Turning nine, and saving lives

JULIE LEIBOWITZ

It all started with her birthday on 10 May. Rebecca realised that she wouldn’t be able to have a party, and in her own words, she felt “disappointed”.

“But then I realised how lucky I am, because not far from here, kids have no food at all,” she said in a video posted by her mom on Facebook and Instagram. “They’re not being fussy and saying, ‘I don’t want this’, they’re starving.”

Rebecca asked viewers to make her birthday memorable for her and her family by donating R25 to feed a child. “R25 doesn’t even pay for my mom’s skinny latte,” she said, before signing off. To date, the video has been watched more than 11 000 times. Donations have come from as far as New York, Singapore, Australia, and Israel.

The money goes to Boikanyo the Dion Herson Foundation’s ePap feeding scheme. ePap is an enriched maize porridge that has the recommended daily allowance of vitamins, minerals, protein and carbohydrate. Just four tablespoons a day can keep a person alive.

R25 keeps a child alive for two weeks, says Marilyn Bassin, the founder and trustee of Boikanyo’s Save a Soul Campaign, which she started after lockdown. It focuses on children in squatter camps, shacks, and rural areas who fall between the cracks and who have no voice. It’s currently feeding about 21 000 children across the country.

Bassin says Rebecca’s actions are nothing short of incredible. “In years to come, she will see this as the best birthday of her life. She has saved lives, plain and simple. In life, you are marked not by what you get in, but what you give out. Rebecca has a great soul.”

Even though she “just turned 9”, Rebecca is no stranger to charity, having worked on other ventures though she doesn’t want to give details yet. She says she sent out the request because she felt upset about her “lockdown” birthday, and thought it would take her mind off it.

Her mother, Debra, says that Rebecca asked her to take R300 out of her bank account and give it to the charity. That was when Debra suggested that they take it further.

Rebecca says she got all the presents she wanted for her birthday, including a necklace, but this was “a very nice present”.

She’s inspired by the line, “Even if you’re little you can do a lot”, from the song Naughty in the musical Matilda. “I always wanted to do something like this, but never had the chance,” she says.

She would like to continue it for a few months, but through different ventures like baking cupcakes or selling lemonade. “Same cause, different things,” she says, pointing out that it’s far too soon to know what she’ll do for her next birthday.