ANT KATZ

The above video is about The Street Store, an initiative of Kayli Vee Levitan.

The tenth annual Mail & Guardian accolade to young South Africans, published last Friday, featured four outstanding Jewish youngsters among the 200-in-all who were honoured.

Amanda Blankfield-Koseff, founder and CEO of Empowervate Trust; Antony Seeff, CEO of cell innovation business Tariffic; Kayli Vee Levitan of The Street Store in Cape Town; and Nadav Ossendryver, CEO and Founder of LatestSightings.com.

If we have left anyone out, please let us know at online.editor@sajr.co.za

RIGHT: Youtube king – 18-year-old Nadav Ossendryver with Joburg Mayor Mr Parks Tau

Mail & Guardian editor, Angela Quintal, pays tribute to her predecessor Ferial Haffajee who started the project in 2006. The first edition featured 100 notable South Africans under the age of 35.

“Since then the publication has evolved,” says Angela. The numbers have varied from 100 to 300 in 2009 and now back to 200. “The style of the profiles has evolved from short and sharp biographies to slightly more personal and in-depth profiles of people on the list,” she says.

The guide starts out with an Alumnus section looking at some of the people who have featured in Young South Africans over the past nine editions, like Trevor Noah (2010), Julius Malema (2009, 2010), Lauren Beukes (2009), Michael Jordaan (2008) and Bryan Habana (2007), among others.

The M&G is still on the shelves until Friday and their profiles are online at www.M&G.co.za. They have also added a feature this year whereby users can download the entire publication for tablets from the App Store or Goodie Play for free.

SA Jewish Report offers our own short profiles of the four. SA Jewry can be very proud of the fact that with 0.001 percent of the population, it has at least two percent of the winners!

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Amanda Blankfield-Koseff 

Amanda Blankfield-Koseff is listed in “Who’s Who SA” as having founded the Youth Citizens Action Programme in 2009. She has been the CEO since April 2013.

The programme uses a project management manual that explains to youth how to create social projects in their schools and communities.

LEFT: Amanda cut her teeth at Afrika Tikkun before moving to work with a donor “to change the focus from ‘talking’ into ‘action’,” she says. “I brought in a youth development consultant (we) brainstormed and came up with The Youth Citizens Action Programme in 2009.” 

It has been running for several years in all nine provinces and the Department of Basic Education are involved on an implementation level, says Amanda.

After matriculating at Eden College in 2000, Amanda did her Bachelor of Communication in Organisational Communication at Bond University, followed by her Honours at UNISA in Organisational Communication.

She learned the ropes during five and a half years at Afrika Tikkun where she handled marketing, events, and communications in the community and youth development space. While with Afrika Tikkun, Amanda completed her Honours in Communication.

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Antony Seeff 

Antony Seeff is CEO of cell innovation business Tariffic, an independent company launched in 2013 with the objective of analysing and optimising cell phone spend of business users and high-net-worth individuals. T

The software was complex and took years to develop, says Seeff, but Tariffic has tweeked the service to the point where their customers now achieve “an average of thirty to forty percent savings,” he says.

In October 2013, tech pundit Arthur Goldstuck said that Tariffic were cruising to give the cell phone providers who over-sell their customers a bruising.

Now it’s happened, says Antony, adding that there are “well over 10,000 permutations (of contracts) on offer.” The cell bill optimisation firm will shortly be launching their consumer offering.

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Kayli Vee Levitan

Kayli Vee Levitan is the owner of The Street Store in Cape Town and also an accomplished and well-read food blogger.

She also supports programmes of the Cape Council of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies.

LEFT: Kayli Vee Levitan is a member of the Cape Council of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies’ MENSCH NETWORK and also their GENERATION.NEXT initiative which aims to revolutionize youth involvment and open safe and accepting spaces for all voices

SEE The Street Store’s video above story

The Street Store clothes the homeless – in their first 15 months put clothes on over 200,000 homeless backs! “A number I can’t even start to imagine,” says Kayli.

“The Street Store is like my baby. I love it, no, I cherish it and everyone who is a part of it, with all my heart and soul. It’s still surreal how these two scribbles on a page, became what they did,” wrote Kayli on her blog.

“Every day seems to get better. It’s not the awards – yes, of course they’re lovely – but it’s so much more. It’s a reminder in inherent kindness that exists out there.”

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Nadav Ossendryver 

Nadav Ossendryver (Pictured at top with Mayor Parks Tau) is the CEO and Founder of LatestSightings.com. This multi-award-winning conservationist founded his business, Latest Sightings, at just 15.

Today the 18-year-old is an example of what a young entrepreneur can accomplish using technology. Channelling his passion for wildlife, conservation and his love of the Kruger Park, he has created an online, real-time, wildlife spotting service for visitors to the Kruger. Latest Sightings uses the concept of crowd sourcing, combining social media such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, BBM groups, a web site and a iPhone, Windows and Android app, to inform visitors to the park (as well as enthusiasts worldwide) where interesting animals and birds have just been spotted.

The Kruger Sightings YouTube Channel is the most watched South African based channel with over 200-million views to date.