Hello, Ceavous, Bom Dia and Namaste.
Just 3 days ago, I was still in South of India, in Bangalore, dancing with my Lederhosen with
40 kids in the hot sun.
Actually, I was there at the NGO called Baale Mane, which is a girls' shelter, rescuing
kids, especially girls from child labor, sexual and domestic violence, and give them a new
home.
I was there to talk with them and with the organizers and managers of this NGO, to find
out what are the problems of the country, and what are the solutions that on-people,
the local people, find for these problems.
Actually, me dancing there with the Lederhosen and the kids made a day full of joy and happiness.
Not only for the kids, or only for the managers of the NGO, but as well for me.
So I want to ask you to join this journey off the beaten track.
Two Roads diverged into a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that made all
the difference.
Let me tell you what these quote and poem means for me.
I grew up with my great-grandfather who was blind, and my family took care of him when
he turned blind before I was even born, and if there is any person who would be Wikipedia
in a person, would be him, because he knew everything. He was a great story teller and
the last thirty years, he spent the winters in India just to avoid the cold winter in
Austria. And I had the chance, from my early stage of my life, to visit him every year
and I got to know a country from a total different perspective. And it came that five years ago
so many friends asked me they want to join me, they want to come with me to India and
see the India I had experienced. The India through my eyes, through local eyes, through
eyes of local NGOs. And I started my project Findia, so I started to bring European students
to other countries, in the first space India, nowadays Brazil and South Africa as well,
to join NGOs, document their work, motivate them in their work and bring stories and these
information back to Europe and spread them via social and classical media channels.
But this is something everybody of us can do, and this is the idea. It's very simple.
I ask you, when you plan your next trip to the next country, spend 1 day at one organization.
It's very easy to find one; there are millions of organizations around the world, and you
will see, when you want to travel you want to know something about another country, and
the NGO is definitely the place where you can find out more than what you expect.
Each one, teach one. Actually every person we meet in our life will know something which
you don't know. So that's the great thing: sharing knowledge and sharing some ideas,
making the knowledge double as much, afterward, if you share, not half of it. It's very nice
to compare this to candles. If you have a candle with flame, and some other candles
without flames, and I share the fire, in the end there's a lot more lights and the flame
did not get smaller.
And within these NGOs you will find a lot of knowledge and experience often since years,
more than official, more than local media from Europe can tell us about these other
countries. And this is totally knowledge which should be shared, but it cannot be shared
if nobody is there to listen to the stories.
And sharing is caring. The next step is: if you go to one of these NGOs and listen to
the stories and get this knowledge, share it to your family, to your friends, and I
guess the social media platforms are the best way to do so. We from Findia are an organization,
we bring up multimedia projects, we document their work, put it into videos and photos,
and audio-files, and spread them as much we can via social media.
Following is leading. Actually this is a great TED Talk as well, "How to start a movement
in 3 minutes". Very simple explained. As a social entrepreneur, you are sometimes very
alone, you need to have the courage to stand out, you have an unique idea, but when you
are there alone, it's a little bit lonely, you know, in this world? You need followers.
And the first people who follow you, the first ones who come and want to take the journey
with you, they are leaders themselves, because they show other people how to follow. By them,
joining you, became leaders as well. One example here. from our project, is "Read My Voice".
We started actually a photo campaign asking women around the world, more than one hundred
women and 3 continents, to give us statements as a woman to the world. And these women who
took part and shared their pictures on social media encouraged so many other women to join
us as well, and these ones became leaders of showing how to join this project.
But. There's always the but. We heard a lot about the organizations, they work in their
free time, they have a lot to do, and why would they have some strangers over and sharing
their knowledge? And, actually we did this since 4 years in 3 continents, visiting over
100 NGOs already, and from all of our experience we did not find one single NGO which said
"No, we don't have time for you". In fact, everybody was very excited to have us, and
that's the thing: you are a social entrepreneur, and suddenly somebody is coming from Europe and
want to document our work. Actually that's great.
And that's the win-win-win situation. Especially in times of economic crisis, this is something
we hear very, it's very likely to hear. Win-Win-Win. Win, first of all, for the organization itself.
We come and motivate them. We tell them they are doing a great job, and suddenly there's
somebody who listens to the stories. We motivate them and promote them.
The second win is for the people or the animals, or whatever the NGO works with. So from my
example, the second win was for the 40 kids who were dancing with me and having a great
day in India, experiencing and seeing in the first time how an Austrian boy in Lederhosen looks like.
And third win is the person of me, myself. I got great knowledge, something I could not
find in Wikipedia or in a book, but by their stories, the people from the NGO told me themselves,
their experiences, and I got these experiences for myself as well. So they are the 3 wins.
And, we live in a time of profound changes and transformation, and the challenges in
the world are considerable, but so are the opportunities. And I just want to ask you,
for your next holiday: you should do it. Go one day to a NGO and do that.
Maybe one of you is the next one who will be in Brazil, in a favela, finding out why
colorful houses in the favela prevent kids of crime and drug acts. Or maybe you are the
one who will go to South Africa and find out how a small NGO bring content and educators
together to create a new way of education. Or maybe I see one of you dancing in a Lederhosen
in India -- that would be great actually. Just remember -- one day, one NGO; each one,
teach one; sharing is caring; and following is leading. Thank you!