 1 to 3 years.
That is no small feat in the Negev, where the Bedouin birth rate ranks among the highest in the world, women seldom work outside the home and more than 10,000 preschool children are not enrolled in any educational program.
Moreover, the educational facilities that are in existence do not measure up to the normal standard in Israel. Classrooms are overcrowded, with up to 50 children packed in a room.
The lack of financial and human resources at the preschool level has a negative impact on Bedouin children’s formal entry into the educational system. Recent studies confirm that a Bedouin child entering the first grade lags two years behind other children in Israel.
Ltvuri and other Bedouin women were able to establish the nurseries with help from members of the Eden Association of Kibbutz Shoval. Located in the Negev, the kibbutz is near the Bedouin-Arab town of Rahat. For the last 50 years, the two communities have enjoyed friendly relations.
Established by residents of Shoval and Rahat to promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews, the preschool program recently received a $20,000 grant from the Israel and Overseas Committee of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
The contribution, part of $700,000 in grants that the JCF distributes directly to Israeli projects, was made in cooperation with the JCF’s Amuta, an Israeli volunteer advisory group. (The JCF directs a larger share of money to Israel through United Jewish Communities.)
The JCF funds will help the Eden Association provide the Rahat Bedouin nursery teachers with professional support on how to run family nurseries.
The project, titled Growing Up Together, has been operating successfully for several years, with plans to expand into other Bedouin-Arab settlements in the Negev, as well as to the nearby Palestinian town of Khan Younis.
This past year, said Ltvuri, some 120 Bedouin women applied for six new positions as nursery school teachers — which she calls a real measure of success considering that in past years the kibbutz had to actively recruit women to fill these positions.
“In the beginning, these positions were seen by the Bedouins as being a servant; now the job is seen as prestigious,” she said.
A mother of five, Ltvuri said one of her children attends her nursery class while the others are in separate schools. Her nursery school is open for half a day, five days a week, and serves both breakfast and lunch.
Ltvuri said she is part of a group of nursery school educators who come to the kibbutz to learn “about what to do with the children and get tips and ideas from the staff.”
One challenge for Ltvuri is that she can’t afford expensive toys. Instead she improvises and makes many of the toys for the children out of simple items like coffee cans found around the house.
Yet despite the obstacles, Ltvuri speaks glowingly about her work and her “children.”
Thus far, the preschool educational project has had far-reaching effects for nursery educators like Ltvuri. In fact, the Eden Association reports that professional assessments have determined dramatic changes in both the professional and personal images of the educators, “greatly owing to their strong desire to study and develop, and their new approach to family planning.”