Dear friends of Russian Jewish Community Foundation,

My name is Oksana Karimov. I am 23 years old. Right now I'm in my First year of my studies in the Gordon College of Education, that is Located in Haifa.

I live in Nahariya with my mother and my sister. My sister now is 19 years old and she is serving in the army.
Originally I was born in Soviet Union and when I was 2 years old, my family immigrated to Israel.

I was drafted to the IDF in 2011 and served the in Air Force until 2013. I served as an Armament systems technician in a Fighter Squadron called "The Hammers". It’s an F-15i Thunder fighter jet. My job was to take care of everything that somehow related to the armament of this jet: check the plane before the flight, after the flight, and many other things.

Those were very busy but also interesting two years, I learned a lot from my commanders who became like a family to me. But the most important thing about those years is that they were very satisfying, as by those years we had some big "mini wars" against Hamas in Gaza strip. Also it is very satisfying to meet and teach the younger soldiers that came after me. I was released from the army with a sergeant rank.

Right now, I'm in the middle of the first semester of my degree, out of 8, BA in Education and Teaching B.Ed. After undergoing preparatory academic average of 93. With the financial support that I receive from you via IMPACT!, it is easier for me to concentrate on my studies.

At the "Aleh" program in which I take part of as part of the IMPACT! scholarship, I help two children, Liel 6 years old and David 3 years old, whose mother is blind. I read them stories, taking them to activities in the afternoon, playing with them and recently they gave me their nails cut.

The children are really cute and deal with their mother's assumptions amazingly.
This is the place where I have to say thank you very much for all this help! It makes me optimistic to know that there are people like you, who are willing to help in such a tremendous way. I hope that your family is doing well, and that you are having a good and healthy year so far!

And again thank you very much for this big effort!

Sincerely yours,
Oksana Karimov

On the photo: that's me in the army Releases a plane to fly