Picking up some speed! Tjeko is getting its OWN office - with our OWN door!
OK - we need to cross trough somebodies office to get there - and somebody might have to pass trough our office to get to his... but we have our OWN office!
WE'll be fixing it up in the next couple of weeks. Come january 1st, and we'll be all SET!
Harry and Hen did an amazing fundraiser for 1moreChild in the UK (see blog) and got ALL the children a beatiful t-shirt! I am telling you- it's like we gave them pure gold! Very exciting!
Eventhough the biggest junk of my time in Uganda is spent meeting people concerning Tjeko, Sunday afternoon was one of the moments I took time to meet with some of the 1moreChild children.
It was great fun to go to a local restaurant for a big meal. After the meal we got to spent sime time sharing stories, lauging and just taking it easy. I start to know more and more of these kids by name, and it is nice to see them grow over the years! It was an afternoon full of laughter :)
We strongly believe in equipping others, enabling others to go do the ExTRAORDINARY. Well, last Friday I had the honors to go and introduce Tjeko Fun Fair to the student body of the Navigators in Utrecht. I am trilled to go work with these guys, and so is Tatiana.Christian Zwart, who worked with us in New York has started an amazing project within NSU, called NSU helps. The thoughts behind the inisiative is to mobilize students during their study time to help others. Mostly up-to this point it have been projects with a focus on Utrecht, the city they study in, but this year thats changed!
Our goal is to mobilize a group of students who will organize a huge event to promote the manifesto of Tjeko - AND for them to sent us a team of students to help capture the 'action' in Uganda.
Tatiana has really been driving this project to a level that is challenging and mind-blowing. We are living in a cause-driven generation, and we are convinced that once students can see the impact our actions can have - they realize they have a chance to change the world. We can all scream something out loud- but let us make sure we scream something well worth screaming. Let's laugh and love OUT LOUD.
Here you can see the video NSU helps put together for us.
Over the summer I'd commited myself to 'EXPAND' and refresh the brain.
Much needed when you continually push yourself to 'do more' 'give more''achieve more'.
(found out i was doing way to much of that - but that's an other blog post one day)
One of those investments was a four-week course in Amsterdam, given by the 'Business in Development-network'.
I wanted to share two of the video's they made, that have some TJEKO bits and pieces in it!
OK - it's all in Dutch - and the first video has a poor SOUND quality ...
Congrats to our www.cheaptickets.com contest winner: Brendan Walsh!
Brendan is artistic genius, who we got to know one day in Jinja, Uganda. (I shouted him out before because of his great ONLINE cd 'Letters and Veins'.)
Brendan, in my eyes, is a perfect example of somebody who uses the internet as a WORLD LEADER! Not waiting for his big-shot-breakthrough - he's just putting on the web what he loves to do! You should follow him too. He's gonna get far! And here is the greatest part: Brendan and his friend Jim are in the preps of starting a non-profit that want to make inspirational video's for ... NGO's! They would love to travel to countries like Ugandan (where i got to know him from in the first place) and shoot video's, edit them, and then give them to the NGO's for their causes! Thats empowerment right there. Most NGO's could never afford to 'hire' a team of profs!
Anyway, his story is too funny to me. To do so, he would have to travel a lot. A whole lot.
Travel is expensive. How great would it be if they could fly for free? Or maybe a start-up budget of ... $50,000?
His girlfriend told him about this competition of www.cheaptickets.com about making a TV-ad. Grand price? $50,000 in FREE airline travel!
That night he dreamed about HOW HE SHOULD DO IT, and --- even funnier to me --- in his dream he saw himself go in his dads garage, to get all the props for the video.
Next day - he goes in his dads garage, and him and his friend Jim (who also won the second price in the competition) made the video at the end of this blog.
LONG story short... he got all their friends to vote for him... AND THEY WON!!!
Lesson to learn: Do what you love to do - and tell somebody. Not only will it inspire that person, but one day you'll reap some great rewards. Brendan did - and so can you.
