Empowering and supporting those who need it most

Kensington Educare Centre children say a big ‘thank you!’

Pesach celebrates the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their eventual freedom from slavery.

The Union of Jewish Women is committed to bettering the lives of all South Africans, offering them freedom from the constraints of poverty, loneliness, lack of education, unemployment and hunger.

Since 1931, Jewish women across South Africa have brought freedom to some of society’s most disadvantaged sections. We celebrate our 90th anniversary with pride of our incredible achievements.

Our successes in Cape Town and our country communities are legendary including our Kensington Educare Centre which celebrates its 79th birthday this year.

We are passionate about working with grassroots organisations, helping to empower and support them. We help them by raising funds, securing goods in kind and offering our time and expertise when needed. We do this all with the goal of achieving self-sustainability for the project.

The UJW also responds to emergency situations. By appealing to our incredible Cape Town community, we are able to collect goods needed to support those who have been devastated by fires, floods and other disasters.

The COVID virus had a devastating effect on our lives and our communities. Our ‘Women of Action’ rose to the challenge by temporarily suspending all other projects and setting up the UJW feeding programme. With the funds we were able to raise (over R300 000) we were able to feed and support not only the 700 children and teachers who attend our preschools, crèches and educare centres but also their families and communities.

We also raised funds for our ‘baby bag for beginner’s’ project and were able to distribute over 150 baby bags during that time, gifting many indigent new moms with all they needed to look after and care for their new-born babies.

One of the most important lessons to come out of COVID was the value of collaboration. During the first days of COVID we realised very quickly that the way forward for us all was to connect and work closely with other organisations. Ladles of Love helped feed some of our projects, dropping off sandwiches and eggs on a weekly basis. We supplied baby bags to CAN for some of their refugees. ORT Jet assisted us with an incredible donation of Lego for our children who were stuck at home.

On Mandela Day we were privileged to work with other incredible NGOs on a fundraising event hosted by the Mensch Network. We had a Zoom cook-a-long which saw people from all over the globe attending to support our feeding projects.
We also collaborated with Jewish Community Services (JCS). On Mitzvah day we raised funds and collected goods to fulfil the wish-list of their cottages.

Cape Town UJW wishes everyone Chag Pesach Sameach. We thank you for your ongoing unwavering support and look forward to working together to ensure we are developing, assisting and spreading love, hope and joy to those in our broader community who need it the most.

Myron Friedman manager of Dischem store in Sea Point hands over the donation from the Dischem Foundation to Shelley Levy, project manager at the Union of Jewish Women. A big thank you to the Dischem Foundation for their incredibly generous donation and for supporting our ‘baby bags for beginners’ project.

Visit the Union of Jewish Women website, and follow UJW on Facebook

• Published in the print edition of the March/April Pesach 2021 issue. Download the March/April 2021 issue PDF here.

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