Meet SmartAid’s Shachar Zahavi
Today Alethea Gold is on a shopping spree, but not for Chanukah or Christmas gifts. She is shopping for wheelchairs.
Shachar Zahavi and Alethea Gold
She is a goodwill ambassador for the Israeli international care organisation SmartAid, which will deliver wheelchairs to many disabled victims of the recent Vanuatu disaster.
Having managed IsrAid for 17 years, SmartAid was established by Shachar Zahavi seven years ago, and Alethea has been there since the beginning.
JW: What is your mission statement?
SZ: We are on a mission to advance humanity and empower communities in disaster areas with tech-driven solutions and innovative humanitarian initiatives.
JW: Can you point the difference between IsraAID and SmartAID.
ANSWER: I’m really proud of founding and managing IsraAID for over 17 years, building it into one of the most recognized organizations in the Jewish world which offers psychosocial and basic humanitarian support to communities in need worldwide. Leaving IsraAID with a strong team and infrastructure will always be one of my enduring legacies to the Jewish world and Israel.
SmartAID, on the other hand, is the sixth charity I’ve established and it represents what we call the 2.0 charity in humanitarian aid.
JW: Why 2.0?
SZ: Because SmartAID leverages technology and innovation, integrating them into the disaster relief sphere. We are in 2024, and our world revolves around high-tech in our daily lives, it makes so much sense to have a charity that harnesses the power of technology for good.
That is the difference, at SmartAID we know how to bring both the aid and the technological and innovators together, we have a growing innovative and entrepreneurial groups of volunteers who come from both worlds and enable us to make the world a better place while leveraging existing and newly developed technologies. I’m proud that SmartAID is in a unique position to be one of the few leaders in the global humanitarian aid world who are helping bridge the gap between the “old” humanitarian giving and the new and more fast, and transparent ways.
JW: IsraAID has ‘Israel’ in its name, but SmartAID does not. How do people know you are Israeli?
SZ: In today’s digital age, it takes just a few clicks on a button of a computer or a mobile to learn the background of any person, company, or charity. Our top priority in SmartAID is delivering fast, simple but impactful technological solutions to those in need. As a result, people naturally discover who we are, what we do and, of course, where we come from. We don’t hide our name or origin; we operate in some of the world’s most challenging environments, disasters, war zones, and countries. With all this we still continue to attract a younger generation who appreciate our work and know where we’re based, and they bring their friends to join our mission. Our circles reach far beyond those who love and support Israel, it reaches many who many times don’t have a weekly or even monthly connection to Israelis.
JW: What is the history of the organization? Can you give me a history of what the organization has been up to?
SZ: We have worked in 55 countries in the last years. Opened over 300 SmartClasses for displaced young people in war zones and disaster zones.. in Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, Romania, Moldova and Poland, opened over 130 STEM centres in Africa changing young peoples lives forever giving them a career they couldn’t dream of.
JW:: Why did you start SmartAID?
SZ: We started SmartAID because we felt that the usage of Technology is so widespread in our daily life but unfortunately isn’t used enough in times of humanitarian catastrophes by governments and non governmental aid organizations when they try and help communities in need. People sometimes think it’s obvious to connect between both but the obvious is sometimes overlooked at. This is where we come in. We are here to bridge the gap between humanitarians and tech sector.
JW: How are you funded?
SZ: We are funded mainly by individual donors, foundations and corporations.
JW: Do you receive any government funding?
SZ: We don’t receive any government funding.
This allows us to be flexible and adaptable to the needs in the field. When a disaster hits the main thing a humanitarian knows is the need of flexibility and to adapt to changing needs on the ground.
JW: Do you have representative offices in other parts of the world?
SZ: Yes.The way we work is that we have a growing circle of professionals/volunteers living across the globe and in any given time they respond and fly the field when needed. Our teams assess the situation on the ground by talking to local officials, local community leaders, sites visits and often speak to the more weaker part in society such as women, elderly and others. We don’t come with a solution we make sure that the locals raise the problems, offer ideas on how they believe it can be solved (with their active involvement) and through that we adapt the right technologies and solutions to the rising problems. We don’t believe we have all the answers and find that to have a long term sustainable program and impact will most if not all of the time work when it’s done with or through local partners and local communities.
JW: What do you hope to achieve during your visit to Australia?
SZ: Our vision and what would be an achievement for us is raising awareness of who and what SmartAID is all about, and building a new and inspiring ecosystem in Australia that involves tech companies, start-ups and entrepreneurs both in the corporate, the government and non-government world. We have seen and believe that Australia has cutting-edge ideas and innovative technologies that, together, we can reach out to help communities in need both in Australia and the Pacific and also bring them to other parts of the world. Even though Australia is considered geographically remote the entrepreneurial and innovative ideas are great and inspiring.
Fundraising is a crucial part that allows us to expand our work to help more people across the world. Building these relationships will make SmartAID Australia a major technological, humanitarian leader in the country. We hope we will be able to apply, adapt, and integrate Australian innovation in our work through donated products and volunteers from the companies aligned with our vision.
JW: Can you look at all the years in SmartAID and tell me what you feel most proud of?
SZ: What I feel most proud of is how a diverse group of Australians, Israelis, and Americans, along with humanitarians and tech enthusiasts from all walks of life—including local teams across the globe have come together to make our dream a reality. I’m really excited about what the future has planned for us but more anxious to see how our vision will transform the international humanitarian aid scene.
Today, volunteers from SmartAid are preparing to travel to the South Pacific to help those suffering as Vanuata recovers from this week’s devastating earthquake.
