Sharks and eating ants

My mother taught me a very important lesson in my life and that was that you ALWAYS have something to give to someone, no matter how you feel emotionally, what your current situation is or where you are financially.

I have created guidelines I like to follow in my life and in summary: I give a certain amount of my time, talents, income and efforts to causes I care about. That is Heather Grace's giving framework.

Along came Ernst Van Der Poll, founder of Tawasul, and made me rethink my entire belief structure on giving when he said the following: "I want the majority of my time to be giving, while I work on the side."

I love meeting people who really are an example of the better person you can be, so let me tell you how this all came about.
In October 2009, I attended TEDx Dubai with Nick, my boss. We had been talking about getting involved in creating video content for charitable causes in 2010. While we watched a host of inspirational speakers, TWO really made an impact on me. They were Masarat Daud and her 8 day academy and Ernst from Tawasul.
Perhaps both touched me as they involve children, and I really miss my youth back in South Africa! So we approached them both to make videos of their work. (I will talk about Masarat in another blog).

We had a few kick off meetings with Ernst and he explained that Tawasul is all about creating a platform to re-connect kids with the environment, so we decided to film his "Week Without Walls Program" and Tom Savage kindly offered to film the workshops for teenagers while I led the interviews and we watched as these teens learnt about everything from sharks and turtles to creating environmental awareness via social media platforms in the classroom; Then we followed their confined water training and finally the very exciting scuba dive in Dibba.
This whole experience inspired me to write a blog about Ernst and to find out what motivates him and where he gets his constant stream of social entrepreneurship ideas from. It almost seems as if there someone chasing him to give back and I was interested to find out why his life is all about helping others.

He tells me "Time is a commodity and I tell these kids everyday that you are going to wake up and suddenly be in your 40's and I want you to ask yourself if you have done everything you can to maximise each day you have?"

Of course I was curious to know when giving became part of his life, and he shares an experience when he was 14 and he volunteered at Marfogo Farm in Mozambique, an orphanage for war orphans. Some of the volunteers were playing with the kids one afternoon and one of the ladies who managed the place was watching them and she started to weep. They ran to her and asked what they did wrong and she told them that one of the little girls that they were playing with saw both her parents shot in front of her. This little girl had apparently been emotionless since she arrived and while she was playing games with the outreach team, she smiled for the first time.
"You can change someone's life by doing something as simple as bringing a smile to someone who has experienced a lot of pain.” Sobbing movie stuff I tell you! Sniff.

His enthusiasm about the environment and making a difference in people's lives is clearly what he lives for. From Tawasul in Dubai to starting an art and education initiative for the impoverished fishing community of Sea Gypsies in Mabul to teaching Palestinian child amputees to dive, Ernst just seems to seek opportunities to make a difference wherever he goes.

When I asked him why he chooses to work mainly with kids? His answer "Kids have wild imaginations, they are full of adventure and they will even eat ants!" he laughs and tells an animated story about a kid who ate ants at a talent show.

I am not intimidated by intense people and some may be thrown by his fast paced way of thinking and the way he constantly generates ideas about changing the world. The difference between him and most people I meet, is that he is DOING something with his ideas. I think Ernst is one of the most grounded social entrepreneurs I have met and that is probably because he is literally in touch with nature in almost all that he does. The other common trait I find in people who give is the word PASSION. He describes passion as “the long distance fuel that is going to change the world” and he certainly has enough passion to keep hundreds of people inspired.

Ernst - you really are a powerhouse. VAVAVOOM.

Here is a short clip of Ernst with Khalil, a 16 year old double amputee from Palestine during the disabled divers instructor's training in Dubai on 27 June 2010.