Since its inception, ORT Chile has provided support to the government, to local businesses, and to 500 schools and institutions in the country, helping to educate hundreds of thousands of students.
ORT Chile has become even more involved in supporting the wider local community and its work has attracted widespread acclaim and support.
ORT Chile became active in the Second World War supporting refugees who needed vocational training in order to find work. The first school opened in 1944 in Santiago with 42 students, offering technical and general education classes.
In the 1970s, ORT Chile began working with Vaad HaChinuch to introduce its science and technology programs into Jewish schools. These have grown through the years to include seminars and courses for students and adults, teacher training and Jewish education.
In 1995, ORT Chile started working with the Coca-Cola Foundation on a network of science education centers (the Tavec project). These provided state-of-the-art science and technology laboratories together with an educational infrastructure, training programs and technical support.
Russia
Russia is the birthplace of ORT. The organization was founded in 1880 in St. Petersburg to provide Russian Jews with employable skills as a way out of poverty.
Belgium
Belgian ORT was established in 1946 primarily to educate Jewish children who had returned from the camps so that they could enter regular schools.
Kyrgyzstan
The ORT Pri Etz Chaim School in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, caters to more than 110 students of elementary through to high school age.