Tel Aviv University International students volunteering and support group

The 2023 started slowly for the VISA renewal process. In fact, now that the national strike that hampered the normal activities of the Immigration offices is over, any expiring visa needs to be renewed ASAP. Unfortunately, there are huge delays in the process and the waiting times are lengthy and uncertain. If you are aware of the expiration date of your visa, the very first thing to do is to fill the TAU international (Visa office) form, which is MANDATORY to request an appointment to the Ministry of Interior for the bureaucracy of the renewal. Here -->  https://forms.monday.com/forms/6066d621e0591bb9e2007473c1807ece?r=use1 Also, according to the last information we got, there are some new rules: The process can take several weeks up to 2 months, so it is suggested to start preparing the papers and reserve a place in the waiting list 2-3 months ahead. The people whose Visas status is pending are considered by law "not regular", but the de facto situation tolerates them, ...

Whether you want to get engaged or you are looking for some help, this list might provide you with some ideas. Enjoy! You can donate surplus or get medicines(for very low income patient) by this initiative https://shop.super-pharm.co.il/donatemedicines You can get nuts and dried fruits for very convenient prices with this initiative  https://nuts.hahishook.com/ You can volunteer as a virtual grandson by the initiative "Adopt a safta". Safta means "grandma" in Hebrew and the idea is to make lonely elderly people interact with youngsters such as they were their real grandchildren. A unique experience https://www.adoptasafta.com/

Dear students, We want to address two significant matters regarding the weather and the earthquake this past evening. All the guidelines listed below, are taken from the Home Front Command website. https://www.oref.org.il/en 1.Weather:  In the coming days, rains accompanied by thunderstorms are expected throughout the country. To avoid life-threatening situations, it is important to know the guidelines and safety protocols:  • Make sure the heating devices are working safely, keep them away from flammable materials and turn them off when you leave the room. •Remove all items from balconies and windows, to avoid them falling over people beneath you.   • Stay away from detached power lines and fallen trees.  • Do not enter flooded areas.  • During heavy rainfall, please do not go down to an underground place such as an underground parking lot, basement or shelter. 2. Earthquake: An earthquake occurred this night at a magnitude of 7.7 in Turkey. Due to this, we are...

We report here the email of today sent from the TRFO, great news for everyone! ____________________________________________ Hello, Thanks to our struggle and to your impressive support and engagement (including a petition signed by over 700 scholarship recipients), the university changed its decision not to raise scholarships for the 2022-23 academic year.  Therefore, during last week’s public meeting with scholarship recipients, we decided not to escalate our struggle against the university administration, but rather to continue building and organizing our collective power through activity groups, so that we may act quickly in case the administration does not deliver on its promises.  We received the wording of the administration’s decision this week. The different items of the decision are detailed below:   Scholarship amounts will increase by at least 5% for the 2023-24 academic year, for all scholarship recipients, including postdoctoral fellows - whose scholarship am...

Today we met the representatives of  Teaching and Research Faculty Organization , the body in the university that represents the scholars, meaning everyone who is receiving a scholarship and they are not employed by the university. The core issue was about the scholarship amounts vs the increase cost of life (CPI). Here below we report their email: Prices are rising - raise the scholarships! The semester is already ending and the university administration still hasn’t raised scholarships according to the consumer price index (CPI) (almost 5%), in violation of its agreement with the Teaching and Research Faculty Organization from 2009. What does this mean for us? That the university owes each scholar between 330 and 3150 NIS for the semester (depending on scholarship percentage and research stage)! Meanwhile, the cost of living is rising! As a result of our advocacy over the past weeks, the administration is finally addressing the issue: the president of the university told us that ...