Sometimes I get depressed with the things you would most expect to make me happy... I just came out of the MSIF trustees annual reception. With my love for social action, you would expect me to be happy. Moreover, MSIF did make significant grants to A Little Gesture this year, in recognition of my volunteer work and in recognition of my fundraising efforts for the Jp Morgan Challenge. The charities there were inspiring and it is always re-assuring to see how much the Firm and broader colleague population are always so involved and keen to do more. They went through money donated, lives touched, volunteer hours logged - 16000 hours in one month, the equivalent of 8 years of full time employment.
Magic breakfast focused on the importance of providing breakfast to children in primary school, as a means to an opportunity. But we started with the wrong foot - they said one did not need to go far and give money to far away children because ours needed and 1 in 4 children did not have accesd to a breakfast. It is surprising, true. So I started doing the maths - none of our over 800 children had access to breakfast. In fact, if I was to do proper maths i would probably say that 1 in 100 - in a good day - have access to breakfast. Actualy, I now want to go check the statistics to how many Mozambican children actually have access to primary school! Having said that they do a great job and I was impressed with te statistics and will make sure I get that power point slide with impact done one day.
Then we had ELBA - assisting with unemployment, in particular the young people in the area of Tower Hamlets. They did not need a big speech, because they brought a major asset along - Luiz- who is today an apprentice at the Firm and wants to be an engineer one day. Elizabeth was right - at his age of 18, I would not have been able to stand in a room full of over achieving bankers and told my story.
And then we had Save the Children - another stab to the heart. Hold on, nothing wrong against them, and also not because they did not interview me when I was out of Harvard thinking I could be full time in the social sector (true, not even a first round interview or a thank you but no thanks). And the work they focused on was really inspiring, as it is very close to our children. Prevention of mother to child contagion of HIV in the province of Limpopo - South Africa. Yes, south africa, it explains part of it. South africa is in the end the country suffering with more children dying of AIDS and I believe the one with the most infected population. Yes, that is why it got to Mozambique! That is why I need to work there... And then they said the magic number:325000 children with the funds provided....
That is when I almost lost hope. Is it all worth it? People say it is - small charities are more involving for donours and have a deeper impact per beneficiary. I like to think so - but working for endless hours to then hear that number will always make happy and sad.
It's been a while, I know. But time is really a precious asset and I have not been leveraging on it well enough... But today I did and I am proud. I threw all the plans out of the window and took the irrefusable offer I was made "Do you want to go flying today?". How does no work as an answer there? Here is one of the c. 30 airplanes you could see there. First reaction from our pilot: "Why are all these planes here, don't people realize it is an amazing day for flying?". Well, I had not untill he told me so! But the best is still to come, as the only girl in the group I got to ride in the front, get first view in take-off, listen to the radio of the air control all the time (we get Boston airport frequency), check the map, speeds, everything... I guess throughout the way we were some quiet passengers, in the wonders of realizing you are on air, the curiosity of identifying different places and the struggle to take the best pictures as we pass the Harvard...
Comments