Hands-on assistance with Fingertips of Africa

When Yehuda Lazarus heard that a 13-year-old girl had been raped at knife point in Hammanskraal last month, he didn’t hesitate for a moment. He set out to help her and her family overcome their ordeal, and refused to take no for an answer.

“I’ve never been so harassed by someone wanting to help,” says Wendy Hendler, the director of Koleinu SA, who first heard about the incident. “I happened to tell Yehuda about a case which had been brought to us, and he insisted on doing something about it that moment.”

Lazarus, the head of operations at Moishes Butchery and the founder of the charity Fingertips of Africa, created a WhatsApp group, tried to establish the girl’s needs, and set out to raise funds for her cause – all within 24 hours.

“He left me flabbergasted,” says Hendler. “Yehuda kept asking me how he could help, and asked multiple times for updates.

“I’d never seen chesed quite like this. I’ve never known such perseverance and a determination to keep on top of things from the get-go.”

After weeks of badgering, voice notes, and enquiries, Lazarus this week secured a donor able to provide the necessary support. Thanks to his tenacity, the funding will enable the girl to attend a local school and provide her with the necessary resources, including a school uniform.

This commitment is all in a day’s work for Lazarus. Through his organisation, the 29-year-old has committed himself to bettering the lives of others wherever he can, aiming to make a difference where he can.

In the past few weeks, Lazarus’ organisation has come to the aid of millions of South Africans, providing 1.8 million plated meals across Gauteng. This in addition to running various shelters, distributing food parcels, and assisting people within and beyond the Jewish community daily.

Although Fingertips really came to life under COVID-19, Lazarus has always been defined by his determination to have a positive effect on others.

“I grew up in a Chabad family in Cape Town,” he told the SA Jewish Report. “My parents were shluchim [emissaries] there for 30 years, and when they moved to the United States, I went with them before coming back to South Africa to finish my schooling.”

After traveling extensively across America and Israel, Lazarus returned to South Africa in 2009 fuelled with a determination to assist others.

“I wanted to do something to help people. Fingertips was my dream child, but it wasn’t yet born, so I started preparing unofficially by doing things like visiting hospitals and helping kids in cancer wards.”

This was just the start, as Lazarus was soon driving numerous initiatives aimed at assisting others, often involving friends. From township visits to Mother’s Day drives, his projects increased rapidly.

“I’d call my friends and say, ‘let’s go buy pancakes, whipped cream, and strawberries, and make breakfast for all the moms in the Gen’s [Johannesburg General Hospital’s] cancer ward to celebrate Mother’s Day’,” he says. “It was all unofficial, but it was leading up to something bigger.”

Lazarus gradually increased the scope and impact of the initiatives he piloted, including assisting those affected by the xenophobic attacks of 2008. After spending two years abroad, he returned to South Africa and made the decision to establish Fingertips in 2017.

But, it wasn’t until earlier this year that the organisation really took off.

“When COVID-19 hit, a police officer in Sandringham came to speak to my brother and asked if there was a way we could help homeless people living behind Edenvale Hospital,” he says. “We put some stuff together, and I posted it online because I was out of budget and wanted to see what more we could get.

“I was sitting with one of the co-directors, Gilana Assness, who made the decision to launch us on Instagram, and that was that. From that moment, the ball really started rolling and we went from feeding 20 people a day to 10 000 in a few weeks.”

From charity partnerships to plated meals, food kitchens in Alexandra, to packing supply hampers, the projects “have come fast and furious, operating both within and without the Jewish community. Lazarus also endeavoured to assist in other religious communities, reaching out to Muslim and Christian communities when the need arose.

“It has nothing to do with race or religion – we’re there to assist,” he says.

“If there’s a gap, I want to fill it. If there’s a need out there, I ask, what can we do about it? Do we have the capability to assist? If there’s a need and we’re available to help, that’s what we’ll do.”

Lazarus has converted his own home into the headquarters of the charity, and is on the clock practically 24/7, working with a core team of nine unpaid individuals and a broader group of 55 volunteer cooks across Fingertip’s kitchen network.

“I get up at 04:30 every morning, after going to bed at midnight,” he says. “I live in one room of my house, and the other four belong to Fingertips. What was a bedroom is now a bed against a wall and storage facility for groceries, another is a sewing academy to teach ladies how to sew and give them the ability to feed their family, another room is an office, and the other is a fresh-produce store room.”

Although their projects and partnerships are many, Lazarus says that his ultimate intention is to help people in need support themselves.

“We try not to deal with individual cases but aim to assist on a communal or organisational level, partnering with others to get things done,” he says. “We want to help others create an infrastructure for self-dependence, avoiding a constant reliance on support. We want to help others help themselves.”

Lazarus praises the Jewish community for the generous spirit it exhibited under COVID-19, saying that the generosity of organisations like the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and Angel Network ensures that his organisation can continue to help those in need.

“We are just fish in the ocean. One and a half million meals sound like a lot, but millions of South Africans are living below the poverty line. I need to do more. I can’t just step away.

“With my incredible team, I know we’ll get things done. Anyone can help someone else – you just need to make the time.”