Is it risky to help others? Marisa Perelló
Good afternoon to you all (you almost gave my lecture)
My name is Marisa Perelló, I'm from Bilbao Spain.
I do not know if you have been to Spain, but you can surely imagine the
differences between life in Spain and post-communist Brno in 1996.
To make things more interesting I took a detour via London.
I came to London in 1986, when I was 18 as an au-pair for three months.
I stayed for ten years. I studied Business Studies at University of Greenwich
I did various jobs, at a bakery, a factory...
Then I got to Goldman&Sachs, a big American investment bank, they say the biggest.
I did desktop publishing, which means I prepared presentations and materials for bankers.
The job was very interesting and very well paid.
But I had this strong feeling that what I do does not help anyone.
I mean, that nobody had better life because I worked at Goldman&Sachs.
In the caffeteria we had 10-12 kinds of coffee, that's just crazy.
And the work was really interesting, really.
The breaking point came when I met Jindřich Vobořil,
the leader of Podané ruce, which is association that helps addicts.
He was looking for someone who can speak English
and who wants to work abroad for some European or International project.
I did not speak Czech, I have never been here before.
When he offered me this, I said to myself: "Well, why not?"
I decided not to look ahead for the risks too much, otherwise I would not have come.
I knew it would be hard.
My plan was to stay one year and then decide whether to return to London.
So I came.
It was the sixth of March 1996, wednesday. I remember it very well.
I came to Brno. I did not live in Brno, I lived in Kurdějov,
which is a small village with 300 inhabitants.
Imagine, you came from London, where the shops were quite luxurious,
to Kurdějov to buy a shampoo. I came to a shop where they did not sell
three kinds of shampoo but three bottles of one kind, really.
Ladies, you surely remember.
It was a catastrophe, I was shocked. I said to myself "Where am I?"
I did not speak Czech at all so I could not do anything.
And because I did not speak Czech, I had to be with Jindřich all the time.
I was his shadow.
He translated everything, naturally, and he helped me to meet interesting people.
He took me with him when he was seeing clients.
I had feared addicts. This helped me not only to lose the fear
but also I knew why I did my work. Because I knew the stories and the people.
The worst thing was probably the communication. I could not speak Czech.
For a person like me who likes to communicate, that was tough.
But I overcame that.
When working for Podané ruce I managed to get half a million euros from EU funds.
We visited many European countries.
Also, I deem a personal achievement that me and my daughters raised the
Spanish inhabitants ratio of Kurdějov to 1%.
That's true, I have two daughters.
There is still time left ... ok.
Several times I returned to London, because I have family there.
My sister stayed there, came as an au-pair and stayed.
Last year, I finished MA in
international relations in Hult's International Business School.
And I still stay in Brno. I overcame all the obstacles.
The life goes on.
I thought about what I did and why and I think that when someone has a dream, he mustn't
think ahead or be reasonable.
I was not reasonable at all! My frieds were appalled
one of them gave me a personal alarm because it might get dangerous in Czech Republic
So if you have a dream or a desire to do something it's better to go for it
try it, when things don't work out it is not the end of the world
Years later, when one looks back and he has not done what he had wanted,
one regrets it. And that would be a shame, don't you think?
That would be all ... one more minute.
Thank you, I cannot believe it.
My biggest problem was that the lecture had to be so short.
Thank you for you attention if you want to talk to me afterwards, I'll be glad.