Both widowed at a young age, volunteered all their lives, and dedicate their pensions to youths in Uganda
In 1988, Dr. Shay Pintov lost his wife in a car accident, and Anat Cohen lost her husband, who was murdered in an act of terrorism. Both were left with small children who they raised by themselves, and after years of friendship became a couple. When they decided to go on early retirement, they chose to dedicate the next decade of their lives to improve the lives of the residents of Kiboga in Ugadna, one of the poorest regions in the world, where they have set up production of pads for girls who otherwise would quit school because of their period
Tali Farkash | 14/04/2021 Ynet
Anat Cohen and Dr. Shay Pintov, a teacher and a doctor from Kfar Bilu, could have allowed themselves some relaxation in life and enjoy time with family, when they decided years ago to retire early. They had plans and dreams, but quickly an old dream took over their lives, the dream they chose to carry out: to work for the residents of one of the poorest areas of the world, Kiboga district in Uganda, labelled by the UN as of extreme poverty. What began as a random volunteer episode turned into their lives’ work, and in 2017 they decided to make it official and spend the next decade of their lives helping the people of Kiboga. That is how Bilu Uganda was established, an initiative to develop the quality of life of citizens of Uganda, in the fields of helath, agriculture, and education, focusing on assistance to the locals to initiate and build projects for themselves that improve the people’s health and education, of mostly women, in Uganda.
In recent years, and in the midst of Corona, the couple helped with their own hands, and with much innovation and tenacity, to establish a base of preventative medical care, vaccinations, nutrition, and accessibility to clean water, in the district. They developed methods of learning and education in a society that mostly struggles to survive, while they supported social and economic initiatives, one of them that sticks out is the sanitary pads. This production has importance in the country that is traditionally very patriarchal, creating options for women and girls.
“We decided we want to retire early, and spend part of our time in Africa, donating and volunteering”, explains Pintov, a pediatrician, formerly the head of a health committee at the Israeli parliament. Even though the original plan included rest and traveling on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea, as they are both licensed skippers, quickly they understood that in order to make a real difference they need to spend more time for this purpose. The decision was made to spend the next decade of their lives working for Africa, more specifically – for Uganda.
On the surface, it seemed in extraordinary decision at this stage of their lives, but for those who know them and their background, know that for Anat Cohen and Shay Pintov nothing is ordinary.
Pintov, a children’s doctor, will celebrate his 68th birthday this week. After his wife Tzila was killed in a car accident in 1988, he raised his children, a son and two daughters, by himself. The youngest was just two weeks old when her mother passed. Six weeks later, in the middle of the first Intifada, Eli Cohen was murdered at Shekef, the husband of Anat, while he was out working in the vineyards. He was murdered by stabbing, and left his wife Anat with 2 small girls, and pregnant with their third daughter.
One month later a mutual friend connected them to each other, in hopes that the relationship would help them in the process of mourning and struggle as young widows. They became instant friends, and after time, they naturally became a romantic and stable couple, as a new family. Today they are grandparents together of nine children.
“Something bad is happening here with the women.”
“Africa was an old dream for both of us”, says Pintov. “As a child, my father worked in Africa, and since then I have caught the Africa virus. Anat had a drea to visit Africa, and after we toured Namibia in 2016, the dream got stronger. As a student I did some work in Africa, in Kenya, Zambia, and Ethiopia. In Uganda a volunteer doctor was needed, so we chose to travel there.”
As a physician, Pintov was the initiative manager of “Israeli medicine on the equator” of the Topaz organization, encouraging entrepreneuers to invest in social work, to create economic options and social investments. But Anat was the one who really tied the the activities together as independent volunteers. Shay was treating the people, and Anat created her own network of local contacts: “He would go to the hospital and I would organize our house, and then said to myself – I am not on vacation. This is not a few days, but a few months, and I need to familiarize myself with the surroundings,” she explains. “So, just like that, I went into shops, spoke with the people, I stopped people on the streets and spoke with them. A day later I saw two men in the entrance of a store, and one of them is beating his wife with a stick. Afterwards he returned, peeled a banana, and continued talking to his friend, like nothing happened. That is when I realized something bad is happening here with the women.”
“On my walks I met Joyce, an impressive woman, assertive and serious. When we met she was a school principle, and today she is the supervisor for 87 schools. Later I understood she has a connection to Israel. When I met her and shook her hand I already knew then that we would walk a ways together. I brought up the idea of helping the women somehow. We did not know exactly what to do, but really did start to go forward with the idea, collecting women and doing something together. As women started coming physically, I pondered what was the right thing to do. I come from the field of education, so I thought it would be good to help them with life skills, with English or math. We gave them placement exams and understood immediately to drop that because several did not know how to read and write.”
“I was not disoriented. I took out a piece of cloth, I sent someone to purchase thread and needles, and I told everyone come on, lets start sowing bags, just like that, out of nothing. Afterwards we received more and more girls, and we started to sing and dance and talk. I saw that there was great need for an activity that was their own, just for the women. This is not normal there. There are very few activities for children, and for the women there is nothing. They would not leave their homes; the husband dominates the family. But they came, so their husbands and their brothers came along, to see what we were up to. That is how it started.”
“During one of the activities we decorated a mirror in a wooden frame. I told the women that they are hanging up the mirror at the entrance to the house, and each time they leave they will take a look and tell themselves ‘I am a queen and I am strong’. They laughed and giggled at first, but today, when I ask them who they are, they say ‘I am a queen and I am strong’.”
Pads from used clothing and towels
Pintov: “Once we understood that medicine, with all its importance for saving lives, does not possess the capacity to make the difference, and we were looking for that, for something to change for the better – we decided, after much thought and hesitation, that a base for activity should be around women, and Anat began working with them. The fields in which we chose to work on were agriculture, education, and health. So we started to connect.
“In one of the groups that Anat led, women came and asked ‘why don’t we make sanitary pads’? I said I know a factory for production of pads in Kampala, maybe I will go there and ask that they have their sowing work done by us here. That way we are supporting income for women, and the company will continue to sell. I went there and was disappointed greatly. They laughed at me. They said ‘no problem, come buy, this is our price’. I said ‘I want to create work for the women instead.’ They answered ‘No, this is our business that is only here in one place.’ That was enough for me – it only takes one instance of waving a read sheet in my eyes to get me going. I went back and said – we are going to do it ourselves.”
Anat: “When this happened I was in Israel. Shay told me how they behaved and I said, what is the problem? They think they can make pads and we can’t make pads? We can also make pads. When he returned he brought some local pads. We cut them up. We met with people, and put together a plan. As far as textile goes, the fashion designer Reuma Zaksh, my childhood friend and owner of “Reuma”, helped us a lot. We sat with her at the office and she explained to us all about different kinds of textile and how the whole business is run. The pad is made up of three layers, and she donated to us the front layer and the leftover pieces of cloth. She also approached hotels that swap their towels every two years, to donate to us, and so things came about. In Uganda we were also donated towels, and there, with the women, we began to sow. We started to run with it. It was all them. They came up with the idea. It is not like we went there and said ‘you need pads’. They need what they need, and they know what they need.”
“Our target audience was originally girls at school, because we learned that girls get their period at 10-12, just don’t go to school for a week each month, and there are not proper bathrooms there, no hygiene, no pads. At our stores and at every corner we have loads of pads. There it is not like that. This was our goal. We wanted them to stay at school and not lag behind. It was very successful. The mothers also discovered the product and they wanted it as well.”
Anat: “We teach them how to make a living for themselves. We teach them and they do it. They make the pads and receive the income. We trained them to show up to a class and teach about the product. We have a doll named Jacqueline, we sowed her underwear and put a pad on her, and the women get up and teach the class. Do you what that means for these women to stand up before others and give knowledge? They never dreamt of such things.”
The initiative’s success was strengthened by the Ministry of Health in Uganda, that notified the couple that it is reviewing the project, considering investing in its expansion. The Ministry of Education also intends to duplicate the initiative to other districts. But Cohen and Pintov are not satisfied by hygiene pads. They discovered children and youngsters with eyesight issues, and they cannot allow themselves glasses, and so they leave school because it is hard for them to see. For them they developed a special model of glasses that can be produced and distributed to young and old who are in need.
Is there meaning to your Israeli identity?
Pintov: “I think the most Israeli thing is creating something out of nothing. Israel knows how to do that. We are not afraid to start from nothing. That is Israeliness. Of course during processes like these we combine whoever wants to support. For example, Mashav (the Israeli MFA international aid agency) supports our activity out of appreciation for what we do with the people. In the three fields we chose to focus on, agriculture, education, and health, Israel is a leading country, despite the fact that we complain about ourselves. Corona proved to the whole world how much the Israeli health system is above all. When I sit with health professionals, not just doctors, they tell me, ‘We want your systems, come help us.’”
“Then there is the matter of faith: Since most of the people are Christians here, they have appreciation for Israel”, adds Pintov. “If you are from Israel then you are from the holy land and of the ‘chosen people’. These are phrases that are well known from their Christianity. The religion there is Christian, but combines local culture and traditions. On every corner there is a church or mosque, and people of different religions marry each other, as there is not as much meaning to religion, it is part of their culture. Also, polygamy is accepted.
“Another aspect that is unique to us as Israelis is that our perspective is holistic and integrative. If I only do agriculture, and I sat with sustainability professionals from Tel Aviv University, the thinking is how to do something that is sustainable. How do we recycle the water. How do we verify that the agriculture will contribute to food security. To ensure that things work together.”
Why Africa? Do we not have enough problems?
Pintov: “You are not the first and not the last who raises this question of first dealing with the needy in your hometown. True, but we have a big world with lots of poverty, much more than anyone in our country. Here society knows how to take responsibility, and there will not be starvation in Israel. If not from the state, there are many nonprofits who provide. There the poverty is more extreme. There are no voluntary organizations that can handle this.”
“During Corona we did some crowdfunding. Some people reacted in anger – how dare we fundraise. But to our surprise, we succeeded in collecting 20,000 dollars from people who simply saw the importance of what we are doing. Within a couple months we reached our goal. People here are determined. On top of that there were translators, graphic designers, and professional consultants, and sometimes their contribution is worth much more than the funds.”
“We are no longer alone. Today we are connecting two or three Israeli nonprofits, who understand the meaning of combing resources and capabilities. If I can help Engineers Without Borders, and we can connect them to our work at schools or in agriculture – we are enhancing the activity significantly.”
Anat: “Also, in Israel we are volunteering and donating where we can.” The last project she worked on was creating beautiful Bar and Bat Mitzvah albums for youth at risk in dorms all over the country, who could not properly celebrate due to the Corona circumstances. “This initiative made 200 albums for children at centers across the country,” she explains. “Each child receives an album with picturers and lots of love. I made 4 albums myself, and am still counting.”
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