Jewish Heart for Africa

Wherever you might stand politically when it comes to Israel, you have to accept that Israeli innovation is as cutting edge as anywhere in the world. Israel may well become the first country in the world to offer a nationwide network for electric cars to recharge, leveraging their advanced solar technology.

Even as a fledgling state, Israel freely shared, and continues to share, such technology and many arid countries have benefited from Israel’s irrigation systems, often offered for free and with experts who were willing to go and offer on-the-ground help.

Here is a new organization continuing this legacy and harnessing the relationship between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

Jewish Heart for Africa is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that brings sustainable Israeli technologies to rural African villages. Since its founding in 2008, Jewish Heart for Africa has completed 35 solar powered projects, bringing light to schools to improve education, pumping clean water in regions of drought and providing refrigeration for lifesaving medicines and vaccines.

To date, they have brought solar energy to over 150,000 African people, and 12,000 children have been vaccinated with vaccines stored in their solar powered refrigerators.

Here is a 6-minute introduction to their work.

By using Israeli innovation to save African lives, Jewish Heart for Africa supports Israel’s economy and promote a positive image for Israel abroad. In addition to their work in Africa, they engage in education and campus advocacy in order to demonstrate the power of Israeli technologies.

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at www.alonshalev.com