Global Potential Blog

Last Saturday (May 25^th) was our Soirée Culturelle fundraiser in La Courneuve.  After weeks of planning and preparation it was really exciting to see everything finally materialise.

Our photo display of the GP youth throughout the three phases looked great and really brightened up the entrance foyer.  This allowed people to find out more about what Global Potential does; GP youth and staff were on hand to welcome people and to share their GP experiences.

Thanks to some impressive cooking skills, we had a delicious international spread on the food table with bargain prices! (Everything 1 euro) This was really popular with our guests and all the food was gone by the end of the evening.

The GP youth kicked off the show and took to the stage in colourful traditional dress with Célia and Joseph saying a few words about GP.  Frank Cohn is currently visiting GP France and it was great to have one of the co-founders present to talk passionately about GP’s work.

This was followed by a video from French comedian Patson who was interviewed by one of GP’s second promotion youth, Joseph.  Patson is a fantastic advocate for GP, in the weeks running up to the Soirée Culturelle he invited our youth and staff onto his show on Radio Africa One to publicise the event.  Patson’s video really hammered home the value of programmes such as GP’s and he made everybody laugh.  Then we had a short video for which we owe a big thank you to Nassim, a film student who has recently become involved with GP France and put the video together for us.  It included footage of all the phases and mini interviews with GP youth and staff where they tried to sum up GP in one word. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGtm-d3tWCA, English subtitles available soon!

Finally there were some fantastic dance performances, which livened up the room including, gwo-ka, afro-dancehall and sambé.

It was great to be able to welcome over 100 people; the turnout and success of the evening is thanks to a lot of work and help from GP staff, youth, supporters and families.

Even though it’s only been a couple of months, Global Potential has already taught me important life lessons. GP has made me become aware of the opportunities around me that’ll bring to light ways to help struggling neighborhoods. Lately, I have been thinking of ways to try to get my community, Hunts Point, to become more aware of all the great changes taking place. GP has build the urge to bring a change and to aid those who accept a helping hand and those who are too afraid to seek help. But most importantly, Global Potential has shown me the greatness in meeting new people and what being a family is really about.  No matter who we are and where we come from, what brings us together is the drive to commit to a change and when we’re committed, we stay committed.

#GPFamilyForLife!

Tapai Sancai Hunuhuncha? Comment allez-vous?

Ce que je peux dire après deux semaines et demi au Népal est que c’est incroyable! La ville est folle, bruyante, hyper polluée, mais j’adore ce bordel. Les gens sont super sympas, dans l’ensemble, et je suis à Boudha, le quartier bouddhiste où plein de réfugiés tibétains habitent. Je suis vraiment au coeur de la communauté bouddhiste, à côté du plus grand Stupa d’Asie ( monument religieux pour les bouddhistes), à côté du monsatère de Shéchen qui a été construit par le grand maître Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché. Les gens que je rencontrent sont vraiment extraordinaires, mon boss surtout, et une nonne bouddhiste suisse qui s’appelle Barbara. J’ai déjà assisté à un enseignement d’un grand maître qui s’appelle Chokii Nigma Rinpoché. C’était très interessant, et il m’a donné un livre à la fin!

Au niveau du confort, ce n’est pas comme le Nicaragua, j’ai quand même des toilettes et un lit un peu plus confortable, mais il y a des cafards partout et on mange toujours la même chose - du dhal-bhat, une sorte de soupe de lentilles et du riz… Mais je suis préparée par mon expérience de l’année dernière, et je commence à parler Nepali.

Le boulot est hyper intéressant, pour le moment j’écris de proposals pour obtenir de l’argent de donateurs sur des projets, ça va de sponsorpship d’enfant à la construction d’école à la construction de rain water harvesting system ou de toilettes… Tous les projets sont très intéressants, je suis vraiment passionnée et en plus comme je te l’ai dit, mon boss est vraiment cool, hyper intéressant au niveau perso et pro, et sa femme est une bhoutanaise qui connaît hyper bien le Bouddhisme aussi donc vraiment cool quoi.

Le changement est assez radical cependant, et ici, tout est vraiment “à l’envers” par rapport à l’occident : les valeurs, les rapports, les priorités, le monde du travail. C’est comme si pour la première fois je me retrouvais dans une situation où je ne n’étais pas obligée, comme en occident, à faire quelque chose. Le rôle qu’on joue normalement en Europe, la vitesse, le “il faut faire ci et ça” permanent n’existe pas, et ils n’ont pas l même notion de l’efficacité.

Et puis la vision de la vie est différente; il n’y a pas un grand “design” qui nous mène vers quelque chose, nous ne sommes pas parfaitement agissants dans notre vie et dans le monde, il n’y a que des causes et des effets et beaucoup de screw up. “Things are not what they seem” dit Chokii Nigma Rinpoché, et en effet, les choses ne sont pas “solides”, ni importantes, mais “fleeting” et impermanentes; nous vivons dans un rêve quand on pense que les choses sont réelles et que nous nous accrochons à elles en nous stressant, ou en courant après la gloire, la réussite, la célébrité. Mais plus facile à dire qu’à ressentir profondément, mais incroyablement libérateur.

Voilà mes premières impressions. A très bientôt GP! Vous me manquez!:)

-Margot

Skydiving  3rd May 2013

When I started my internship with GP back in September at the start of my year abroad in Paris, I had no idea of what was to come.  I certainly didn’t expect that eight months later, I’d be sitting on the side of a plane, about to parachute jump 13 000 feet in the name of fundraising. 

During my first two years at Oxford, I was very involved with the university-wide fundraising organisation, RAG (Raise and Give) who put on a variety of activities from hitch hikes to talent shows to club to raise money for four different charities each year. This year, RAG partnered with Skyline, a skydiving company, who offer discounted jumps to people raising money for charity.

 Back in January, following my New Year’s Resolution to be more adventurous, I received my weekly email from RAG advertising to do a skydive, and before I knew it, I had signed myself up. The months flew by and there I was, in Oxford on the 3^rd of May, kitted out in my fashionable jumpsuit and hat (see below for amusement) and in a tiny rickety plane, strapped to a professional skydiver and ready to plummet from 13 000 feet or roughly 2.5 miles.

I’d like to say I was scared and overcame it in bravely jumping off, but actually I barely had time to register we were leaving the plane before I was free-falling the first 8000 feet, parachute-free for just under a minute.  The sensation of free-falling isn’t like anything I’ve done before, it is so incredibly liberating and such an adrenaline rush. The force of the air also left me with some great goggle marks for the rest of the day and I doubt my facial expressions were my finest, so I was pretty glad I didn’t drop the extra 95 pounds on getting my jump recorded on DVD.

Floating around in a parachute could become one of my favourite activities, if  that were a reasonable hobby to pursue. It’s so relaxing, and I was lucky enough to have beautiful sunny weather and take in all the sights of England’s green and pleasant land.

The best part of all is that I managed to raise $2320 for Global Potential,  about 1500 pounds, which is more than I was ever expecting to raise!! More importantly, I bombarded all my Facebook and Twitter friends with info about GP so hopefully managed to spread the word about our work a little bit further.

This year has been full of wonderful surprises but skydiving was definitely one of the highlights of my year. I would never have imagined that I would have done something like that, and it really puts everything into perspective. I am grateful to Oxford RAG for giving me this opportunity, but most of all to GP for giving me the confidence and self-belief to try something new and use it as such a great fundraising platform. I had never expected that my six-month internship with GP would turn into a year, and my involvement will go well beyond I’m sure.  One thing I’m certain of is that GP and my GP family are for life, and not just for my year abroad. Or at least that will be my justification when popping back to Paris next year from Oxford!

(English is below)

C’est la fin de ma troisième semaine chez Global Potential à Paris et le temps a filé !  Je me sens bien accueillie dans l’équipe; tout le monde est formidable et très intéressant.  Jusqu’ici le travail a été très varié: quelques évènements comme la fantastique projection du film Girl Rising chez l’UNESCO ; j’ai traduit des documents et j’ai appris à écrire une demande de subvention mais en général je me familiarise avec le fonctionnement de l’équipe et je me mets à contribuer aux projets est déjà en cours.  Samedi dernier je suis allée à mon premier atelier.  C’est très excitant de rencontrer les jeunes après avoir lu leurs biographies et j’ai hâte de tous les connaitre.  Le programme pour la soirée culturelle semble super et je suis sûr que l’évènement sera très amusant.

It’s the end of my third week with Global Potential in Paris and the time has flown in.  I have been made to feel really welcome here by the rest of the team; they are all really great and interesting people.  Work so far has been varied: a few events like the Girl Rising screening at UNESCO which was fantastic; translating some documents and learning about grant writing but mainly I am just getting to grips with what goes on at GP and how things run.  I went to my first workshop on Saturday; it’s really exciting to meet the youth after having read their inspirational bios and I’m looking forward to getting to know them all.  The programme for cultural evening on May 25^th looks great and I’m sure the evening will be a lot of fun.

My experiences with GP been great so far .I love it.One of the things that I have done and excited about was The GP Conference in New York.It was amazing.We talked about different kind of topics and we  came as a group to hear what each other did and also present it.It was a great experienced especially sleeping in a church for the first time.All of our conversation were really open minded.I am looking forward what GP have next .It was an amazing Conference and well organized.

As a growing nonprofit organization, Global Potential needs as much exposure as we can get. We need your help to secure a spot for Global Potential on GlobalGiving.com, a charity website that gives social entrepreneurs and nonprofits from all over the world a chance to raise the money that they need to improve their communities.

Partnering with GlobalGiving gives small nonprofits like Global Potential the chance to be seen by a much larger audience, and because each organization must undergo a rigorous application process before being accepted onto the GlobalGiving.com, donors trust that they are giving their money to a worthwhile cause.

Global Potential is now in the final stages of partnering with GlobalGiving, and this is where we need your help. We need to raise $5000 by the end of the month so secure a spot with GlobalGiving, and today is Bonus Day, which means GlobalGiving is offering to match 15% of unique, online donations of $25 or more, and will give a $1000 bonus to the project with the most donations!

If you’re thinking of donating, we encourage you to donate today. No amount is too small, and every donation helps us get one step closer to our goal, so share our project with your friends and family and let’s get Global Potential featured on GlobalGiving.com!

On Friday April 12th Sarah and I went to the 18th annual Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Student Research Conference. At this conference a friend of hers, Austin Voltz and other students presented their research projects around a round-table that led to a discussion which included feedback from faculty members, community members, and other students. The discussion we sat in surrounded the theme Opportunities and Challenges to International Liberal Arts where Austin questioned the actual similarities between important 21st century skills and the goals of Liberal Arts education and the changeableness of the two.

One of the presents that stood out to me the most was a presentation by Barbara Hou; her presentation was called Conceptualizing a 21st Century Liberal Arts Institution: A Case Study of the Asian. Her presentation stood out to me the most because her mission is to start a university called The Asian Women’s Leadership  University  (AWUL), for Asian and Middle Eastern women. At this university women from across these regions will be given the opportunity to  receive a quality education combining American liberal arts curriculum with the goals of bringing about social change. Her goal is to mold women into leaders that will be about to tackle to issues we face in today’s society, some include economic development and environmental sustainability. Although she mentioned she needs a huge amount of money fund her dream, I know it will be a well renowned university in the future.

As a high school senior attending college in the fall my two top colleges were Spelman College, an all-women’s college, and Howard University, the two number one Historically Black Colleges and Universities out of 103 in America. Getting accepted into both the decision was extremely hard because these schools produce amazing students that go on the Ivy League universities, become lawyers, doctors, engineers, businessmen/women, and amazing people that want to make an impact in the world someday. When I heard Barbara’s vision I thought of the same people that decided to start a university for African-American women and men who were under represented in America at the time because of the history of racism and slavery in our country. It is about 200 years later and not only have hundreds of thousands of African-Americans graduated from these schools but people from diverse races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Therefore, I look forward to seeing the opening of AWLU one day along with similar institutions  because anything is possible and looking at the success of HBCUS’s, regardless of your race, nationality, or gender anyone can receive an amazing quality education that goes above and beyond expectations and make a difference in our diverse world.

When we say that we had the experience of a lifetime, sometimes we might over do it, while in other time, we are just stating the fact. I have been tab on my experience with GP and I realized that no matter what, I always have to go back to the foundation. Being who I am today, my passion, my perspective of the world we live in, my dreams, were all oriented by one experience, my experience with Global Potential in Summer ‘08. Coming from Haiti, going to high school, without having a clue on what to do ”when I grow up”. Now I have dream, I have things that things that get me going. I have been volunteering in Global Potential last year, but this year to complete my Social Work degree, I have to do a full year internship, and GP could not be any better for a good placement.

Going from being a fellow, a leader, and alumni to a staff member, give me a different perspective of how far I have come, and how much I have challenged myself. Last year I helped with the planning of a small trip from Boston to NY back and forth, and this year myself and some other awesome alumni are planning it, and that alone brings out the sense of responsibility and leadership, which we have learned in Global Potential, by taking action. I come from being reserved to writing a professional outreach email, from a “shy” to a venturous person. Through challenges, great opportunities and devotions, it feels like nothing but the beginning of a long journey!!!

Since I joined GP I am always looking forward to Fridays to talk about change and issues in the world. The discussions have been very fun and interesting, I might self may have gotten a little roused up when big topics come up, but we cool down and get our points across. Recently I went on vacation with my family to Florida and missed 3 GP days. I missed the fellows and leaders so much! but I’m glad to be back and get into my group again.