High school in Israel is not free.
Parents must cover the costs of books and school supplies, lab fees, educational school trips, uniforms and more.

For many Ethiopian families in Israel, paying for these school costs is a financial burden.
Instead, Ethiopian teenagers are left out of class activities or are sent away from home to lower-level state-subsidized boarding schools.

Is it any wonder that Ethiopian teenagers lag behind other Israelis in school?

Creating Better Opportunities
The NACOEJ/Edward G. Victor High School Sponsorship Program provides the crucial funds so that Ethiopian-Israeli students can live at home and attend schools that will best prepare them to enter college. Program sponsors fund scholarships that cover school fees and allow students to take full advantage of educational opportunities in their schools. This support lessens the huge burden placed on impoverished immigrant parents.

Enabling Ethiopian Students to Excel
One of the major benefits of this program is that it enables Ethiopian-Israeli students to fully develop their potential in good local high schools. Gifted students whose unique talents might otherwise go unrecognized are able to participate in special programs that allow them to flourish. NACOEJ scholarships have been instrumental in enabling advanced students excel, becoming role models for the entire Ethiopian community.

Since the inception of the NACOEJ/ Edward G. Victor High School Sponsorship Program, thousands of Ethiopian-Israeli pupils have been able to attend academic high schools in their own communities and live at home with their families. The program has played an influential role in creating a pattern of more and more Ethiopian-Israeli youth studying in neighborhood schools, rather than attending distant and often low-level vocational boarding schools. In recent years, the drop-out rate amongst Ethiopian high school students has significantlly decreased.

Lastly, many students in the program study on a full matriculation track and the numbers of those graduating with full matriculation have increased.

You Can Help!
Sponsor an Ethiopian-Israeli high school student. Only $425 a year can mean the difference between failure and success for a teen at risk. Your support throughout a student's high school career helps ensure his or her graduation.  

If you choose, we will make a match between you and one or more students whose needs will be covered by your donation. You may also choose to donate to the general high school program. If you choose to be matched with a student, you will receive a biography of the student with a photo. A portion of this contribution may also be used to support students on the waiting list. Scholarship funds are sent directly to the schools who oversee the appropriate distribution of your gifts.

Please help us to provide sponsorships for many more Ethiopian-Israeli high school students on our waiting list.

For more information, please email Education@nacoej.org or call 212-233-5200 x.230

Click here to be a sponsor or to support the program. In "Additional Comments", type in "High School Sponsorship", followed by the number of students you wish to sponsor. Then, above, select "Other Amount" and enter the dollar amount that corresponds to $425 multiplied by the number of students you have chosen to sponsor. If you wish to contribute and not sponsor, enter the amount you wish to donate to the programs.