- info@beshvilei.co.il
“I’ve lived here for twenty years and didn’t know there are stairs into the wadi at the end of the street,” … “I arrived on foot at the start of a trail I had never walked before, right from the neighborhood,” … “Every time I leave the house, what matters most to me is not the trail itself, but who I hike with.”
I hear these sentences all the time on the community hikes we lead, and I recognize myself in them from the beginning of my own journey.
The COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation pushed me to leave the house, discover our local nature, and open up to new and surprising spaces that, like many, I had previously considered distant and inaccessible. I began documenting my walks weekly through posts — exploring trails, visiting community gardens, urban parks, caves, water sources, viewpoints, and fascinating encounters with city residents I met during all these nature outings.
As an educator, it was clear to me that to change residents’ perceptions of areas mistakenly considered passive, awareness had to be raised. The Facebook group “Beshvilei Haifa” that I founded at that time, aims to raise awareness among Haifa residents about the nature right outside their doors, the Carmel wadis and their tributaries, and the network of trails they offer. Since its inception, we have been sharing updated content about everything that connects nature and community along Haifa’s trails.
My weekly column in the “חי פה” newspaper, which reviewed all the trails I explored, increased public interest in Haifa’s nature and encouraged the community to demand that candidates in the last municipal elections address nature and the wadis of Haifa.
Today, “Beshvilei Haifa” is a well-established and large platform that provides information to the public about the trails and fosters social and environmental involvement through neighborhood projects, support for public campaigns to preserve the wadis, and leading the vision to establish an organized and signposted hiking trail system in Haifa’s wadis.
The greatest gift that “Beshvilei Haifa” gives me and all its activists is the privilege to meet a large community of hikers who come to nature with open hearts and eager spirits. The social gatherings we create in nature fill us with fresh air for our lungs and souls, so by the end of each hike, we are already looking forward to the next meeting.
See you on the trails,
Inbal
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