Francesca

The Yoni Jesner Award Scheme wasn’t just something we did to get a certificate at the end, it’s something we did because we wanted to help make a difference. Our school motto, is from Pirkei Avot and teaches us; im ayn ani li mi li, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? Oochsheani la’atzmi mah ani, if I am only for myself, what am I? im loh achshav aymatai, If not now, then when? We all say sometimes we will do this, and we will do that, but often we never get round to doing anything. The Yoni Jesner Scheme gave us the encouragement to get up, go out and use our time for others and not just ourselves. It’s easy to be self-centred and only think about our own needs, but it’s so important to realise the needs of others and the potential we all
have to do something positive.

Cassandra

For my Yoni Jesner volunteering I chose a number of different projects. Firstly, I helped out at my shul – Ilford Federation Synagogue. I helped with JAC’s, Bridge club and making the Kiddush in shul. I really enjoyed being part of my community because I got to know the people who are there a lot better. I also enjoyed helping at the Big Bagel brunch event for year 7’s in our school. We raised around £500 for World Jewish Relief  and a lot of hard work went into making the event successful. Lastly, I volunteered at my baby cousins play group because I really like helping the young children. I enjoyed the whole experience of doing the Yoni Jesner award.

Megan

Tali, Naomi, Fran and I decided to bake cakes and sell them for charity. We did this over the course of two weeks and gave all our profits to World Jewish Relief. It felt really good doing this because I knew it was for charity and although it is very hectic trying to make 50 cupcakes in the space of half an hour, it was very fun. Secondly I helped out at the farm in Cornwall, I visit every year. Every morning I woke up at six o’clock and was out in the stables by six thirty. The first hour or so was very hectic but I knew it was worth it because in Judaism, we are taught that caring for animals is very important and often by being kind and sensitive to animals we learn to be kind and sensitive to other people. I feel I learnt a lot from both these experiences from the feeling you get when you know you’re doing something kind to how to tack up a pony properly.

Jordan

I volunteered at Chigwell and Hainault nursery and I learnt many new things such as how good it is to volunteer and help in the community. I enjoyed helping out because it was fun to read with the children as well as building things with them. It was good to help out and do something good for a change, I never really did any voluntary work before but I now know I want to do more.

Naomi + Tali

Tali and I chose two very different volunteering experiences. The first was at Redbridge Jewish Community Centre, where we socialised with the elderly members of the day centre.

We really enjoyed volunteering at Redbridge Jewish Community Centre as it was a good and new experience that we’d never tried before. I think that the members liked it as well because we were new faces who they could talk to and share their experiences of when they were our age.

The art room was where we enjoyed our time the most whether it was sorting out the equipment, talking to the talented artists or re-decorating the room.

The other thing we did was baking cupcakes then selling them to children at a local primary school. All money we raised went to our chosen charity which was World Jewish Relief we did this with Fran and Megan.

The cupcakes were really fun and messy to make. It was really cute to see the children asking their mums for money.

The members of the public were equally generous in helping us sell out. All in all we really loved participating in this experience and we would encourage anyone who has the chance to go for it and make a difference.