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August 18, 2022

Dear MEET community, 

Four weeks ago, when we opened the 2022 MEET Summer with over 300 Israeli and Palestinian highschoolers coming together from the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel to study with their MIT instructors, we didn’t expect to face our challenging reality at its worst. However, the recent events also reminded us how urgent and necessary it is to create spaces where bright young Palestinians and Israelis - the entrepreneurs of tomorrow - learn how to work together towards challenging their reality and leading social change.

Given the complicated circumstances, and feeling that it wasn’t the right time for celebrations, we decided to postpone the annual Year-3 class graduation ceremony. A special complementary educational program is currently being  developed in order to allow our final-year students time to process and conclude their joint journey properly in the coming month.

               

Despite all challenges, we are proud to share with you that the 2022 MEET Summer was highly successful, with the biggest, and most diverse student body ever to participate in MEET activities. Join us in appreciating our amazing students, staff, and volunteers - a growing community hailing from the region and from all around the world - by reading about their summer experiences below.


MEET’s bi-national startups - we have two winners! 

Out of the eight final startup projects our final-year students developed through the MEET Summer, two won the first and second prizes. The two winning teams were chosen to receive a grant, generously provided by AppsFlyer, that would allow them to continue working on their bi-national startups after graduation.



The winner of MEET’s months-long startup accelerator process, WaterWest, aims at tackling one of the most pressing problems in the West Bank - the uneven distribution of water. The bi-national founders of the startup envision a world where Palestinians in the West Bank have continuous access to running water, a vision that is unfortunately far from being realized. To deal with the reality of unreliable water distribution, the WaterWest team has devised a device that tracks the amount of remaining water in each distributed water tank, and provides the app users with the data as well as with ways to plan their water consumption wisely according to use patterns analysis.
 


Born out of a deep sense of compassion and concern, Together is an app that aims to recruit the youth to help positively impact the mental health of elderly people by providing a platform that connects them. The app user marks their specific interests (e.g. chess, dance), and is instantly matched with an elderly person from a registered retirement home who shares that same hobby. Together won second place in MEET’s startup accelerator, and received a seed money grant to pursue their project goals in the near future.

PinkBird are countering “pink tax” and promoting gender equality


AidAhead teaches teenagers how to respond effectively to medical crises


Vast provides teenagers with access to practical life skills

SpokenLi is teaching Arabic and Hebrew language and culture


Objection is helping minorities to defend themselves from police brutality


Harmoni is preventing self-harm among teenagers

MEET Dana (alum) 

This summer, we had the honor of welcoming a special intern into our Resource Development team - Dana Ghoul, a MEET alumna (class of 2018) from East Jerusalem, who is currently enrolled in Bard College, New York, where she studies Human Rights.

Dana joined MEET in 2016 with the hopes of improving her skills in computer science, but quickly discovered that her true passion had to do with the bi-national and entrepreneurial aspects of the program.

"Human Rights wasn't on my list of career choices, but MEET opened me up to diversity. Because of the program, I discovered I find great interest in working with people from different cultural backgrounds and with diverse perspectives."

Before joining us this summer, Dana interned at the Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling in Ramallah, where she was involved in the international advocacy unit, striving to help Palestinian women counter violence and other atrocities.

During her time at the 2022 MEET Summer, Dana was matched with a mentor from the MEET community, who is now supporting her as she takes her first steps in the field of human rights and social entrepreneurship. 

"With MEET, doors open. The world becomes bigger. Opportunities you never would have thought about are presented for you to challenge yourself and take them.”

MEET Navpreet Singh (MIT instructor

Navpreet Singh, a computer science student from MIT, roamed the halls of his university and saw a poster announcing an opportunity to teach computer science in the Middle East. With a modest amount of knowledge about the geo-political situation in the region, Navpreet was happy to learn more and witness in person the relations between Israelis and Palestinians, and promote mutual understanding, equality, and bi-national teamwork. As a Punjabi Sikh, Navpreet is well aware of the hardships that plague minorities, therefore, he was very eager to take part in a program centered around mitigating such issues.

Over the course of his time at the 2022 MEET Summer, Navpreet helped his Year-2 students develop apps and other technological solutions that strive to tackle societal issues and promote entrepreneurial objectives. During breaks, he dove deep into conversations with MEET staff and students, learned about the lives of Israelis and Palestinians in the region, and realized how great  the potential of technology is to create social change.

“While tech is a big part of MEET, it is the conversations and the relationships that really make this program important.”

MEET Tidhar (student) 

Tidhar, a 17 year old from one of Jerusalem’s remote neighborhoods, has just wrapped up his three year journey in MEET, a path he describes as “eye opening, strenuous, but definitely worth it.” Over the 2022 MEET Summer, Tidhar served as the project manager and developer of the bi-national startup, "Waterwest", that strives to assist Palestinian residents of the West Bank who suffer from unequal water distribution.

"Through the program, I was exposed to problems that the Palestinians experience in their day-to-day lives. Things I wasn’t aware of, and even if I was, I didn't know to what extent."

"Waterwest" ended up winning first place in MEET's exciting Demo Day, in which Tidhar and his fellow MEET students presented their projects to a panel of professional judges. When asked why spend the whole summer tackling such a complex topic, he explained:

"As young people, we have to assume our responsibility. We are soon to become adults, and this is our time to take over and change our society for the better."

Now, as part of MEET's growing cadre of over 730 Israeli and Palestinian alumni, Tidhar is eager to return next year as an teaching assistant, and who knows, maybe apply for MIT.

Thank you to the MEET community

This summer couldn’t have reached the heights it did without the generous hand of a large assembly of people. A huge thank you to the instructors from MIT and other top-ranking universities who devoted their summer vacation to fine tuning the tech skills of our students. Another big thanks to MEET's local educational team. Thank you for putting your hearts into working with each and every one of our students, even as the ground shook and challenges arose. It takes a village to sustain the MEET Summer, and we would like to thank each and every one of the MEET staff and volunteers, for your part in making this incredible summer come into being.

Finally, a huge thank you to the partners who wholeheartedly gave us their trust,  support, time and expertise, volunteered as judges and speakers, toured the summer campus, and offered their advice for our students. We are tremendously grateful to Appsflyer and Meta (Facebook) for kindly hosting us in our peak summer events. Without our partners and investors, we couldn’t have realized this ambitious task. Thank you for helping us MEET.

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