Once a year, the Office of the Ombudsman organizes an educational trip for its staff. This year the Office decided to undertake a new initiative and dedicate its annual trip to volunteering in the community.
The Office decided to volunteer in the field of education - in order to familiarize pupils with the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman, to encourage them to relate positively to the Establishment and become aware of the work of the Office of the Ombudsman as potential "ambassadors" of the Office in the community. Furthermore, the personal encounter with staff members of the Office, who are lawyers by profession, aimed at providing a skylight to the academic world for pupils, encouraging them to develop ambition and a learning orientation.
The Office of the Ombudsman made contact with the relevant persons in the Education Department in the Bat Yam Municipality and the latter liaised between the Office and the headmistress of "Ramot" Comprehensive School in Bat Yam.
In anticipation of the volunteer day, staff members of the Office of the Ombudsman visited the school and had several meetings with the headmistress and the pedagogic staff, in order to determine the day's agenda and the fields in which the staff of the Office would volunteer. It was agreed that the volunteer work would be channeled into four areas of activity: lectures in the classrooms, the establishment of a social-communal library, cultivation of the area at the entrance to the school and improvement of the appearance of the interior schoolyard by wall painting.
On the morning of 11.10.2018, some 90 staff members of the Office of the Ombudsman arrived at the school. The day opened with a meeting headed by Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, Director of the Office of the Ombudsman, and Dr. Smadar Cohen, the headmistress of the school. The staff of the Office were informed about the school and the special significance for the pupils of the volunteer day and their encounter with staff members of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Speaking at the meeting, Dr. Ben-Haim emphasized that the staff of the Office of the Ombudsman are constantly contributing to the community and helping citizens to fulfill their rights. In her words, it is the goal of the Office "to do things which entail social involvement and volunteering".
In the course of the day, the staff of the Office of the Ombudsman carried out broad volunteering activities in the school. Among other things, they gave lessons in the classrooms where they presented to the pupils examples of complaints handled by the Office, in order to illustrate the fields in which the Office can provide assistance; they also explained the authority of the Office and the investigation procedure. There was also an interactive exercise, in the course of which pupils raised complaint issues from their daily lives.
In order to encourage the pupils to read and enrich their knowledge, the staff of the Office established a social-communal library in the center of the school, to which staff members of the Office had donated some 1,400 books.
In addition, the staff of the Office worked shoulder to shoulder with pupils in painting and gardening, in order to improve the appearance of the school and create a pleasant and inviting learning environment for the pupils. Among other things, the pupils and staff members designed an artistic and lively wall in the schoolyard, and planted flowers and seedlings in flowerboxes at the school entrance.
At the end of the day, the staff members of the Office reconvened for a sum up of the activity with the headmistress of the school, in the course of which they shared their impressions and experiences. The volunteer day was significant, enriching and inspiring, both for the staff of the Office of the Ombudsman and for the pupils.
The Director of the Office of the Ombudsman and the headmistress of the school emphasized the success of the day and expressed their hopes for continued cooperation in the future.
