On Thursday, June 2nd, we held the first launch-evening of the Oil for Peace project. It was part of the pick event of the Jerusalemite entrepreneurship project of Presentense - an NGO that promotes social entrepreneurship in Israel and in the world. During the event, Oil for Peace was presented alongside other fascinating social initiatives.

The evening summarized a six-month program in which we were privileged to learn various tools needed for the beginning social entrepreneur; we got a coach that accompanied us during the process, we developed a clearer vision for our initiative, learned to build a business plan, to work with volunteers, marketing and more. Most importantly we created a community of entrepreneurs in which each in his/her own way works to make the world slightly better.

The evening itself started for us very early. In the previous day we worked late into the night preparing the first bottles of our initiative. We arrived at the Rabin Hostel in order to get organized and rehearse. We prepared the booths, trained our "pitch" for the project and took advantage of the last minutes to be excited together. The evening began with time for acquaintance. We were privileged to meet the leading people of Jerusalem in social action, representatives of foundations and NGOs, and many interested people. The food served could be suitable for the Presidential Conference.

Then came the time of projects' presentation. Each of the entrepreneurs went on stage and presented his project in just 15 seconds. It was a pick towards which we worked a lot. It took us six months of work until we understood our initiative enough to be able to present it in such a short time. The excitement was very visible on everyone, and I even forgot to present the bottle on stage…

After that, the guests were invited to visit the booths and we were answering questions, presenting our vision and details - again and again. We received advices, assessments, critique, feedback and opinions. In the end we discovered that we also managed to sell our first ten bottles!

In the end of the evening we went to celebrate the success of the event and exchange experiences.

For further details about Oil for Peace: info@oil4peace.org