It was certainly a rewarding meeting with Project Happy Feet. We heard about Project Happy Feet (PHF) from Terence (one of the leaders from II12). Jacqueline emailed PHF, outlining our intention of getting an endorser, and they replied really fast for a meet up. This fast and spontaneous exchange of emails gave me a good impression of the organization.
Initially, we had our reservations as we were talking to an NGO compared to student leaders or university staff. So our game plan was to present our project and asked how they would like to support us (always put the ball in their court). Apart from that, we had a positive discussion yesterday with Eric regarding the endorsing of our project. Hence we could not decide how PHF can support us.
We met Terence (not the same Terence from II12), one of the founders of PHF, at Toastbox. He started off by telling us about PHF. So PHF started off as a CSR project but because it was so successful, Terence and a few others decided to set it up as an individual project. According to him, PHF’s main idea is in empowering underprivileged youths in developing countries through education. http://www.projecthappyfeet.org/
I gained a lot just by listening to Terence’s questions and experience.
Terence and I have a very different approach for the project. I think that the project should focus on personal development but for him it should be on the community. His belief is that any project should focus on the community (how we can impact them) and through that experience gain personal development. This gave me another perspective of YEP and set me thinking. What kind of work will create a lasting impact over 14 days? What is the main purpose of any overseas project? Who is the main beneficiary? I do not have the answers to all the question. But I do know that some of the answers can be found during the recce trip.
Since our project’s vision is very much aligned with PHF, I thought that it would be a very good opportunity to work together. As such, for this project PHF will be our endorsing organization. In the long run, we hope that PHF can support us in exploring different fundraising avenues. Either that or PHF can bring in LHCH as one of their beneficiaries.
Terence, Jacqueline and I agreed to have another meeting when we are back from the trip. I hope by then we will have a clearer picture of how all the stakeholders will fit in. I was particularly struck by one of the questions from Terence today, “If you have $20000, will you support the education of 20 Primary school children or 1 student who is going to university”. Then he continued by saying that through these intensive soul searching questions then you can train to become a better leader.
