Genevieve Bootcov is safety parent for vulnerable babies and the founder of Little Hands Baby Home. As a Herzlia graduate and lifelong member of Netzer Youth Movement, her passion for taking care of children grew as she took on more leadership roles. After volunteering at the baby house [Ubuntu], she formalised this role by becoming an accredited safety parent for babies. This year she’s opened her own baby care home and is currently caring for Luna, who is just five months.
Little Hands Baby Home is a unique home which cares about each child as an individual. The aim is to provide each baby and child with the support to reach their unique full potential — giving them a head-start for wherever life takes them. The home plans to care for six abandoned babies at any given time.
Esta Levitas has been deeply involved in volunteering in Jewish communal life for the past 20 years. She has also spent many years doing outreach projects in Cape Town’s townships. Currently, Esta chairs the outreach arm of Bnoth Zion WIZO Cape Town with great passion and motivation.
The focus of Bnoth Zion WIZO Cape Town Outreach Activity is to ensure food security for those who need it most — working with food kitchens and helping them establish vegetable gardens. The project is currently working with two food kitchens, the Community Bible Society and the Yiza Ekhaya Community Soup Kitchen, run by Mama Mickey. Both are based in Khayelitsha. They are very excited to be holding their first training programme in June, where 15 people will be equipped with the skills needed to create and sustain vegetable gardens.
Galit Cohen was born in Haifa and now lives in the Eastern Cape. With twenty years’ experience as a professional in the international development and humanitarian aid arena, she’s managed programmes in Israel, Haiti, USA, the Philippines and South Sudan.
In South Africa she’s worked in townships around Gauteng and the Western Cape. For the past eight years Galit has been the Director of Ripples for Change.
Ripples for Change was founded in 2013 in East London to strengthen rural and semi-urban communities in South Africa. The organisation believes in upskilling community members and leaders to ensure impactful, long-lasting social and economic change. It’s dedicated to finding new strategies for dealing with challenges faced by rural communities. Their programmes focus on building capacities of local leaders and community members, early childhood development, agricultural programmes for emerging and existing farmers, and supporting communities by linking them to existing resources and supplies.
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• Published in the print edition of the May 2021 issue. Download the May 2021 issue PDF here.
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