Happiness and a Hug

I have a dear and respected friend who has worked in the field of international development for decades all over the world. He told me of a time when he visited a friend in Africa and was taken to orphanage in the country. Despite all his experience in development, he had never worked at an orphanage, and this was just a friendly visit. However, he said the surest sign to him that this orphanage was doing good work and taking good care of the children was that as soon as he showed up, the children ran up to him with big smiles on their faces and surrounded him for a group hug. They did not ask for anything nor want anything from him, they were just happy and loved, and expressed that joy with their warm reception. I have remembered that story very clearly ever since, and so I was struck by this one photo in particular shared by our partner in Nepal, Joining Hands Nepal family orphanage. This is a photo of the greeting and reception given to the most recent foreign volunteer who stayed at the orphanage on the day she arrived. It was not a forced or planned thing, but a spontaneous and genuine display of affection captured on camera. And though you cannot see it with their heads turned, it is clear from other pictures that all of the children are happily smiling. As my friend would surely agree, it is clear from this simple image that the children are well taken care of and loved.

Volunteering in Nepal

By Maya (Meike), Netherlands
Volunteer, Joining Hands Nepal

When I searched for a destination for my gap year, I chose Nepal. And when I decided this, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to do volunteer work at an orphanage. Volunteer work would be the best way to explore the country for me. I love to travel, and besides that there are thousands of orphans in Nepal, so it would be nice if I could roll up my sleeves and help. But where to start? I preferred a natural surrounding, fresh air and a peaceful environment so I did not feel much for staying in Kathmandu while volunteering. The people from Travel Active were telling me that they had just visited an orphanage in a littler place than Kathmandu, called Panauti. Kevin was so enthusiastic about this place and the orphanage, that he really wanted me to go there. I agreed. And I’m so happy! It is unbelievable how much someone can do in one year. The orphanage Joining Hands Nepal in Panauti is the best place you could wish for a child needing help. I still don’t know all of their stories, but I could already see from the first moment on the kids here are very happy now. I left Kathmandu on Monday morning with Himal, the leader and founder of Joining Hands Nepal. We had to drive by bus for only one and a half hours to get out of the busy city, into the wonderful fields and mountains of Panauti. What a difference! We walked for about 10 minutes from the bus parking lot to the orphanage. A small, but impressive orange building with a lot of balconies raised up in front of me. And surprise, surprise… Eight smiling faces were laughing and waving at me, walking up that hill with Himal, into the hot sun of Nepal.

“Hello, Sister,” they yelled, “How are you doing, sister? What is your name, sister?” James, Johnny, Clara, Maria, Louisa, Brian, Christina and Rachel. They were smiling and talking to me. It was amazing, they looked so glad to see me! It felt good from the first moment on. We had a welcome ceremony and then we played games, till the daily English Conversation Class at half past six. After that, around eight o’clock, we ate Dal Bhat for dinner. Then Clara, the youngest, fell asleep while eating our evening Dal Bhat, tired of another happy day, judging by her face. How sweet. It was bedtime. At ten o'clock it was almost silent in the orphanage. And so ended my first day in Panauti, “I think I can make something out of my time here,” I thought happily. And it seems to be true so far. Panauti is great, you guys rock!

The mornings here always start with morning tea at 6, a little bit early for me. At seven the kids start doing their homework: girls in the girls' room, boys in the boys' room. At 8 o’clock we play games and do a warming up for the morning exercises to get warm and stay healthy. Then we have our first Dal Bhat of the day and with a full belly of rice we get the kids ready for their school day. At half past nine they leave in a duck-a-like walking line to the school. How sweet! Around 5 o’clock you can prepare to hear all of the sweet little voices again. Singing, playing, asking, laughing, talking, until bedtime. It’s almost unbelievable how much life and good spirit you will find in this family! Yesterday I baked pancakes and today I will help Sarida to cook Nepalese food. I opened my eyes and saw how much there is to learn and exchange! I will only stay here for two more weeks, but I certainly will learn, teach, play and help at the Joining Hands Nepal Orphange as much as is possible. Just because it feels so good!

Healing Hands at Joining Hands

By Julie McNeal, Vice Chair, ForWorld Thinking

Our partner organization, Joining Hands Nepal, has a special treat this week. They are getting a visit from a small group of Integrative Manual Therapy Practitioners that are on a special Nepal volunteer trip, mostly treating patients and training interested medical personnel in the village of Kaskikot. Before heading home though, they are stopping in to spend time with and treat the kids at the Orphan home and train at the local hospital. How exciting for them all!

Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT) is an alternative medicine modality with a unique, hand on approach to functional and structural rehab. The premise is that the human body has an amazing potential for self healing when given the right support and guidance to function in this way. In today’s world, we put stresses on and into our bodies that were never meant to be on a regular basis. IMT helps the body to respond in a healthier way to these stresses and tune into its self healing capabilities more effectively. IMT looks at the body holistically and by connecting special anatomical points can affect the body on a physical, mental, and emotional level. In the United States, patient care tends to be more focused on chronic and complicated dysfunction. But IMT has many tools as well for acute situations such as fevers, infections, falls and accidents, etc. The Nepal IMT team has put together a special program to focus on the needs of the people there in Nepal. You can follow their specific blog by going to http://handovermatter.wordpress.com/.

Let’s wish them fun and productive times with the children, a great and healing experience for them all and safe travels.

An Observer's Mentality

Last night at the San Francisco International Film Festival I watched the new film by director Eran Kolirin of Israel, "The Exchange". It was a fascinating exploration of the voyeuristic aspect of human nature, and how we enjoy observing what happens to other people in a detached way. It is evident in everything from reality TV, to popular entertainment, to youtube videos, to the daily news. If we can watch any piece of the human experience, whether it be humor, love, eroticism, violence, or suffering, and feel detached from the subject, then we can feel the emotions that arise, such as joy, pain, excitement, disgust, or outrage, without feeling accountable or responsible in any way. What the film cleverly examines is what it would look like to bring that level of observing detachment into the personal life of the protagonist. As viewers, and naturally also as voyeurs ourselves, we are disturbed and fascinated by how he can behave in this manner with friends, colleagues, and his lover. These are people he is attached to, that he cares about, so how can he act in this detached manner?

By demonstrating how absurd it would be for a person to act in this manner towards those within his or her sphere of influence, the director brings up interesting questions about what responsibility we have to those outside of that sphere. There is no denying that this observer's mentality is a part of human nature and is in no way an unnatural phenomenon. So we cannot ask nor expect people to care enough about the problems of the world and the suffering of those in other countries to act simply by seeing a story on the news or reading about it on a website. A critical necessity for the pleasure of indulging in this voyeuristic part of our nature is detachment, so if the issue remains outside of their sphere of influence, they will not feel responsible to act. So to engage people, rather than try and convince them to care about something that is outside of their sphere, we must instead bring that something inside of their sphere.

What this is all leading up to is the big question: how do we bring local community issues from around the globe into the average Westerner's sphere of influence? Well the obvious best answer is direct experience. If you go overseas to a local community in a developing country and live and work with the people, it will become personal, no question. The people will enter your sphere and you will act to help them solve the problem at hand. Of course, not everyone can or will volunteer abroad and get this kind of direct experience. What is the next best thing? Someone already in your sphere of influence goes and has the experience and brings it back to share with you. But this relies on the storytelling ability of the person who had the experience and their level of commitment to selling it to you. In order to connect with their experience and make it personal for you, they have to show you their passion and commitment. What about after that? If we get to a friend of a friend, it is like a copy of a copy, and it becomes less clear and harder to become invested.

So what is the solution? How do we encourage everyone to feel responsible and accountable for the problems of the world that affect us all, whether we can see it clearly or not? First, I believe that anyone who volunteers in a developing country has a responsibility to tell their story to others and share that experience for the benefit of everyone. Second, I believe that volunteers should be trained and educated on how to tell their story so it is more effective, relevant, and compelling. Finally, I believe that volunteers should be given the tools to tell their story easily, widely, and in a variety of ways. If we begin to carry out these three steps and make every volunteer a messenger, the conversation will be raised, more people will feel accountable, and there will be a higher level of cross-cultural communication and understanding. We are all connected, all attached in the future of this world and humanity. We cannot afford to continue to be observers and to feel detached from those outside of our personal sphere.

Archives: Life At Arm's Length

By Eric Roache, Founder

Back in the days when I was a volunteer myself, traveling all over the world and experiencing different cultures and becoming a part of different people's lives, I kept a personal travel blog to share my experiences with friends and family. I continued this online journal up until the opening of Joining Hands Nepal orphanage. I thought it would be fun and enlightening to occasionally share an old post with everyone. With the first full year of the orphanage just completed, no post is more relevant than the last one I wrote before the first children were taken into the home to commemorate the experience of Himal (director of Joining Hands Nepal) and myself setting up and preparing for their arrival. Enjoy!

End of an Era

In a few shorts days this house that was once so quiet will become filled with the sweet noise of children laughing, playing, learning, and growing. From 2 will become 12 and a new era will begin. I cannot help but take this moment to say goodbye to the era that is ending, and even lament a little its loss. For though all we have been working towards is about to be thrust upon us and we will embrace it with open arms and hearts, there has been something special about these last 5 weeks. It has been the two of us living alone, cooking, eating, washing, working, in the house we have made together. These days of planning and dreaming, merely imagining the day when our efforts would finally bear fruit, have been some of the most memorable of my life. It is in the journey, and not the destination, when our true character is revealed, and when we learn the most about ourselves and those with whom our lives have become intertwined. Despite the minor setbacks and frustrations, victories and errors, we have made our way together and become the closer for it. We have created our own inside jokes and spent countless hours laughing at them us two. We have developed our own language mash-up of Nepali and English that nobody knows but us and provides us endless entertainment. We have set our sights high like dreaming men are apt to do, and can only hope we shall not soar so high so fast as to meet Icarus’s fate. Today I allow the sadness for these days gone by to enter my heart and flow through my spirit freely, for tomorrow a new era begins, ready to refresh my spirit and refill my heart with love.

Celebrating the Children of Joining Hands Nepal

We acknowledged the 1 year anniversary of our wonderful partner project in Nepal, the Joining Hands Nepal family orphanage, last month and congratulated them on their milestone. However, I think this month an even more momentous and emblematic milestone was achieved: the completion of their first full year at an English language boarding school. All 6 of the children who were taken into the care of Himal at Joining Hands Nepal had never attended an English medium school, and several of them had never attended school period. At the end of 1 year, each one of them, in addition to Himal's two nieces, who are also a part of the family at the orphanage, is at or near the top of their class and passed their year-end exams with high marks. Here is the news directly from Himal via a facebook post today:

"Congratulation to Rachael, Christina, Brian, Louisa, Maria, James, Johnny and Clara. We got final result of children from school last year. They have done very well and all the children passed with good marks! We are so happy.... thank you so much to all our volunteers who helped to us and especially for my brother Eric who managed everything for us and to his mom Joan Roache for supporting us and sending books to the kids"

We are so proud to be a part of their lives and their success. A special thanks goes out to the more than 15 international volunteers who helped tutor the children throughout the year and opened their hearts and their minds to the children. And of course, none of this success would be possible without the tireless dedication and love of Himal Waiba, director of Joining Hands Nepal. I knew from the first time I met him he was born to do this work, but it never ceases to amaze me the passion and joy he puts into it every day, and it shows in the happiness of the children. Here's to a job well done for everyone involved!

A Room With A View Towards Change

By Sarah Draughon, Treasurer, ForWorld Thinking

I was always a dreamer. Every small idea was a big idea in disguise, and my youth was fueled by underdeveloped entrepreneurial spirit. When you’re young, it’s easy to plot grand schemes and believe with every fiber of your being that they are achievable. Somewhere along the way, I became mired in the American Dream instead of my own.

Promising long term relationship? Check. A home, two dogs, and a stable above-average income? Check. A big TV, a car loan, loads of crap I don’t need (and maybe didn’t even really want)? Check. The rat race a reality, I spun paycheck to paycheck, meal to meal, taking for granted the things that really mattered to me.

I think this American life is full of tiny concessions, disappointments, and nay-sayers that create a vacuum around us. There is a huge world outside, and there was a time when we all wanted to be a part of it. It is screaming to us, but we are deaf to it in shrinking glass bulbs where everything has a place and a time, but the time is never now.

For me, ForWorld Thinking Founder Eric Roache is the pick tapping at the endless window I’ve built for myself. Instead of flipping through travel magazines longingly, he went somewhere. Instead of dreaming up ways he could some way affect someone’s life, he went and did it – and it changed him for the better. Instead of knowing only one way of life and blindly accepting its values, he discovered himself and dozens of other cultures in some of the truest ways possible. He has challenged me to look up, look out, and open myself again to the experiences that give me passion.

If someone were to ask me today if I’ve escaped the tiny bubble of my daily life, I can’t honestly say that I have. I certainly don’t intend to evangelize Eric or his journey, either. What I can say is that the charcoals of my former dreams are now glowing embers, and every time they are fanned I feel more awake and alive than I have in years. Again, I know I can make a difference.

How this translates to ForWorld Thinking, and what motivates me toward the trials ahead, is that I know so many young people of my generation or younger who carry a flame inside of them. They are brilliant, they are open, they are unexpected, unwritten. If I can take part in kindling that flame, I will feel fulfilled. To spread wildfire among people who want nothing more than to love and be loved, to feel connected to the world around them, to live honestly and accept diversity – this is important work. And the first step is to help them not only see that it is possible, but to help them succeed in their efforts. Volunteers and social entrepreneurs around the globe are exposed to a thousand reasons not to move forward; it is the purpose of ForWorld Thinking, and my greatest hope, that we can show them why they should, and then support them as they realize their dreams.

(Image courtesy of worradmu)

Volunteer Testimonial: Joining Hands Nepal

By Baukje Tuinman, Netherlands, Volunteer at Joining Hands Nepal

In January to February of 2012, I stayed for three weeks in the orphanage together with another volunteer, Nirmala. On our way to the orphanage Himal told me he told the children that 'Grandmother' would come. I was surprised...grandmother. I don’t feel like a hajuraamaa (grandmother) at all! But it was so nice to have 8 grandchildren all at once. They really did make me feel so welcome because they were so friendly, helpful, and cute. The singing and dancing, playing cards, telling stories to Tomke (my puppet), eating together (with the younger ones having problems to stay awake during dinner), talking English together, it was all great. Sometimes it was hard for them to concentrate on their homework, because other things always seem to give them more fun.... The longer we stayed, the closer we got to the children. It was also very interesting to go to school with them and be a guest at the worshipping ceremony of the Goddess of Knowledge. I learned a lot about the life in Nepal and the culture. I especially appreciated the kindness of the Nepali people. Most of them were always willing to help us and to talk about their life. I think Himal is doing a wonderful job with the childern and I hope their dreams will come true! Now I’m back home and I miss my 8 grandchildren and my 'nephew' Himal. I’m thinking of you every day and I really will come back sometime...

With love, Bijaya

Global Citizenship: Making Local Global

Yesterday I came across a very interesting discussion of global citizenship, what it means, and how it fits into international volunteerism. The post by Brittany Edwardes over at Volunteer Global had a very astute and important point to make on the subject which we really want to stress and advocate for here at ForWorld Thinking. Here is the excerpted quote in question:

Volunteerism has the unique ability to bring people together from around the globe to solve local problems. If volunteers are able to embody the ideals of global citizenship and realize that volunteering is about making the connections abroad and at home, the possibilities of volunteerism are endless. We must think, as we do our service, not as volunteers working for a cause, but as people working for people.

Global Citizenship

One of the tenets of global citizenship Brittany mentions is understanding the value of local citizenship and community engagement. It is our assertion that the only way solutions to major social problems can be developed and implemented is through community engagement with local citizens driving the change. Sustainable social change must always come from within. The second major tenet of global citizenship Brittany mentions is understanding the ability of a person to be engaged with global issues. We are turning into a global community, there is no denying or stopping this fact. We can no longer hide from the truth that each one of us is equally responsible for the future of this world, so we must educate ourselves about the major social issues around the globe.

Volunteerism

But we can do more, we can get involved and help through international volunteerism. Here is where it is important to consider why we are getting involved, and how we can best do so. This is where I think Brittany has made the most salient point about volunteerism: that it needs to be people working for people, not for a cause. Usually people pick volunteer opportunities because of a cause they believe in or a country they want to visit. This is wonderful and necessary, because you can't really choose based on the people if you have never been to the country before. However, if you go abroad to volunteer with idea that you want to make connections with the people and learn about their struggles, their beliefs, and their culture first and foremost, an amazing thing happens somewhere along the way: suddenly you are working for them and advocating for them, not just some cause. This is the magic of international volunteerism, and we need to do a better job of educating people on the human connection aspect of doing service abroad. Because the reality is that we work tirelessly and advocate on behalf of people, not causes.

Making Local Global

Our next great push in the near future will be the idea of 'Making Local Global'. If the first part of global citizenship is understanding the importance of local community engagement, and the second part is getting personally involved in global issues through volunteerism, then to me, the third part is bringing the knowledge gained back to the global community and educating others. I firmly believe that anyone who goes abroad to volunteer and engages themselves in a local community, learns about the local problems, and participates in implementing the local solutions, has a responsibility to share that experience and any knowledge gained with the greater global community. Those connections you made, those people you worked for, upon returning home it is time to advocate for them. Encourage others to educate themselves about the local issue by sharing your personal stories of the people you worked with and how they changed you. Maybe, just maybe, you will inspire another to go volunteer and make connections of their own, which they will share with even more people. This is how we make local global and build a global community. That, I believe, is the essence of global citizenship.

To read the full blog post on global citizenship by Brittany Edwardes, head on over to Volunteer Global.

(Image courtesy of Vlado)

Volunteer Guest Blog: Joining Hands Nepal

One of the lovely volunteers currently staying at our partner Joining Hands Nepal and teaching the children on a daily basis has been kind enough to write a guest blog post about her ongoing experiences. She has been there now for 1 month, and is staying a couple more weeks. We are happy and proud of the progress she has been making with the children in her time at the home. Here is an excerpt from her blog post:

I’ve been here for one month now and it’s been wonderful. It’s so nice that there is enough time to spend a whole week on the same subject. We spent seven English Conversation Classes talking about the world. What is the difference between a country and a continent? Where do I live? What do we know about North & South America? Which countries are in Europe? We talked about the tango from Spain, Mexican food, polar bears in Alaska, the Eiffel tower in France and snorkeling around the Maldives. For the younger children it was a bit difficult. The last class I was very happy and proud because they remembered a lot. Even Venezuela, Suriname and Cambodia, all hard to pronounce.

To read the full blog post, and learn more about Joining Hands Nepal and how you can get more involved with the work they are doing in Nepal, visit their website: joininghandsnepal.org

My Volunteer Story

By Eric Roache, Founder, ForWorld Thinking

The first time I ever traveled overseas alone, I headed off to Australia and Nepal to volunteer abroad for 5 months. It was a nice transition stopping a month in Australia to save the rainforests for a young American who had never really been exposed to other cultures or the harsh realities of the developing world. Lush landscapes, crisp night air, and the familiar values and perceptions of Western culture in the other volunteers from Europe and America. It gave me a chance to get over being away from home, friends, and family, and to settle into life on the road before the real adventure began. As I rode the midnight plane from Brisbane to Kathmandu by way of Bangkok, I watched the moonlight glimmer on the Pacific and tried to quell the anxiety and doubt swelling up inside my stomach. That night was the quietest and clearest my mind had ever felt as I stared into the darkness, an eerie calm to counteract the knots in my stomach.

Hours into my stay in Kathmandu, I wandered the chaotic streets of the city, far from the safehaven of touristic Thamel, putting my complete trust in two other volunteers who arrived earlier than me as I followed blindly. It was a strange rush and an assault on the senses that put me oddly at ease, and from that day forth I knew I would be forever at home in the unfamiliar. That moment of truth was important, because it set the stage for everything to come, in Nepal and beyond, and it allowed me to embrace fully the experience of life in cultures vastly different from my own without fear.

I will never forget the day I arrived in the small Nepali village where I would teach. I was handed off to a gentleman who spoke almost no English, led through the village in the waning light of sunset to a house across the yard from school, and sat on the porch with no explanation as people gathered and watched but said nothing. There we all sat around together in darkness for over an hour until my host father, Damber, finally arrived to greet me. It was his house we sat outside, and his wife was one of the people waiting with me, but she did not invite me inside. This incident sticks with me because it taught me to show respect and deference to the place, the people, and the community in which I was living. I was the outsider here, and I could not count on anything I knew or had learned before, so I threw it all out the window and prepared to learn everything all over again through the eyes of Nepal.

The months that followed were astounding in their simplicity and beauty. But nothing had a greater impact on my life than meeting Himal Waiba. He was a fellow teacher at school, and I was immediately struck by how genuine and compassionate this humble young man was. It resonated in his every word and action. We quickly became like brothers, spending every moment we could together. Every barrier that might normally separate us only served to bring us closer together because of our openness to one another. Never have I connected with another person on such a deep level with no effort and no need for words. Himal changed me, he inspired me, and he helped me to become the person I always wanted to be but never knew I could before I met him.

To me, that is the clearest example of the benefit of cross-cultural exchange. When you let go of everything you know and give in to your experience, which international service forces you to do, all your walls come down. You allow your whole understanding of the world to be changed and opened by others with a different set of values, beliefs, and experiences than your own. And in the end, that paradoxically shows you that we are in fact the same after all.

Together, Himal and I have since embarked on a journey of community service, global community building, and cultural exchange. To learn about the orphanage Himal founded in Nepal and find out how you can help, visit Joining Hands Nepal.

The Dangers of Good and Evil

Small government is good and big government is evil. Social services are good and corporations are evil. Invisible Children is good and Kony is evil. Nationalism is good and Western interventionism is evil. Ralph Nader is good and Republicans are evil. Democrats are good and Ralph Nader is evil. I could play this game all day with a million issues. We are living in a hyper bipartisan world these days, where issues are boiled down to black and white for convenient and bite-size consumption. You're either on one side of the issue or the other, with no room in the middle. How serendipitous it was that as I was preparing to write this post the past few days and thinking about these issues I happened to finally watch the documentary "An Unreasonable Man". It must have seemed an odd inclusion to bring Ralph Nader into the discussion, but he so expertly highlights the tricky nature of this subject as he has been on both sides of the fence when all he wants to do is tear the fence down.

I also brought Kony 2012 and Invisible Children into the examination of where we are as a society and how we dialogue for the same reason. First, Invisible Children is admired by all and looked at as a revolutionary force in viral video and creating awareness of social issues. Then, within days they are being torn down for everything from their salaries and expenditures to oversimplification of the issue, all the way to dangerous exploitation. I am not going to comment on the video, its content, its creator, or the situation in Uganda. For one, I am nowhere near qualified to speak to such things, and many have explored those issues better than I ever could. But more importantly, it is the aftermath of Kony 2012 and the ensuing debate that I find more interesting. Is Kony evil? Is the LRA evil? Is the Ugandan Government good? Is Invisible Children good? Can anything ever be that simple? How many have headed out into the world with nothing but the best intentions and gone off track? How many people have drifted along a dangerous road only to stumble onto an unexpectedly noble path?

I had a recent workshop where we discussed the art of persuasion. It is widely known that if you skip logic and effectively appeal directly to emotion, you will win the masses every time. It can be seen again and again throughout history. Historical figures who are generally accepted as evil were usually masters of this art. So it seems quite dangerous to use this emotional form of persuasion to bring the general public around to one's way of thinking. But doesn't it make sense if you are on the side of good to also use this form of emotional persuasion to stand a fighting chance? Here is the problem: what happens when a person is so convinced of their own righteousness that any means of persuasion are acceptable to bring the general public around to their view? This is both how the general public can be left tragically misinformed and how those with good intentions can end up monsters.

What does is say about our society and freedom of speech when a man who has something vital to say and who has an audience eager to hear it is shut out of the public forum by the system? Such was the situation Ralph Nader found himself in during the 2000 presidential campaign. If you have two opposing voices being heard, one is good and one is evil, and it doesn't even matter which is which. The point is there is no room for the third voice, for what is there left for it to be? If you're not good, and you're not evil, then you must be inconsequential. How can that be when so many of us live in the middle? Because the reality is that there is no good and evil, only people trying to live the best they can in the circumstances life presents to them. The more we open up the global dialogue to include voices from every perspective without rushing to react, but instead listen and try to understand, the more we will begin the see all the shades in between these false ideas we hold of good and evil. And when we see the full spectrum, we will see there are no ends of the spectrum, but that it is more like a circle. And when you take that old model of a spectrum with two diametrically opposed ends, such as good and evil, and bend it to turn it into a circle, suddenly good and evil can be one and the same. It's just a matter of how you look at it. Just ask Ralph Nader or Jason Russell.

Communication = Communi(ty) + C(ollabor)ation

The world has changed rapidly over the past few decades, and access to information is widespread and easier than ever. It has moved us in the direction of a new understanding of what communication is and can be. One of our big goals at ForWorld Thinking is advocating for and promoting cross-cultural communication, or global communication. Global communication long ago left the realm of simple one-way information sharing, but we are seeing now that it is also shedding the limitations of two-way dialogue and transcending into a space of virtual collaboration. One of the most exciting and now infamous features of the "Arab Spring" was the role social media played in connecting people and moving them into action. The tools we have at our disposal provide the opportunity to work together in real time with individuals from every corner of the globe. The possibilities are almost too much to process at the moment, but it is changing the way we think about communication.

The race everyone is in these days is figuring out the best ways to use these tools to bridge divides of all kinds and break down the remaining barriers to us becoming a true global community. Community is a word that can draw any number of wildly different definitions depending on who you ask, but I believe the key component of community is collaboration. In the past, the idea of community being a local thing made sense, because you could only collaborate with your neighbors. But now, with the internet having blown the doors wide open to cross-cultural, cross-generation, cross-everything collaboration, our idea of what constitutes community has to change as well. A community does not have to be based on race, generation, geography, or anything. It only has to be a group of individuals who come together to collaborate because they believe in something. Communities centered around ideas or passions collaborating, that is the new definition of communication.

The other great shift we are seeing and which we should all be embracing in our efforts to build a real global community is the multi-channel approach to communication. Online communities used to be separate, you were in the Myspace community, or the Facebook community, or a community that formed in a niche website's forums, or in an online gaming community. But now, communities have broken free from the restrictions of a single channel and instead use all channels to strengthen and consolidate themselves. That means the bond that holds the community together has to be a strong idea or passion, otherwise it would not be able to survive. The next step then is to figure out how to bring these smaller communities of ideas together into a global community. I imagine a giant virtual convention, or marketplace, where each community has its own booth, and the ideas and passions mix and mingle and communicate with one another. And these ideas and passions coming together, no matter how disparate any individual 2 may be, makes the whole global community stronger and more understanding by virtue of simply communicating. We need to keep moving away from segmentation and toward unity of purpose, even if we don't always agree (more on that next post). It is a lofty goal yes, but it is one we strongly believe in and we are determined to help work towards.

Reflections on the Journey to 501c3

By Eric Roache, Founder & Chairman

We are thrilled to announce that we are now officially recognized by the IRS as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. What this means to us is that the long journey of organizing is almost complete, and now we can turn our attention 100% to the job of fulfilling our mission. A lot of changes will be coming in the next few weeks and months as we move into the next phase of our journey as an organization, but I want to take the opportunity of this milestone to reflect back on the past year briefly.

One year ago, ForWorld Thinking was just pages of notes written feverishly in the foothills of Nepal. I would spend free mornings and evenings kneeling on the cement of my barren guesthouse room with my notebook set on the edge of the bed, huddled in my north face jacket and winter hat against the bitter cold. There I would write and rewrite plans, ideas, mission statements, trying to organize all the thoughts in my mind. Then in the day I would meet up with Himal and we would set about doing the work of setting up his orphanage, Joining Hands Nepal. After a month, we moved into the house that would become a home for Joining Hands Nepal. After another month, the children arrived and we set about the work of building a family. The next two months flew by as Himal and I cared for the children and taught daily English classes in the morning and evening, and Himal attended to business outside the house during the day while the children were at school and I kept fine-tuning my vision of the organization that was to become ForWorld Thinking. They had their first international volunteer just before I left Nepal at the start of summer, and our joint vision was complete.

The biggest thing I took away from those 4 months in Nepal to start 2011 was the thing that solidified our mission: passion to create change exists everywhere. We do not need to try and make change everywhere around the world, we simply need to find the passion that exists in people everywhere and encourage it, support it, and invest in it. I cannot expect to go into Nepal, or any country, fully understand the complexities of the social problems, and come up with solutions to solve them. What I can do is seek out a local community member who innately understands the problems, has the passion and knowledge to come up with solutions, and give them my trust and support. And I can give them a forum to educate people around the globe about what the problem is, what the solution is, and how outside supporters can best help. You see, just like every major change in an individual has to come from within him or herself to be sustainable, every major social change in a community has to come from within itself to be sustainable. This is a huge issue that I will come back to again next week in another post.

For now, what is important is that this realization was demonstrated with beauty and grace by my good friend and partner in change, Himal, as I watched him build a family with those children in such a short time. And now, 1 year after we moved into that house together in Panauti, ForWorld Thinking has received the blessing of the federal government to work for the public good and build a global community which includes Joining Hands Nepal and all of you supporting us. We look forward to that community growing bigger and stronger every year.

About My Days in Nepal

By Phi-ngan (Nirmala), Volunteer, Netherlands

Now I’m back at home, sitting at my desk. Just two weeks ago I was in Nepal at the Joining Hands Nepal orphanage in Panauti. It feels like yesterday but at the same time months ago. Being back in Holland feels kinda weird. Now, I can take a shower every day, use the air conditioner, put the lights on at all times, access the internet, not be cold at night, use toilet paper, etc... But I miss the gorgeous landscape , eating with my hands, the wonderful people I met, the excursions; but what I miss the most are the children: their laughs, playing with them, braiding their hair, singing ‘papegaaitje leef je nog, ieaa deeaaa’, playing the thumb game, and all the hugs.

My favorite part of the day was dinnertime and after dinner, when we played games together or just chatted. And when we had electricity Himal would turn on the TV or use his laptop to put on some music. It was so funny to see the children mesmerized by the TV screen. And Didi thank you for the delicious meals everyday! Ekdam mitho chha! Especially the dish with the pickles in it. Very spicy but soooo good. Jammie

The second favorite part of the day was when the children came back from school. Because our room at the orphanage had a nice view so you could see the children come back home. And they were always walking in a line. Brian at the front, then Johnny or James, then the girls Clara, Maria, Louise and at last the two oldest Rachel and Christina. I don’t know why you walk like this but it is so cute and funny to see it! And when they’re back they are shouting HELLO SISTER! HELLO GRANDMOTHER! HOW ARE YOU? HOW WAS YOUR DAY? So SWEET.

It was such an amazing time, a wonderful experience that I will never forget! Himal, I have to thank you for the care and hospitality. I loved how you wanted to show us everything and taught us new things about your customs and traditions. You made me feel very welcome and I definitely want to visit you guys again some time. So I’m not saying goodbye but take care and stay healthy. See you in the future! You guys rock!

With lots of love,
Nirmala/Phi-ngan

People Everywhere Are 'A Lot Like You'

I had the great pleasure of watching an engaging documentary, 'A Lot Like You', over the weekend at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival. The aspect of the film that resonated most with me personally was the way it approached cultural identity. It touched on so many important cross-cultural issues in the exploration of just one character, including being a mixed-race individual, being an immigrant in America from a vastly different culture, being a first generation American, and exploring your roots in another country and culture vastly different from your own experiences in America. It is so essential for people to keep exploring and talking about these issue in highly visible mediums such as film, and for those works to be exposed to as large an audience as possible. The only way to get rid of prejudice born out of ignorance is for people to connect with people from all different backgrounds and cultures and to begin to see pieces of themselves or people they love in them. Films like 'A Lot Like You' are the future of making cross-cultural exchange and understanding available and relevant to the masses. Now we just have to figure out how to replicate the viral success of Kony 2012 with sensitive works of art like this film, and we will move closer as a global community. Here is an excerpt from my review of the film for our friends at Art With Impact:

[One thing] I will say is that the feeling the viewer has after going on this journey with her, and the connection we feel to not only Eliaichi, but her family in Tanzania, is nothing short of remarkable. Herein lies one of the special powers of film for me personally: the ability to make a culture and a group of people so different from our own so familiar and relatable. The world needs more films like this, and it needs them to be exposed to a wider audience. Because if you can see a person from the other side of the world who lives in such different circumstances with such unfamiliar problems, and you can see yourself in them, then suddenly that distance between you and them becomes nothing. That is what will bring us together as a global community and inspire people to act.

Check out the full review both on Art With Impact's blog, and also over at the filmmaker's blog.

Our First Year Anniversary in Nepal

By Flore (Phul), Volunteer, Netherlands

After many days of practicing the songs and dances, preparing stuff like publicity, (enormously spicy) food and speeches, last Thursday Joining Hands Nepal finally celebrated their first year anniversary. It was great! So many people sat on the roof to watch how lovely the children were singing and dancing. The kids looked beautiful with their traditional Nepali clothes and make-up. And a lot of important supporters got their moment to say something about the orphanage. There were even special guests from The Netherlands (the founders of Travel Act, a company through which many volunteers have come to Nepal and sent back many good reviews about Joining Hands Nepal). Himal was terribly tired but very glad after this wonderful day. The anniversary let me, as a volunteer, seriously think about how many things you can accomplish in such a short time. The same with the story about the children. It's really good how fast they have gotten used to this 'new' life, including a new house, a new family, going to a new school, taking care of yourself and others, and much more. I'm happy for them. They must be proud. Because I, now a part of the Joining Hands Nepal family, am also appallingly proud!

IMT in Nepal

We are pleased to have a team of Integrative Manual Therapy practitioners visiting the orphan home in Nepal for a week in May to introduce simple health management techniques to the children and staff. This program is the initiative of another nonprofit organization, Eva Nepal, aimed at villages in Nepal, and was coordinated to come spend some time at Joining Hands Nepal by the Vice Chair of our Board, Julie McNeal, who will also be a participant in the program. You can learn more about the program and their preparations at their blog, handovermatter, including a few posts from our own Julie McNeal.

Joining Hands Nepal Video Yearbook 2011

The Power Of Video

I went to a workshop called "How To Make a Video That Doesn't Suck" hosted by Benjamin Packard of Retainer Media tonight. It was a great inspiration to any of us who have a moving story to tell and not a lot money to tell it. Here is a perfect example that Benjamin shared with us at the beginning of the workshop of a small nonprofit. Just try to watch this video and not be curious to visit their website afterwards!

Love Is A Creative Act

About a year ago I wrote a sort of manifesto, a document of my life philosophy as it stood at that time. It was an important action for me to undertake at that time because it was right before I was to undertake the first steps in the process of planning and building this new organization and global community that is ForWorld Thinking. The most interesting and important idea to come out of that process for me was the idea that love is a creative act:

"There are so many ways to engage in creative acts in every day life, big and small. When you choose to make a meal for family or friends from scratch rather than cooking frozen meals or getting take-out, that is an act of creation. The love you put into the food is absorbed by everyone who eats it. When you inspire a spark in another person through education, that is an act of creation. The spark ignites a new passion and opens a new path for the other person. When you begin a project at work or school or through charity, that is an act of creation. Whenever you bring something new into the world through love or inspiration or intuition, it is an act of creation that serves you and others. The two key elements in all acts of creation are time and love. If you devote your time and energy to an action, and you perform it with love and passion, it is more likely to be an act of creation. This harkens back to the notion of making every action like the first time, so you can maintain the inspiration and love for the action. When we are exhausted of cooking and cannot feel the love, we rush or we order pizza or we cook frozen meals, and we lose the power of the creative action. When we are exhausted of teaching and cannot feel the love, we rely on books or videos or rote lecture rather than discussion, and we lose the power to inspire creative thought. When we are exhausted of work and cannot feel the love, we coast or take shortcuts or shift responsibility to others, and we lose the power of creativity in our work. The more of our time we put into our actions, the more love and genuine care we put into our actions, the more creative force we exert in the world.

Action, we are nothing without action. Intuition, emotion, and thought amount to nothing without action. There is no purpose for the existence of this material world and our presence in it without action. We are put here to act, not sit idly by and let fate or the gods determine our life’s course. We are put here to act, not to react to our environment or our circumstances or the people around us and how they act. We create our environment through our actions. We create our circumstances through our actions. We create our relationships with the people around us through our actions. We create our world through our actions. We create our life through our actions. Our actions are all we have to function in the material world and make an impact. Creative action is our purpose in life."

The question then is: how can your love inspire you to act to help create a better world to live in?

Give Your Gift

To wrap up this week's theme of individuals making use of their unique skills to serve both their community and the global community, I want to highlight an organization that actually helps facilitate this process for individuals and nonprofits, Catchafire.

I was directed to their website by a post from their CEO and founder, Rachel Chong, over at the Fast Co.Exist blog entitled "Making Volunteering More Popular by Making it More Relevant":

"Last year, 26.3% of Americans volunteered, but only 1.8% of Americans volunteered their professional skills (PDF).

When people don’t have the option to volunteer in a way that draws on their strengths or their skills, when people don’t have the option to volunteer in a way that make sense to them, and when volunteering doesn’t result in an impactful outcome, people volunteer halfheartedly or they don’t volunteer at all. This is a pretty serious consequence. In fact, the volunteer rate in America over the past 10 years has dropped nearly 3%.

We need to give volunteering a make over. We need to make volunteering relevant again. In fact, 95% of nonprofits say they would like these services pro bono, but don’t know where to go to get them. If so much of the population has these skills to give away, and we’re able to convince these people to volunteer their skills, we have supply to meet this demand. I am confident that more than 1.8% of people want to volunteer their skills. We just need to give them the right opportunities."

I believe wholeheartedly in the mission of Catchafire of matching relevant skill sets with corresponding needs in the nonprofit world. In fact, it is exactly what we hope to do on a global level for our foreign partners and the communities in which they work and live once we get the appropriate tools and systems in place to make it happen. Stay tuned in the year to come for progress updates on the implementation of our volunteer program and how it will work to make this kind of skill-matching possible for us and our partners. In the meantime, if you have some special professional skills and a little free time to volunteer, why not head on over to Catchafire and see if they might be the right organization to help you match those skills to someone in need and make a truly impactful volunteer contribution this year.

Read the rest of Rachel Chong's post at Fast Co.Exist.

Nonprofit New Year's Resolutions

This post by chelseamurphy over on Points of Light's blog about their New Year's resolution to help more people in communities get involved in solving their biggest problems by volunteering is inspiring. Here's to hoping one day soon we can help even a fraction of as many people serve their communities in developing nations around the globe and make the kind of difference Points of Light and their HandsOn Network do.

"Every day, people of all ages, races, ethnicities and faiths step up to tackle problems in their communities and around the world. In 2010 more than 2.7 million of them did so with and through Points of Light.

Over the next three years, we plan to grow that number significantly and help broaden and deepen the ways in which our constituents create real and lasting change – and in the process define a new kind of volunteerism for the 21st century. A form of volunteering and civic engagement that calls on people to utilize the full range of their assets – their time and talents, their financial resources and their voice as citizens – to improve the world."

I really like the use of the word engagement for what we are talking about here. Each person can make a greater difference when they are engaged in the community because they can see the problems affecting people and are motivated to help find a solution. Engagement is a holistic approach to doing good for your community because it involves seeing yourself as an integral part of that community and its well-being, and it encourages a desire to do your part to maintain that well-being and to inspire fellow community members to do the same. Here's to making 2012 the year of community engagement.

Read the rest of the post on Points of Light's blog.

And for some bonus New Year's resolutions from impact nonprofit professionals check out this post over at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Generosity

I was reading a post entitled 3 Thoughts on Generosity by Sasha Dichter over on Acumen Fund's blog today, and I believe he made some important points about generosity as it relates to our mission here at ForWorld Thinking. The most relevant of the 3 thoughts he listed is quoted here:

(This post first appeared on Sasha's Blog)

"Generosity alone is not enough

Generosity is nothing more and nothing less than the foundation upon which we build. We won’t solve the big problems of the world just by opening our hearts. That is a dangerous dream, because the stakes are much too high. Yet without generosity too many doors are closed, too much judgment creeps in. Without generosity empathy is not given a space in which to grow and we experience the terrible misfortune of undervaluing the gifts we have been given. In so doing we run the risk of forgetting that each of us has something important to offer in creating solutions big and small.

To me, generosity is an active orientation towards the world and all its messiness. It is a refusal to walk by, to shut down, to pretend that if we just keep our heads down everything will turn out OK. It won’t, at least not without all of us."

What I think it is important to note is the idea that each of us has something to offer. The belief that a wealthy philanthropist can simply throw money at a problem to solve it is overlooking the complex relationships involved in any issue. This becomes even more true when we talk about supporting development work internationally, where cultural understanding is paramount in any effective solution. That is why intermediaries in the giving chain that work with local community members to come up with realistic long-term solutions are essential to success. We need to allow each person who is affected by the problem to give that something they have to offer towards the solution in order to reach the best possible outcome. That is the goal we aim to achieve by working so closely with foreign partners in developing countries to find lasting solutions to community problems.

Read the rest of Sasha's post at Acumen Fund's blog