Africa: The Power to Help Continued from p.6 impact in both of these worlds is something I feel very strongly about.” Borowich-Ya’ari did not set out to change the world. She was born in Israel and moved with her family at age 12 to France. When she was 20 years old she moved to New York and landed a job in the fashion industry working for Jordache Jeans Company. Because Borowich-Ya’ari spoke French, Jordache sent her to Africa as Director of Quality Control in their African factories. As a young employee she was greatly impacted by the extent of poverty in Africa and the lack of basic needs such as infrastructure, clean water and energy. So moved by her trip to Africa, BorowichYa’ari went back to school to get a Master’s degree in Energy Management at Columbia University. While a student at Columbia she got a job working at the UN in the Energy Bureau. As such, she was sent to Senegal in West Africa to check on the diesel engines used to help pump water and process grains in the villages. When she found that 50% of them were either broken or not working because of lack of money to buy the fuel, she was stunned. That started her thinking about solar energy and Israel’s success in harnessing the sun’s energy to power electricity. Africa, like Israel, has the power of the sun as its greatest natural resource, she reasoned. It’s also free and requires
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little maintenance. In January 2008 Borowich-Ya’ari, still a graduate student, met with suppliers and technicians in Israel and a local contractor in Africa and launched her first pilot project in a medical clinic in Tanzania. One donation of a mere $4,270 later and a medical clinic was now equipped with enough solar power to provide electricity for light and refrigeration, two simple, inexpensive needs that saved lives. With the success of that first pilot she moved onto Uganda and from there Jewish Heart for Africa was born. Why create a Jewish organization to help African villagers? According to Borowich-Ya’ari, part of the mission is in keeping with notion of “tikkun olam” and the desire to help save lives from a Jewish point a view. True, there are tremendous needs in Israel and in the Jewish community, Borowich-Ya’ari concedes, but in Africa it takes very little money to make a huge impact and save a lot of lives. She says, “we have so much to give and such good technology, I think we should help. A large part of our mission is to help improve the
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