Last December, Shachar Zahavi felt he didn’t have a choice but to drop out of school for a semester and spend that time in Sri Lanka — one of the Asian countries hit hardest by the catastrophic tsunami.
Zahavi is in his second year at Tel Aviv University, majoring in African studies. But he is also the founder of IsraAid, a coalition of organizations that provides relief to developing countries throughout the world.
“I lost this semester to the tsunami, but what can you do,” the 29-year-old Israeli said during a local visit, during which he met with members of Congress and leaders of AIPAC, which sponsored his visit. “I’m usually very focused on my studies, but this was a serious issue that needed most of my time.”
Zahavi has worked in humanitarian aid since he finished serving in the Israel Defense Forces. It is common for young Israelis to go for extended stays in India and Thailand once they finish the army, but Zahavi’s travels took a drastically different turn.
“I wanted to be exposed to developing countries by sitting with the communities and getting to know them and helping them rather than traveling and seeing views,” he said.
His first foray into relief work began with helping survivors of the genocide in Rwanda. He found himself on the borders of Congo and Uganda, assisting those who fled the violence.
“After you visit a refugee camp, you understand why you need to continue this work,” he said. “It gives a whole different perspective of the situation that people are in. Knowing that I can contribute to such issues made me decide I wanted to stay in this area of helping people in developing countries.”
So Zahavi has spent the last nine years in places like Turkey and India after massive earthquakes, and Mozambique following floods. He has no formal training. “I just started from scratch,” he said. “You get the experience by doing this year after year.”
IsraAID consists of some 30 organizations, each one doing different aspects of humanitarian aid. “Each group has a specialty, and we’re a clearinghouse that brings all these groups together to support each other,” he said. “By coordinating their efforts, we can improve all of their work in the field.”
Zahavi does not receive a salary, and all the funding comes from private donors, both in Israel and abroad.
Israelis have vast amounts of experience in responding to disaster, not only because of terrorism, Zahavi said, but also from learning irrigation techniques to survive in the desert. Therefore, “Israelis should be the first to act when something happens.”
Zahavi said Israeli teams were among the first relief workers to arrive after the tsunami and they have maintained a continuous presence there since the disaster first struck.
Not only were Israeli doctors providing medical help, but an Israeli-run food center was distributing thousands of meals a week. At first the efforts concentrated on relief; now they are providing more long-term help, he said.
They’re operating two clinics and have experts on post-traumatic stress disorder there, working with the local population. They have helped children stop wetting their beds, a common reaction to PTSD. Zahavi is now looking into starting some microfinance programs. Monsoon season has arrived, and many people are still homeless.
“People need to repair their boats or build temporary shelters,” he said.
While the people Zahavi is helping are obviously benefiting greatly, there is a side outcome as well that should not be underestimated.
“People there are so thankful, everywhere I turn, I hear how wonderful the Israelis are,” he said. Being the first on the scene and providing such help is greatly improving Israel’s image abroad.
Noting that he would be soon heading back to Sri Lanka, he concluded by saying, “We can talk about Israel as a democratic country, but eventually people understand it better when they see you’re coming to their country and doing something for them. It doesn’t matter where I’ve been, people are always amazed that with the Middle East conflict and with all our troubles, we still came to help them.”