Students in the Arabic-speaking village of Arara Study The Way to Happiness® booklet in a school workshop.

Workshops of Hope

In spring of 2003, Danny Vidislavky was struggling with a problem. Danny Vidislavsky is the Executive Director of our Tel Aviv wing, which prints and distributes The Way to Happiness booklets in the Middle East using funds donated here in the U.S. Danny wanted to make sure that the booklets were not only distributed but also read and applied.

His first idea was to ask readers to answer a quiz about the booklet and submit their completed quizzes as entries in a sweepstakes. This sweepstakes was a great success --- over 500 entries were submitted and virtually all of them included wonderful success stories on the booklet. The happy winner received a donated prize -- a trip for two to Canada. This contest was followed with several more.  

But Danny wasn’t satisfied. With the help of another volunteer, Shuki Misrachi, the Tel Aviv group started an even more ambitious project – workshops in which hope for happiness would be revitalized and The Way to Happiness precepts introduced. Shuki launched the workshops in classrooms throughout Israel, both in Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking communities. By the end of 2003, eight volunteers had delivered over 240 workshops to over 15,000 participants, mostly children in classrooms and summer camps. At one point

over 40 summer camps were on a waiting list for workshops.

 

Participants in the workshop each receive their own copy of The Way to Happiness booklet; each classroom receives a copy of an illustrated poster of all the precepts; and each teacher receives copies of a guide so that he/she can continue weekly lessons on the booklet.

The program continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In the first four months of 2004, more workshops have been delivered than during the entirety of last year – approximately 300. Most of these have been for school children and teachers but in addition, workshops have been held for women’s clubs, city employees, youth clubs, groups of unemployed people and others. The volunteer corps has grown to ten fully-trained workshop leaders, with more in training.

Since start-up, the major problem of the program has been insufficient volunteers and materials to meet the demand.


There is frequently a waiting list of organizations wanting workshops --- so Danny must slow promotion to make sure that he can deliver as promised. And so far, he has not had the resources to respond to requests from schools which want larger, longer-term programs.

Danny’s plans include expanding the program in Palestinian communities, that is, Arabic-speaking communities adjoining Israeli areas. Currently, about half the participating schools have been Arabic-speaking, but few have been in these adjoining, Palestinian, areas.

While this is a challenging program --- workshop leaders drive the length and breadth of Israel entirely on a volunteer basis --- the rewards are phenomenal. One volunteer wrote in an article for the leading Hi-Tech newspaper in Israel, the MailyDaily, about his experience leading a workshop for teachers, “One of them approached me, hugged me and told me, ‘You know, Uzi, you remind me of the reason why I decided to be a teacher in the first place… and that what I dream of is still possible.’ "

New Hope for the Middle East ---

2,000,000 The Way to Happiness booklets Distributed to Palestinians and Israelis!

 

Volunteer leads After-School Workshop in Tel Aviv

Palestinian university student volunteers unload booklets for distribution among Palestinians.

The Palestinian/Israeli distribution has now passed the 2,000,000 mark! The two-millionth The Way to Happiness booklet was among the 100,000 sent out by Pnai Plus magazine. Pnai Plus is the Hebrew TV guide.
Danny Vidislavky, Executive Director of our Israeli sister organization, our distribution wing, sent us an e-mail about the 100,000 booklets ---

   “Better than I could think of!!! Pnai Plus is owned by Yediot Aharonot, the largest daily newspaper in Israel and the most widely read Hebrew daily in the world.

   “So the subscribers of Pnai Plus --- all 100,000 of them --- are getting their copies of The Way to Happiness booklet under the SUPER positioning of Yediot Aharonot daily newspaper!!!

   “The saleswoman from Pnai Plus told us they got calls from people asking about the booklet…. Thanks to all of you for making it happen.”

Some Comments from Booklet Readers

“[I intend … ] to disseminate this booklet amongst everyone in my environment, friends and family. If everybody would know how to behave in society, to take care the other fellow, to take care of the environment, animals, to respect the other fellow, to aspire to happiness and health, everybody would be happy inside themselves and me, too." –-- T.F., Israeli

“If I may obtain copies of this book in both Hebrew and Arabic, 10 copies in Arabic and 10 copies in Hebrew. Honestly, I've read this book, and it is excellent. Very excellent. And through it, one can obtain a happy life and more than that.” –-- voicemail by Zihad, Palestinian

News Notes

Moroccan Bazaars Successful

This spring we held two Moroccan Bazaars – our famous garage sale. Funds raised covered distribution costs of 100,000 The Way to Happiness booklets given out by Pnai Plus, the Hebrew T.V. Guide.

Thanks to our supporters for their donations of items.  For donations, call Rivka (323) 661-7782. 

Scouts Sell Greeting Cards

Girl Scouts in Florida and Boy Scouts in Los Angeles are partnering with the Association in selling our greeting cards. Supporters who are troop leaders have made this possible.

Go to www.apume.org for greeting card ordering information.

Free The Way to Happiness

E-Booklets a Hit!

     In April, websites were launched that offer free The Way to Happiness E-booklets (booklets available from the Internet) in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian. During the first week, 500 Hebrew booklets were downloaded --- more E-booklets than in any other language on the planet! Free E-booklets were made possible by a donation by supporter, Jim Harper.

"After reading it, I realized that it is possible to improve many things, the way of life, the attitude. The booklet is very interesting and I will be glad to get a few others to distribute among my friends." E-Booklet Reader

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©2004 Association for Peace & Understanding in the Middle East. All rights reserved. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library in the USA and in other countries (trademark registrations issued and other registrations pending) and is used with permission.