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"It is … our duty as scientists to promote education, rational thinking and tolerance. We should also encourage our educated youth to become technological entrepreneurs. Those countries that nurture this knowhow will survive future financial and social crises. Let us advance science to create a better world for all."
Professor Dan Shechtman, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2011, and member of World ORT’s Academic Advisory Council in Israel.

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"I think education is the fundamental component to South Africa being able to become a successful nation. Education should not be based on race, class, gender or ethnicity and ORT has ensured that people from all walks of life are afforded an equal chance for a better tomorrow.”
Johnny Clegg, musician and anthropologist.

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"Throughout the world, ORT schools provide a modern educational environment in which young people learn to appreciate time-honoured general values as well as get connected to Jewish values. The cutting edge technological orientation brought in by ORT positions Jewish schools at a much higher level, thus providing them with an ability to attract the generation who may otherwise remain unaffiliated."
Natan Sharansky

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"I have had occasion before to remark on the fact that ORT's activity does not base itself upon 'charity' but upon self help. Both for the work of rebuilding human lives and the great task of building a new nation in Israel, the acquisition of skills assumes an enormous importance. I want to assure you of my greatest admiration for the cause in which you are so nobly engaged."
Albert Einstein

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"Your vocational training activities … represent a constructive activity on a people-to-people level which deserves approbation … You are engaged in a work of great humanitarian significance. Yours is the type of meaningful program which transmits skills and technical knowledge as an aid to the modernization of communities and to the improvement of living standards. It is thus in consonance with the main currents of our times."
President John F. Kennedy

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"…ORT has provided an education for life to Jews and others in vulnerable communities throughout the world. In so doing, it has exemplified one of Judaism's greatest values. We are the people who predicated our very existence as a people on education, on 'teaching... diligently to our children.' … The civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome have long since disappeared. Judaism still lives and flourishes and survives. ORT is testimony to that truth.”
Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

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12 Oct 2011 16:48 Age: 217 days
Category: News Update, Latin America

ORT Chile teams up with Coca-Cola to help small businesses

ORT Chile is embarking on an ambitious project to train 20,000 small business-owners in entrepreneurial skills.   It has been approached by the Coca-Cola Foundation to implement Emprende, a major online training programme which aims to give the owners of corner shops and kiosks, common in poorer neighbourhoods, the tools to modernise and expand.   Such businesses are typically family-run and are a critically important part of the economic and social structure of communities across Chile.   “They are a way for people with no formal qualifications to make a living and provide employment and they also extend lines of credit for locals who would not be eligible for a bank account. But they are losing out to supermarkets and so need help if they are to remain in business,” said Marcelo Lewkow, the Executive Director of ORT Chile.

The greatest challenge is the sheer scale of the project – the aim is to recruit 5,000 people in the first year and a total of 20,000 by the end of the second year of operations. If successful, the project may be extended – and inspire similar schemes around the world.

“This is a new way of approaching masses of people, most of whom have not even finished high school, and sets an example of how to use the internet to implement grass-roots social change,” Mr Lewkow said.

He explained that the project will progress in three steps: first, to offer guidance in taking a more entrepreneurial approach to business; second, to help participants choose a business opportunity that fits their needs; and finally participants will design their own profitable project which can be financed through low-cost loans made possible thanks to special arrangements secured by ORT and Coca-Cola with local banks.

The website, which will form the hub of the learning process, is being developed and a call centre will be set up to provide individual support for trainees. But before anything can happen, people will have to be recruited into the programme, and Coca-Cola’s extensive distribution network will provide the means to reach out to potential beneficiaries to ensure that they are informed.

The cooperation between Coca-Cola and ORT Chile goes back 15 years through the TAVEC project, which has seen more than 150 laboratories installed in schools, most of which serve poor neighbourhoods. The project has provided learning opportunities for thousands of children but has never been featured on Chilean television.

The fact that Coca-Cola has approached ORT Chile to design, implement, monitor and optimise Emprende is sign of the trust that has built up during that partnership.

“It is a great vote of confidence in ORT’s ability to deliver,” Mr Lewkow said. “The challenge is great but the rewards of success will be immense.”

World ORT Director General and CEO Robert Singer said that ORT Chile had a well-earned reputation for efficiency and effectiveness.

“ORT Chile is an organisation which is always at peak performance,” Mr Singer said. “It is easy to see why the Coca-Cola Foundation trusts them with such a challenging, innovative project. It is gratifying to see that ORT Chile and the Foundation continue to work together towards our common goals.”

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