If you’ve ever gone on a TECHO build, you know what it’s like to be sitting on the bus on the way back. Your arms are sore, your legs are wobbly, you’re sunburnt, hungry, and very, but very dirty. Beyond the physical exhaustion, however, you’re filled with a type of warmth that trickles through even the tiniest cracks in your body. It’s a humbling warmth; one that arises from knowing you had something to do with helping a little girl who used to share a bed with three others, or a family that had no access to a bathroom or sturdy infrastructure.
But this feeling only lasts so long.
We then return to our regular lives, were we find it inevitable to become BLINDED to the REALITY that surrounds us. The home itself may be a sustainable effort, but the giving from our part is usually not. It’s a matter of simply raising the money, building the home, and recycling the process.
We then return to our regular lives, were we find it inevitable to become BLINDED to the REALITY that surrounds us. The home itself may be a sustainable effort, but the giving from our part is usually not. It’s a matter of simply raising the money, building the home, and recycling the process.
This Saturday, I went to help out in Habla Roosevelt, BlendZ’s socially responsible initiative that Wonga, F, and Corey have developed to teach English to the kids of FDR’s workers. Here I was, surrounded by at least 35 kids all of whom were repeating the ABC in English, learning how to spell out their names, explain their family tree diagrams, and blissfully scream out different professions. You could tell how much they valued the experience.
And so did I.
And so did I.
In the time that I worked closely with Fiorella, Claudia, and Sary Adriana—helping them differentiate the “e”, “i”, and “a” in English—I was able to really let the experience sink in, and I was reminded of the feeling coming back from a TECHO build.
What draws the difference between the two, however, is that with Habla Roosevelt that humbling feeling of warmth remains for long because you leave knowing that you're going to come back. And therefore, the initiative itself is sustainable (because the kids practice English for 4 hours a week) and the giving from our part is sustainable as well because we play an essential role in providing that one on one attention to the kids.
For a long time before Habla Roosevelt, we were thinking of a project that would allow us to combine SUSTAINABILITY with IMPACT. We usually found ourselves leaning towards options that favored one more than the other. When I look at what BlendZ’s socially responsible initiative has developed into today, however, I think both sustainable and impacting; Wonga, F, and Corey are the ones to thank. They’ve managed to add value to our business that goes far beyond any monetary value, and in the process they’ve allowed us, or anyone, to take a part in doing the same.
What draws the difference between the two, however, is that with Habla Roosevelt that humbling feeling of warmth remains for long because you leave knowing that you're going to come back. And therefore, the initiative itself is sustainable (because the kids practice English for 4 hours a week) and the giving from our part is sustainable as well because we play an essential role in providing that one on one attention to the kids.
For a long time before Habla Roosevelt, we were thinking of a project that would allow us to combine SUSTAINABILITY with IMPACT. We usually found ourselves leaning towards options that favored one more than the other. When I look at what BlendZ’s socially responsible initiative has developed into today, however, I think both sustainable and impacting; Wonga, F, and Corey are the ones to thank. They’ve managed to add value to our business that goes far beyond any monetary value, and in the process they’ve allowed us, or anyone, to take a part in doing the same.