Transcriber: Samantha Victor Reviewer: Capa Girl
Why not? I think
"Why not," is one of the questions I asked myself most often in my life.
And for me that question is easy to answer,
'cause most of the time I cannot find any reason why something shouldn't be done.
And when I think of it, I have never really been interested in those reasons anyway.
I've always found possibilities way more interesting,
and I believe we are surrounded by possibilities.
The world you see isn't a fact.
If you are able to see things the way you would like them to be
instead of the way they are, everything becomes possible
and that's when it becomes interesting because that is the source of change.
That's the moment when the plot turns.
So if you believe in possibilities then you will know that everybody can write his own story,
or should be able to.
And today I would like to start by telling you mine.
When I was 18 I had to decide what I was going to do with my life.
Just like a lot of other people at that age I had to decide what I was going to study.
Now I knew that I didn't want to live my life just working on a career and have some fun.
I wanted to mean something to people.
I wanted to change the world for the better.
Big ideas maybe, but why not?
So I decided I wanted to do something with development aid
and since the development policies those days weren't that successful --
I decided that I was going to study politics.
Not become a politician, but to try and understand the world a little bit better
and from there make my master plan to change the world.
But I guess it's true when they say:
life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
because one year later I ended up in a soap opera.
Well, why not? I must have thought.
But the idea to do good however, always stuck in the back of my mind.
And, funny enough, as my television career developed,
I got the opportunity to see so much of the world. For my television programs
I traveled all over the place all over the world.
showing not only luxurious places, but the places less wealthy.
The places screaming for attention.
Places where people had to struggle to survive.
Now, I could show those situations in my television program,
but I felt powerless to make any change.
I couldn't change the world, so I guess the world changed me.
One of the most life changing experiences for me
was when I made a story for the scavengers women in India.
Those are people of the lowest caste.
They make a living by manual scavenging.
Removing dry excrement, human excrement, from dry toilets.
And they can never get another job because nobody hires them.
And then one day I visited a project that sheltered these women
and gave them a job and a chance of a life in dignity.
And I still clearly and vividly remember a group of elderly women,
I think they were like 60 years old,
holding their fists high up in the air and singing to their sisters,
"and we will overcome."
They held no grudges against anyone,
they were just showing that the possibilities they had gotten were so impactful
that they wanted to inspire others to rewrite the stories of their lives as well.
Now, their will power and their ability to change, inspired me deeply.
And I thought, if only more people would get opportunities like this.
And on all of these travels, I also saw so many beautifully crafted products
I had never seen before because they were not sold here, back home.
And then I realized that we could combine empowerment with trade.
And the idea of "Return to Sender" was born.
By combining local craftsmanship with products to fit the Dutch market,
we could build a structural development system
that could support a lot of independent projects in a sustainable way.
"Return to Sender" finds unique products crafted by talented people from the poorest regions
of the world and sells those products here in one of Holland's
biggest retailors called Hema and our own online shop.
The profits we make we send directly back
to the producers of the products, return to sender.
And the money is invested in a lot of different trainings
to enable the producers to develop themselves further,
to grow, to obtain a stronger market position and a vision on a brighter future.
Last year, we sold over 260,000 products.
Coming from 22 different countries. (Applause)
Now I'd like to tell you another story, it's the story of Maria,
and Maria lives in the favelas of the Recife.
Recife is one of the most violent cities of Brazil.
It is not really a place that seems to offer a lot of possibilities.
But in 2007 Maria saw one.
She gathered a group of 20 women from her neighborhood
and together in her little house
they started producing traditionally made felt ornaments.
I visited her in her home where they just started working
on the first "Return to Sender" Hema collection.
They were sitting there working on the floor,
and now five years later, those products turned out to be
one of "Return to Sender's" most popular items.
And she has been able to expand her business, together with women like Alshen,
to a real corporation called Amacoração
which now employes 135 women and that's amazing.
(Applause)
Not only do these women now have a job,
they've also managed to turn around the negative atmosphere in their neighborhood.
And the number of possibilities for their families and their community.
It is a good story, it is a story we proudly tell to anyone who buys her products.
Now I'm gonna tell you the story of Ronald.
Ronald is the CEO of Hema.
Now I had this idea of selling all these products in Holland,
but where would I do that?
I thought, Hema would be the perfect place.
It has 5 million visitors a week and everybody goes there to buy their daily needs
from make up remover to sausages.
But how do you organize that?
Especially because Hema sells mainly its own brand.
And then, coincidentally, Ronald and I were guests at the same television program --
for the Dutch people -- DWDD.
And I thought this is an opportunity. A very obvious one.
So after the show, in the bar, I told him about my plans
and right there and then he shook my hand and said,
"Let's do it. Why not?"
And after that he convinced the entire Hema organization
to believe in this new business model as well.
So, this again is an example of how one individual decides to make a first step
and what follows is change.
Not only people have stories, everything has a story,
the clothes you are wearing, the stuff that surrounds you in your house
and not everyone is aware of that.
That products come from somewhere, that they are made by someone
and that that someone has a story too.
"Return to Sender" brings these products out of anonymity
by telling the stories behind the products because the real value of things
isn't the one you can measure in money.
It's the emotional value that comes from memories and from stories
and that value will become increasingly important to consumers.
Consumers have the power to change the world,
just by making the choice for a product with a good story.
Companies only have to offer consumers the possibility to consume with a conscience.
And "Return to Sender" has proved that consumers are very eager to do so.
Changes happen when just one individual dares to look beyond what is familiar.
And it takes guts to look from another perspective,
to change the status quo,
to see possibilities where others can see only difficulties.
Changes happen when one dares to dream
and when one decides to make those dreams come true.
"Return to Sender" follows the initiatives of people
that have already made the first steps in developing themselves.
Because if you speak about human nature,
I strongly believe that one of man's greatest desires is to be able to
develop themselves, to have control over their own lives.
Because if a person is not able to have that
life degrades to a mere existence and that leads to fear,
anger and sadness and very little possibility of happiness.
People should be able to write their own story.
When I was 18 years old I dreamt of changing the world
and I have been fortunate enough to realize that dream a little bit.
With "Return to Sender" I try to inspire others
to write their own story and to make it one worth telling.
So, I'd like to conclude with what might seem like a simple question,
but which hopefully will turn out to be one that challenges you.
What will your story be?
And make it two questions because, if you have a dream
and there are possibilities which there always are --
Why not?
Thank you. (Applause)