When Yoni Yefet-Reich was in high school, he rarely went to class. And when he did, he didn’t feel like he had learned anything.
“At a young age, I understood that the standard system of education was not for me,” says Yefet-Reich, who nevertheless went on to earn law and nonprofit management degrees after studying independently to get his high school diploma.
It was this experience of not connecting with typical classroom instruction that led him and a group of friends to found Kaima, an educational farm for teenagers who have dropped out of school, in 2013. Located just outside of Jerusalem on the moshav, or cooperative agricultural village, where Yefet-Reich grew up, the organic farm has helped dozens of troubled teens get their lives back on track.
Yefet-Reich says that Kaima, which roughly translates as “sustainability” in Aramaic, is about helping the next generation. The organization was a winner in the nonprofit category for the WeWork Creator Awards, held in Jerusalem on June 20.
“We wanted to create an alternative environment for them, but something that’s not just a game, something that is real,” says Yefet-Reich, the organization’s chief executive officer. Customers buy baskets of fresh produce each week, and what they get depends on what was harvested that week—kale, zucchini, eggplant, and sweet potatoes are among the popular crops.
“Almost all of them are not functioning when they come here,” says Yefet-Reich, explaining that many start out by arriving late each day or even skipping work altogether. But after a couple of months, they all show up when the work day begins at 7:30 a.m. “We see a change in them really fast, as this starts to be their home.”
Kaima’s model has become so highly regarded in recent years that it has been replicated in four other communities in Israel, as well as abroad in Tanzania. Seeing the demand for the program soar, Kaima is now working on formalizing its curriculum.
“We want to make sure the model is solid for the future and can be transferred to different places,” Yefet-Reich says.
Although he’s thrilled that the farm is so successful, Yefet-Reich says it proves how much demand there is for alternatives educational systems.
“It’s really a Band-Aid for now, until we change the educational system,” he says. “But for now we are helping a lot of people.”
