Read the 2014 Annual Report
At the second half of 2014, I was compiling our 2014 Annual Report which gave me a welcomed opportunity to look back on what we’d achieved as a Foundation in 2014. I came across a story from one of our Uganda Project volunteers Catherine Paglia in which she wrote,
‘We can’t feel guilty of being born somewhere, but I do feel guilty of taking more from this earth than I give back. I got given an education which is everything but these guys got nothing.’
To read Catherine’s full story click here – The Global Volunteer.
I think Catherine sums up quite simply what can be a long and emotional moral lesson that can take years to learn – don’t take more from this earth than you give back.
There will never be a simple way for us to measure what we take from this earth and as I pieced together what we’d learnt in 2014, what we’d funded, what projects we’ve done, what stories we’ve heard and told, something became quite clear. We may not be able to measure what we take but there is one way we can measure what we give back.
Not in funding numbers or bums on project seats but in the measure of experiences.
Catherine’s story reminds us of this. No-one can take this experience from Catherine, no-one can take the experience from the people she met and worked with in Uganda.
Experience is priceless.
It is with this in mind that I share with you five lessons learnt and our 2014 Annual Report, a measure of what we’ve learnt in 2014 that we could have learned in kindergarten (as one of the lucky ones that got an education).
- Be kind. Be generous (to everyone in the ‘global’ school yard)
- Play together. (Because collaboration makes a more effective game)
- Give more and more meaningfully (share because you want to not because you have to)
- Enjoy the experience (because that’s what you will remember)
Happy New Year everyone.
Until next time.
Eliza Percival – Executive Officer