The largest SA IUA Partnership 2000 delegation to attend steering committee meetings in the Beit Shemesh/Adulam region came in June, 2002. The delegation comprised lay leaders ( three new chairperson for P2K) from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and included the National Chairman, Director General of the SA IUA, the National Coordinator, the Director of the IUA, Western Province and the current Keren Hayesod Representative in South Africa.

The programme included visits on site, and evening functions. One of the high lights, was an ethnic dinner and get together with the women who participate in the Women's Empowerment Programme, sponsored by the Women's Zionist Organisation of South Africa as over and above P2K funding. A video of this evening has been produced and will be widely shown.

Another interesting visit was to the Roglit Day Care Centre, another over and above project, which was funded by the IUA, The Ministry of Labour and Welfare and the Mateh Yehudah Regional Council.

During the tour of the various sites, the delegation was escorted by three volunteers from the Border Police in the region and a great connection between these three soldiers and the delegation was established. The SA IUA is looking in SA for donations for equipment which this patrol is lacking, and hopefully, they will shortly be supplied with torches, a computer and other security equipment. We required military escort as the day before, a suicide bomber was caught in the region of the Roglit Day Care Centre.

The meetings were very fruitful and a decision was taken to have a lead project that would concentrate on Youth. The programme for this lead project will be evolved during the coming months and in Oct/Nov 2002, the budget and the plans for implementing this major project will be authorised.

Av 5762 - July 2002