Lotus

Empowering Orthodox Druze women to join the core of the high-tech industry

Introducing Lotus

The unique and thoughtfully-crafted Lotus program identifies highly-talented Orthodox Druze women, with excellent matriculation scores in scientific tracks, and provides them with deep, hands-on tech training, making them favorable candidates for employment with exciting, challenging, and rewarding high-tech firms.

A part of Portland Israel’s network of nation-wide employment tech hubs for underserved communities, Lotus goes beyond training and mentoring, to create significant employment opportunities, as well as the local facilities that enable women to work within and around their cultural requirements.

Having already graduated, successfully placed, and created a safe zone for dozens of women, the Lotus women-only tech hub in Daliyat al-Karmel continues to expand, with a second hub expected to launch in 2024 in the Galilee’s Yarka/Julis area.

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An Echoing Impact

92%

of successful job placements

~80

Lotus graduates are employed as software developers

100%

job retention after two years

89%

of positions filled by Lotus were originally intended to go offshore

Employers

Why Lotus?

The Wider Perspective

The Lotus program was established to serve talented, young Orthodox Druze women with a varied tech or scientific background. Despite graduating at the top of their class, speaking both Hebrew and English fluently, and being highly capable and ambitious, their religion, tradition, and social and geographical position in Israel’s periphery leaves these talented women with very few options for advancing themselves professionally.

The Lotus program creates local tech hubs and employment opportunities that adhere to cultural restrictions, but nonetheless enable Orthodox Druze women to develop a career in technology. Without driving, working, or studying outside their village boundaries, the graduates of the Lotus program are integrated into the Israeli high-tech industry, and empowered to provide for themselves and their families.

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What Graduates, Employers & Community Members Are Saying

“Lotus has deeply influenced the community, especially in the religious sector. Today, many girls who are still in school have hope and direction for building their future".
Maha Kayuf
Software Developer
Amdocs
For me, Lotus was a turning point towards a challenging new path, giving me exposure to an innovative, fascinating world, while maintaining my tradition.
Einav Halabi Bader
Data Analyst
SeeTree
“Lotus graduates are brilliant and capable women who were given the opportunity to prove themselves, and they did - at an international level!” “The graduates of the Lotus program are religious Druze women, pioneers in the high-tech industry, who managed to preserve their tradition, while integrating into the tech world. These are brilliant and capable women who were given the opportunity to prove themselves, and they did - and by and large, at an international level! This success would not have happened without the good people of The Portland Trust, Rami Schwartz and his friends, who decided to stand up and take action when the State did not.”
Shaykh Mowafaq Tarif
the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel
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"Our great experience with Portlands' programs graduates and their smooth integration in Finastra, led us to expand the firm's R&D activity to the north".
Gilad Shoshani
Finastra

Contact

To learn more about Portland Israel or to join our activities

    The Portland Trust Israel
    Azrieli Center, Triangular Tower, 35th Floor 132 Menahem Begin Rd. , Tel Aviv 6701101

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