Education is no doubt important for personal and professional growth. Even though most people underestimate the role of identity-centered education, it actually serves as a nourishing background for all other types of knowledge children acquire. When young people know enough about their history, heritage, culture, and customs, they become more confident in life and can achieve more.
Yael Poliavich is a person committed to high-quality education, but who also recognizes the role of identity-centered knowledge for proper child development. She founded a global charitable organization in 2020, along with her husband, Uri Poliavich, to support and promote high-quality, identity-centered education. Now, this charity, the Yael Foundation, partners with 143 educational programs across 45 countries and continues to grow, promoting the Jewish values and up-to-date knowledge children need to succeed.
Goal and Motivation behind the Foundation
Yael Poliavich recognized the importance of high-quality, identity-centered education, yet she was also fully aware of the need to build a solid organization to promote it. She was not only motivated to address the gap in high-quality, identity-centered education but also committed to making it easily accessible to children in all corners of the globe, whether they live in a city or a remote community.
Yael Poliavich was particularly focused on sharing knowledge about Jewish culture, heritage, and language with children. In addition to identity-centered education, the sense of belonging to a greater community only reinforces the child’s confidence and social integration.
The Yael Foundation supports different formal and informal programs that help children obtain the up-to-date knowledge they need to succeed in their lives. Those are always backed by identity-based knowledge as well. Both can be obtained in the supportive, international environment that Yael Poliavich builds, maintains, and expands, aiming to maximize the coverage of the foundation’s activities.
Values Supporting the Foundation
Yael Poliavich has built this international foundation and community around the key values she upholds. Yael Poliavich is fully dedicated to ongoing, lifelong learning and education. She also values people above all else, emphasizing the importance of belonging to a greater community.
Yael Poliavich bases her long-term plans and specific steps she takes in charity on the desire to make people’s lives better. As a person with strategic thinking, she knows it is better to ensure positive changes happen as early in life as possible. That’s why she has chosen child education as her priority. It helps to shape the new generation of leaders, just like her mother did during Yael’s own childhood.
Yael Poliavich: From Early Years to Professional Success
Yael was born in Kyrgyzstan in 1982. Her mother was a music teacher at the M. Abdraev Republican Boarding School in Bishkek and was wholeheartedly dedicated to education. She treated it not as a profession but as a true calling. Her mother demonstrated to Yael how high-quality education and skills can transform lives for the better.
Yael Poliavich was dedicated to learning, whether in formal or informal settings. She graduated from the reputable local higher education institution, the Academy of Public Administration in Kyrgyzstan (1999-2004), where she obtained a degree in Finance, Economics, and Credit.
For over a decade, Yael Poliavich worked in business, serving in roles of finance and operational management. In addition to a solid understanding of commercial relationships, she gained excellent planning skills and learned how to scale operations. She later fully transmitted these backgrounds, skills, and experiences in philanthropy, to which she has fully devoted her time and efforts since 2020.
The Yael Foundation Today: from Goals to Achievements
Yael Poliavich has significantly expanded the foundation’s activities, which now span 45 countries. It supports 143 formal and informal educational programs: kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, Sunday schools, after-school, and other educational initiatives.
Yael Poliavich has managed to ensure this global reach, which she continues to expand, thanks to the foundation’s clear and scalable organizational structure. Yael has opted for partnering with local organizations that are local leaders and share the same values as the Yael Foundation itself. Yael Poliavich provides, through her international charity, all the necessary facilities and resources so that children can obtain high-quality, identity-centered education. Yael Poliavich has also been involved in the foundation’s activities, not only to support professional educators who can create up-to-date curricula that will help Jewish children succeed, but also to give them a solid understanding of their culture. These dedicated and well-planned efforts enabled Yael Poliavich to provide access to high-quality, identity-centered education to more than 22,500 children worldwide.
The Yael Foundation: Future at a Glance
Yael Poliavich plans to further expand the foundation’s activities and global reach. Beyond its geography, Yael will support new educational programs that will help to grow more confident children, with stronger leadership potential and the skills they need to realize it. The network of premier schools is among the upcoming plans on Yael’s agenda, which she actively works on. Well-educated people have higher chances of achieving more and succeeding in their lives.
