The Eyal association, in cooperation with KKL-Junk and the municipality of Sderot, is upgrading and renovating its student village in the city of Sderot that was severely damaged in the 7/10 attack and offers students subsidized rent and a variety of cultural activities. The Eyal association's village upgrade in Sderot with a financial investment of NIS 7 million. This, among other things, with the aim of helping to restore and strengthen the Western Negev.
The student village of the Eyal association, which was established a decade ago, was a lively center where 256 students lived. The whole day there was incessant gunfire.
On 10/8, the association rescued the members of the village, who moved to the Dead Sea hotels and operated educational frameworks for children and youths from the streets. During the 'Iron Swords' war, the village suffered direct damage to the local infrastructure and dozens of apartments were destroyed. In light of
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and with the return of the city of Sderot to a routine, the Eyal Association decided to renew and upgrade all the village infrastructures that were fatally damaged and to renovate dozens of apartments that were directly damaged during the war in order to create an attractive complex for students that meets their needs.
As part of the move, a community garden was built in the village with 'parklets' with mobile and static sitting areas, shared work tables for outdoor sitting and variable seating benches. Also, a new bar and cafe will be built in the center of the village that will offer students spacious and pleasant work spaces.
In addition, the Eyal Association, in collaboration with KKL-Junk and the Sderot Municipality, has built a strategic plan to attract students back to the village in the city, in which it will offer subsidized rent during degree studies through a scholarship program subject to a significant contribution to the community in Sderot and the surrounding area.
Also, according to the plan, the Eyal Association's student village Besderot will become an attractive center of attraction for young men and women from the city through the establishment of a network of cultural courtyards, in cooperation with the municipality of Sderot, which will be an urban cultural center in the heart of the village and will integrate local businesses.
Sigal Barzilai, CEO of the Eyal Association: "Until October 7, our village in Sderot was a living and vibrant center for students who chose to live and work in the city. The move that Ayale is now leading here together with the municipality of Sderot and KKL-Junk is another significant step on the way to strengthening the Western Negev and the city of Sderot in particular. We believe that opening the village to more and more young people who will come to live in it and creating a vibrant cultural scene - this is the most appropriate Zionist answer to the crisis the city has experienced. "
Yifat Ovadia Loski, chairman of KKL-Junk: "The restoration of the Western Negev is the most important Zionist task that is currently on the agenda. We help in a variety of ways and one of them is the cooperation with the 'Eyal' association and the municipality of Sderot in this important project. We are here for the south and the north And we will continue to work for the strengthening and development of the State of Israel after the war."
Alon Davidi, Mayor of Sderot: "The fruitful cooperation between the municipality and the youth center for the Eyal movement and KKL-Junk is one of the important pillars of strengthening the village and intensifying the activity in it with the aim of revitalizing it and strengthening the city as well as bringing the students back 'home' and turning the village complex into the front yard of cultural and leisure life. Our student village is the beating heart of the academic world in the region, and it is living proof of the potential that lies in Sderot and the surrounding area, it creates a young, strong and cohesive community already during the study period and the students who are members of it meet the urban essence and join it and continue to live here even after the study period. Every male and female student in the village takes part in social action in the city, and they are a strengthening and integrating force that manages to positively influence the reality of life in the city."