INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Therefore, the idea of postponement of any other activity for the
women’s national teams for a relatively short period of time might
seem inappropriate, but from my point of view it was not as bad as
giving on this project, which in my opinion had the potential to
positively and significantly change Israeli Women’s Volleyball in
future years.
I, therefore, took into account that once I would bring the project
to work, I would also have enough time and energy to deal with
looking for ways to activate the other women national team initiatives.
It is important to understand that the VAYTP is a long-term project
that will eventually include the junior national team, the youth
national team and also women’s up under 21 national team as well. At
that stage, I knew that there was a possibility of acquiring financing
from the volleyball association, but it was only one third of the
amount of money required in addition, the condition of the volleyball
association to provide this financing was to get an official letter with a
guarantee from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport to assign
one third of necessary financing to the project. In February a letter
was sent to the General Director of the Ministry of Education, Culture
and Sport, who was a female appointed by the Minister, who was also
a well-known feminist as well.
Beside the official steps, some other informal contacts had been
developed, (most of them with women within the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sport) who were willing to help. These
connections were clearly influential for the development of the
project, mainly on the male-dominated board in the Volleyball
Association and further more on the male-dominated board in the
ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, for whom dealing with a
“women’s network” was clearly a new experience.
The network I created was very influential on the male-dominated
environment, but we knew that we did not have much time, and were
required to move as fast as possible towards receiving the written
document. Getting this document would give us the keys to the next
important issue of localization of the future players, convincing their
parents, raising external scholarships and establishing the professional
staff.
In April I received the necessary document from the Ministry, and
few minutes before the campaign was open, one of the member of the
- 330 -