Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the YYY podcast by Sotial Marie.
Speaker: This episode is very special as it happens just after that Sotial Marie 2024 award ceremony.
Speaker: The celebration in Vienna was beautiful.
Speaker: We honored the 2024 participants and winners, marking a significant milestone in their social innovation journey.
Speaker: Moreover, we celebrated Sotselmary's 20th anniversary, a testament to our commitment to social change.
Speaker: To me, this event's significance runs deep.
Speaker: So Thiel Marie recognizes every year the persistence, empathy, and collective effort to transform suffering into love.
Speaker: Can you imagine two decades of coming together to celebrate what is good in us, defying our collective challenges and supporting empowered people doing their best to bring clarity to this world?
Speaker: You are about to listen to Isabel Albrecht, a board member of the organization that runs SocialMarie, answering why it is worth keeping such an initiative for so long.
Speaker: Afterwards, Barbara Vanmele, former patron for Austria, and Dominik Bagola, 2024 patron for Slovenia, share their experiences with SocialMarie.
Speaker: And the last interview is a transformative conversation with Ladislav Kosar.
Speaker: His path and initiative will remind you that supporting others is supporting ourselves.
Speaker: Don't miss it.
Speaker: My name is Isabel Albrecht and I'm a member of the board to Unruhe Privatstiftung.
Speaker: Sozialmarie is part of Unruhe Privatstiftung.
Speaker: I'm responsible for the financial issues.
Speaker: Mainly I'm a member of the board to the Stiftung, so to the trust.
Speaker: And of course I'm in contact with the SOTIALE MARIE team, but I actually don't work with them directly.
Speaker: Of course, there's all kind of administrative work to do.
Speaker: And of course, I'm involved in the budget and things like that.
Speaker: But the more boring part.
Speaker: 20 years running and funding Sotiel Marie activities is definitely a labor of love.
Speaker: As I ask every social innovator for the podcast, why persist?
Speaker: Maybe exactly because the price is already 20 years old.
Speaker: If we, of course, were thinking about the future and is it still necessary to have this price to award...
Speaker: projects still in that way.
Speaker: Because for Unruhe Privatstiftung, Soziale Marie is a main part.
Speaker: And of course, we were reflecting whether this is still, that the impact is still high enough to go on, because we could also
Speaker: put the money into something different, into one project, and maybe then the impact would be higher.
Speaker: And we came to the conclusion that still, exactly because the price is so old, it's the oldest price in Europe and it's got a standing,
Speaker: And there is so much experience in the jury, in the team doing this.
Speaker: The archive is huge.
Speaker: We have so many different projects, approaches to social innovation, to social problems, how to solve them.
Speaker: And yes, I still think that it's worth...
Speaker: doing it because people meet at Socialemarie.
Speaker: They get to know each other.
Speaker: This feast that we have, this come together, being awarded is something special.
Speaker: For most of the people, it's not about the money they get.
Speaker: It's not the price itself.
Speaker: It's to be awarded.
Speaker: That's, I think, is something that is not so common when you work in a social environment.
Speaker: What do you see from your perspective when learning about so many social innovators that you have been in touch with?
Speaker: What can we learn from SocialMari participants?
Speaker: My main job is being a lawyer.
Speaker: And what I need in my job is creative solutions to problems.
Speaker: that's very, very similar to how those projects approach a social problem.
Speaker: It's all about looking into a problem but not being afraid of it.
Speaker: Trying to find solutions.
Speaker: And the more innovative a solution is, the better the outcome.
Speaker: And sometimes it's hard
Speaker: And you might not find a perfect solution at front, but it's worth trying.
Speaker: And of course, what you need to find excellent solutions is work together.
Speaker: And so I think what Sozialmarie told me is that there are so many projects working and having very good ideas.
Speaker: But the best projects have, in my opinion, always been those who were able to use structures, to link with others, to learn from others.
Speaker: And that's also why I think that Sociale Maurerie is so important because many, many projects that just focus on their own project, their own approach,
Speaker: They meet others, they see, ah, they do it similar or differently, and then they can learn from each other.
Speaker: And maybe that improves even their own solution to their problem.
Speaker: In the biggest words, TotalMari is a tapestry weaved by hard-working team members across Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and most recently Slovenia.
Speaker: The core team interacts with the jury, project evaluators and country coordinators.
Speaker: Additionally, each country has a new patron every year.
Speaker: They support selected projects for a year, offering their expertise and points of view.
Speaker: During the awards ceremony in Vienna, I spoke with two patrons.
Speaker: Barbara van Melle from Austria and Dominik Bagula from Slovenia.
Speaker: And before we start, I sincerely thank Wanda Moser-Hindel and her late husband Fritz Moser for starting such a wonderful venture.
Speaker: Dear Barbara, tell us more about you and your take on what Sotelmarie is all about.
Speaker: I'm Barbara van Melle,
Speaker: And Wanda, she's actually one of my longest dear friends, and I'm connected with Sozialmarie since the beginning.
Speaker: I was a member of the jury for many years, and I actually was the host at the gala evening, like today on the 1st of May.
Speaker: Yes, for many years.
Speaker: And I think that the Sozialmarie, what I learned from the Sozialmarie, I mean, when you consider the situation in Europe, everything actually is getting worse.
Speaker: I mean, just to mention the war in the Ukraine and poverty is increasing and we have really a lot of problems.
Speaker: And therefore, it's really necessary to find innovative solutions for problems or to identify new problems.
Speaker: And I think that's what Sozialmarie really does since many years.
Speaker: And I love to be here, for example, on this evening, on the 1st of May, because you see all the projects on the stage and you see how much positive energy is there and that people are really focused on solving problems.
Speaker: And it's really, it's heart touching to experience this.
Speaker: This is my second time participating in the Social Marie award ceremony.
Speaker: And each time I feel the intensity of the emotion.
Speaker: The emotion and this positive spirit, you know, because everything, you know, all these problems, people face a lot of economic and social problems and people always complaining about everything and that everything gets worse.
Speaker: And then you come to Social Marie and you see how many people are really full of love and of
Speaker: just of bright ideas and that's really very touching.
Speaker: Please Barbara, tell me more about your professional experience.
Speaker: In former times, for 25 years I worked for the Austrian Broadcasting Company as a journalist and as a host and then I decided at the age of nearly 60 to do something completely different and I opened my own business.
Speaker: I became an entrepreneur and I am the founder of the first bread baking school here in Vienna.
Speaker: And I run the bread baking school and a shop.
Speaker: And yes, it's really a lot of fun and I love it.
Speaker: And now we are six years old and we started two people.
Speaker: And now we are 15, a team of 15.
Speaker: And yes, it's very successful actually.
Speaker: How do you connect your professional experience with social innovation?
Speaker: That's connected to because last year I was a patron and you know, the patrons, they are asked to choose a project.
Speaker: And I thought, OK, what can I do?
Speaker: Because I wanted to do something really connected to my heart.
Speaker: And as I told you, I'm the founder of the bread baking school.
Speaker: And therefore, I decided to support a project in Graz.
Speaker: It's called Lely.
Speaker: And that's a project they work with women with eating disorders.
Speaker: Let's say anorexia, bulimia.
Speaker: And that sounds really strange at the first moment that you go and work together with women.
Speaker: And because I offer them a bread baking workshop, a sourdough working workshop.
Speaker: a sourdough workshop.
Speaker: And that sounds strange at the first moment because the women don't eat and they bake bread with me together.
Speaker: But I'm so convinced since all the years I'm doing bread baking workshops because we have a slogan.
Speaker: We say bread baking is therapy and there's something really true about it.
Speaker: I experienced it now over many years when people bake bread.
Speaker: They are really connected to something that is really important.
Speaker: I mean, they touch the door, they shape the bread, they bake the bread, it smells terrific, and they have really the experience to be connected to one of the most important foods, and that's bread.
Speaker: And the women came to our bread baking school here in Vienna and we baked together.
Speaker: We did this bread baking and they took the sourdough with them to Graz.
Speaker: And now the sourdough, Regina, it's called Regina, lives in Graz and they will do bread baking together with the women.
Speaker: And just to make food is something I think very important for people with eating disorders.
Speaker: I'm Dominik Bagola.
Speaker: I am an advertising creative professional with two decades of experience.
Speaker: Also a musician with the artist name Balladero, recorded three albums.
Speaker: And one of the things I'm also doing is social innovation.
Speaker: I was a part of the knowledge transfer office of the University of Ljubljana for two years.
Speaker: So somehow joining all these fields together and having fun.
Speaker: Tell me more about being a patron.
Speaker: I was invited to SocialMari, Vajziva from Embuna.
Speaker: And my role is, I think, as my overall stance in life is connecting all these various fields I'm active in.
Speaker: So sharing my experience, I'm this year's patron for the Slovenian SocialMari.
Speaker: and I'm glad to help participants, social innovators from Slovenia with sharing my knowledge, skills that I've acquired through recent years of activity in all these various fields I mentioned.
Speaker: Dear Dominic, as a Sotiel Marie patron for Slovenia in 2024, can you share your opinion about the importance of social innovation?
Speaker: I think a social innovation in general is very important, not just from the competitive side, because we look at it from a general viewpoint.
Speaker: All of the most important aspects of the modern life are actually social innovation, democracy, human rights, etc.
Speaker: And for a small country like Slovenia, that in recent decades has
Speaker: undergone a lot of transformation, so becoming independent from the previous regime which was still in Yugoslavia, so becoming an independent country, forming its own democracy, etc.
Speaker: Going through all these changes, it's important to also acknowledge the importance of social innovation in the ecosystem of the country and I think
Speaker: Awards like Social Marie, which is the oldest European award for social innovation, somehow put Slovenia further on the map.
Speaker: of this and this is important, of course, Slovenia being a small country, which is also reliant on collaboration with neighboring countries and also, in a sense, is relying on innovation because Slovenia has also a lot of technological innovation.
Speaker: I think we are very good in a lot of things like sports especially,
Speaker: where we set world records through our numerous amazing competitors.
Speaker: We have great musicians, great scene there, but recently, Social Innovation also has become a serious competitor, I think, in Slovenia, and that's very good.
Speaker: And maybe in the future time we will have a
Speaker: kind of a world record in social innovation also happening in Slovenia.
Speaker: I think it's very, really very important that in any country, especially in the times that we live in, which are very challenging, a lot of the things are changing, we see a lot of the
Speaker: disappearing of a lot of, how you would say, former connections that we used to have as people.
Speaker: So there's a lot of fragmentation, individualization, and I think the challenges of tomorrow we can only successfully address together and think social innovation is crucial, especially in a country, let's get in.
Speaker: What would you recommend to anyone thinking of starting a social innovation venture?
Speaker: The beginnings are at the same time always the most exciting but also somehow the hardest.
Speaker: And I would say that before you start, you have to ask yourself if what you will do is really your purpose.
Speaker: And if that's a yes, then just stick to it for life, I think, because it's very important.
Speaker: that the purpose is there and I think with that everything else somehow happens it's easier to overcome obstacles hurdles but also I would say not it's good not to build fences or like close yourself in your little garden but also in the nature of the Sociale Marie award to connect collaborate see what other people are doing trying to find experiences
Speaker: take the best for yourself and ask for advice but follow your heart.
Speaker: Now that you experienced for the first time live the award ceremony, what did you see there?
Speaker: Why do you think this kind of event is important?
Speaker: I think, although it sounds like a simple question, like very casual, but I think it's a great question because
Speaker: I think in all my career years, I was never asked a question like that.
Speaker: And I've been to many, many advertising award ceremonies and music ceremonies and a lot of stages, et cetera.
Speaker: But what's interesting is that I came into contact with Social Innovation and Social Marie during Corona.
Speaker: times, so COVID and yeah, everything was pretty antisocial then, so not a lot of real person or personal contact and everything was online.
Speaker: So it was very interesting to get into this world of social innovation through this kind of a distorted perspective where everybody was interacting online.
Speaker: And as we all know, to do social innovation, I think there is the key point where you move to offline.
Speaker: So where you meet the people that do social innovation.
Speaker: I don't know, I'm not sure how many social innovation projects have been realized using only online tools, or maybe there are some, but I think that sooner or later, the people behind it that share the visions and the ideas, they have to meet in person.
Speaker: Because I think that as I think also said, I think on the stage of the ceremony where I was invited up to speak as patron, I think I said something in the sense that the basis of social work,
Speaker: innovation is actually that it connects us all and that it drives us with some energy.
Speaker: It connects us with energy.
Speaker: That's also why I chose to be the patron of Solar School Hrasnik.
Speaker: But yeah, I didn't expect or I didn't know what was going to happen in the live event in Vienna.
Speaker: Of course, I love Vienna as a city, so it was nice to return.
Speaker: But to be honest, I was expecting like a very classic ceremony and it was in a sense, yeah, a ceremony where awards were given away.
Speaker: But to me,
Speaker: What was great about it, and I think it also very nicely encapsulated the whole idea behind Social Marie, is that there was a certain kind of connection or community that was present
Speaker: or connecting in the ceremony hall.
Speaker: So we were in the Teatr Akzent and yeah, the accent, I think, or the emphasis was, I think, on this community that has been built throughout 20 years and is still building.
Speaker: And I think that was very evident being part of this ceremony.
Speaker: I could feel these good vibrations as the ceremony was going and where we got to know the projects and got to know the people.
Speaker: And what was really beautiful to me, I kind of felt a sense of like the community and purpose being even bigger.
Speaker: So everybody that was on that stage that was nominated or called up to get an award was getting the award for something that is really meaningful.
Speaker: And what I even further liked the most was that in a way it was not about them.
Speaker: So the award was about the project and about the good that it is bringing back to communities, society, about this energy of innovation and helping and this positive spirit and hope that it was bringing back.
Speaker: So I found that really, really nice.
Speaker: And also in this sense, the whole ceremony was very casual.
Speaker: friendly, welcoming, you know, sometimes I think
Speaker: when I remember also these previous award ceremonies, and I'm mentioning a lot, but sometimes you would like feel, you could feel not welcome.
Speaker: You know, there was a lot of competitiveness between agencies or also between musicians sometimes or in the music scene, there's a lot of competitiveness.
Speaker: And here, I kind of didn't see that so much.
Speaker: I just saw it really more wholesome.
Speaker: and more embracing so the walls were down and especially what was great that that you could see the whole team and the founders behind social marie interacting so it was it was actually beautiful yeah now if i connect this from what i started with so getting in touch with social marie online which it was like a bit abstract so through a website and then actually
Speaker: getting to know the manifestation of this whole idea throughout two decades in the ceremony event and what it's all about, it just seemed like a perfect circle.
Speaker: Hi, my name is Ladislav Kosar.
Speaker: I'm a citizen of Slovakia, hopefully a global citizen.
Speaker: I'm developing now a program called BUDDY for abandoned, abused and orphaned children that helps them integrate in society by creating, healing friendships with volunteer buddies who give them regular time, weekly, monthly, many years and help them integrate.
Speaker: I trained the lawyer, was an investment banker, and this was my twist in life to make this planet a bit better place to live.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's me.
Speaker: So I have a first question for you that is, why did you decide to start with this initiative?
Speaker: I love the why questions.
Speaker: They go to the essence of things.
Speaker: Well, there's a long and short answer.
Speaker: The short one is, who knows?
Speaker: I think some things just come to us in life and some things just don't go away.
Speaker: They stick with us.
Speaker: And then we later discover that they are our calling, our essence is in them.
Speaker: And this work with abandoned children, just my...
Speaker: have become that for my life.
Speaker: So from, you know, when you dream all kinds of dreams and you don't know how they materialize and then you drink few things and then you realize that one thing seems to be me.
Speaker: And that was actually a few moments.
Speaker: I was in a conference in Mexico the last five or 10 years and I was so proud.
Speaker: so joyful giving we have a very colorful business card um uh yellow with with the with the cartoons on them and and i was just joyful whoever i knew i met say this is what we do we help these children find light find love and and i saw that it connected bridges with just about anyone everywhere so
Speaker: And all of the other stuff just came later.
Speaker: So it was actually in Mexico or the United States where I traveled.
Speaker: Then I looked back and I said, okay, I might as well first get things done in my home country before I do anything globally.
Speaker: So the why is that was, I didn't answer neither the short nor the long.
Speaker: I guess that the super short answer is long.
Speaker: The super truthful answer is because long.
Speaker: Because
Speaker: When I met these children, what woke up, a feeling of gratitude awakened how much I got from my mom, my dad, my sister, my community that I grew up in a loving environment.
Speaker: I was 31 years old.
Speaker: I was walking around the mall in Bratislava.
Speaker: I came back from my investment banking and asset management experience in Germany and London.
Speaker: And there was a moment where I felt my bills are paid.
Speaker: I had a car.
Speaker: I had a consulting career in investments.
Speaker: And I saw my mother as a child doctor making a few thousand euros a month.
Speaker: And I had much more than that.
Speaker: And I guess my previous student question also how to improve humanity and life and bring my talents to service of the planet was
Speaker: Woke up even stronger.
Speaker: So I was in a mall and kids were selling beads and for 33 euros, which is around a thousand crowns, I bought this bracelet and wanted to leave.
Speaker: And they said, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: You just please come visit us.
Speaker: Don't leave.
Speaker: Please come visit us to this orphanage.
Speaker: And I listened to this.
Speaker: I guess I was courageous a bit and did not quickly run away.
Speaker: And I said, okay, I'm
Speaker: And I never been in an orphanage.
Speaker: I never knew there's kids who don't grow up in a family.
Speaker: So when I arrived, again, not knowing anything, I asked, how can I help?
Speaker: And that was such an open question that the lady answered.
Speaker: I remember till this day, please figure out how to create quality time for these children outside of the orphanage, the children's home.
Speaker: And it was like an order, like an order, go home.
Speaker: laddie and fix this.
Speaker: And I was crying as a teenager to my mama that I wanted to be inventor and by the time I get adult everything will be invented and nothing will be done.
Speaker: Nothing will be to do.
Speaker: So I guess that was this thread that started developing, went back to my organization, teamed up with my then colleague Martin and some other people.
Speaker: My sister arrived from Costa Rica and we did the first camp in the nature with the kids and
Speaker: And slowly started learning that, oh yeah, there's children who don't have a home, a supporting mother, a supporting father, and how much of their destiny is then later on influenced by the lack of these supporting relationships.
Speaker: And then eventually that thousands, millions of children fall into crime, unemployment, prostitution, early death because of lack of love, lack of time.
Speaker: So that...
Speaker: The why was a combination then of that moment in life as a young entrepreneur who felt he wants to do something with his time and energy.
Speaker: So it was an energetic transformation of just wanting more into using your talents that you acquired to service.
Speaker: Then it met with a very deep gratitude that I felt to my family.
Speaker: And I guess there was something magical too.
Speaker: There was something magical between the lines there.
Speaker: of that world that I knew nothing of.
Speaker: So I still continue to be an entrepreneur, but slowly the next eight years, we kept developing it and trying to find the answer.
Speaker: And it took, it's 18 years today.
Speaker: So it took really eight, nine years to figure out the solution of what is today the body formula or the body essence, which connects matches, uh,
Speaker: on average 30, 35 year old volunteers in deep long term relationships, one on one with a child from an institution.
Speaker: And science proves it that even the Harvard study of 75 years has proven it.
Speaker: John Bowlby, 1957, that basically kids that suffer trauma in their first relationship, they can get healing later on.
Speaker: in a relationship.
Speaker: They can get healing in a relationship.
Speaker: And our lead expert in psychology actually said this a few weeks ago at a meeting and it really stuck with me.
Speaker: That's precisely what Buddy does.
Speaker: It creates these healing friendships, these unusual friendships.
Speaker: And what happens there is they spend weekly for years quality time.
Speaker: And in that time, trust is built.
Speaker: And when the kids feel safe, the volunteers are safe, the time is safe,
Speaker: They just do anything.
Speaker: They go hang out.
Speaker: It's not the activity that's important, but the trust, the openness, the ability to listen, to empathize is what then builds a relationship.
Speaker: And once that's done, they can actually work on skills and eventually help these kids succeed.
Speaker: So that seems to be the...
Speaker: the big why question.
Speaker: It was some combination of personal talent, drive, all the gifts I got, plus it was given to me as the ultimate, it's really a gift.
Speaker: I really think
Speaker: I was gifted this opportunity.
Speaker: I totally agree because you were talking about purpose, basically.
Speaker: So how at some moment you find the opportunity to align the best in you with the best results possible, right?
Speaker: So it's that feeling of gratitude, like what I'm doing has an impact.
Speaker: And that was...
Speaker: I studied arts in art school.
Speaker: Then I went to law.
Speaker: I felt law will be the tool for me to bring justice.
Speaker: Then after I got my first banking job, Ivan wrote, oh, nice.
Speaker: This is nice.
Speaker: I get my bills paid, but I would like to be of some service to humanity.
Speaker: So I was 25 when I already wrote this.
Speaker: I learned to speak eight or 10 languages or so.
Speaker: So I wanted to be a diplomat.
Speaker: But all of these things where I felt not it, somehow I was lacking something.
Speaker: And that moment in life when I was 31,
Speaker: I was also in real estate finance and I kind of projected myself doing this for the next 10, 15 years.
Speaker: I traveled in the future, looked back.
Speaker: I was like, this was my life.
Speaker: I built 10, 15 buildings and this was it.
Speaker: So I was in that thinking mode of where I give my own time when I met these kids.
Speaker: So yes, it, it, it,
Speaker: And I was kind of glad what I was doing.
Speaker: And at the beginning, I also was involved in other philanthropy with handicapped children, with deaf children.
Speaker: We did arts, musicals translated for deaf children.
Speaker: So I guess slowly my broader philanthropy was also being shaped, but really being able to discover
Speaker: the world of kids who did not get love or actually were hurt and that a friendship a time together just the essence of just the being of just the present being of another human just hanging out
Speaker: that it's healing, scientifically proven healing.
Speaker: And you know, and I know that how valuable is just time together with somebody who listens to you, who gives you time.
Speaker: That's the essence of life.
Speaker: It's basically touching beauty and freedom and the kids feel free.
Speaker: That's the magic about it, that there's something magical that is born out of that shared presence.
Speaker: You know, I work with co-working spaces.
Speaker: I found two co-working spaces.
Speaker: And every time someone asks me about co-working and that they are interested in starting a co-working space or something like that, they ask me, what's the problem that you are solving?
Speaker: And I say loneliness.
Speaker: And at the beginning they get puzzled because it's like, what?
Speaker: Aren't you solving something about cooperation, business growth, etc., etc.?
Speaker: No, loneliness.
Speaker: And everything is about getting together with someone that wants to listen to your thoughts.
Speaker: And share and laugh and
Speaker: And now imagine that you do this in a co-work where a majority of the people have some homes and healthy relationships.
Speaker: Now imagine the hundred times value when every single adult that you know either hurt you or failed you.
Speaker: And your role now is immense because you become an ambassador role model of somebody who actually, again, allows that kid, and these are teenage kids, to regain trust.
Speaker: And they regain trust to other humans, other adults, slowly to themselves.
Speaker: And actually, there's like a...
Speaker: There's like a rebirth happening at their level because if they thought I'm not worthy of anything, they kicked me, they shoved me around, and now I'm again...
Speaker: of worth, that is really changing the dark into light and our impact measurement service that my sister runs with the kids and volunteers do say that.
Speaker: And I can speak later about it.
Speaker: And actually where the twist, where the whole
Speaker: organizational development change is eight years.
Speaker: Eight years we could not figure out the formula.
Speaker: We did.
Speaker: Weekend educational event, experiential education, skills for life, because we also wanted these kids to hang out with them, but to succeed, have a job, have housing.
Speaker: And then I met one of the first volunteers who told me, I just love you.
Speaker: You wanted to build a big organization.
Speaker: I just wanted to hang out with one kid.
Speaker: And there was a heavy record.
Speaker: That's when, I don't say a big apple, but I guess a big watermelon fell on my head.
Speaker: is that, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, that's what I need to do.
Speaker: I need to find you.
Speaker: You want to give time.
Speaker: I need to check whether you're safe and you have time and you're the right person, match you with a teenage kid.
Speaker: So it took some time to figure out that we don't work with small kids and we don't work with 19 plus because once is too early and the other one is too late.
Speaker: But eventually it was a turnaround that the whole organization
Speaker: around quality time spent, which was the first mission.
Speaker: So maybe, yeah, that's in the DNA of why it actually works.
Speaker: That's amazing, right?
Speaker: We see how long it takes to find, as you said, the real formula.
Speaker: I wanted to close it.
Speaker: After eight years, my sister was like, gosh, we're running three types of programs in three orphanages.
Speaker: We're not going to help more.
Speaker: I'm just going to go back and be a businessman and just, what am I?
Speaker: So I guess, and it's part of maybe why it's still around that I was driven by real value.
Speaker: I was driven by not just kind of wannabe, feel good,
Speaker: Um, but really, do I really deliver like a proper entrepreneur?
Speaker: And again, I can say that in the piece why I think it works.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: So I think that there's, there's a component of persistence there that I would love to explore.
Speaker: But first I would like to ask you, why do you think this initiative is successful?
Speaker: I think, um, again, you ask, uh, uh, multi-layered questions, um,
Speaker: On the very deep level, I think, again, the answer is love.
Speaker: It's coming from love.
Speaker: It's coming from a pure energy of me, other co-founders who were there, my sister, currently the managing director, Jaroslav.
Speaker: There's some deep, deep energy of love underneath of really helping these kids without ego to find their best selves for them to be
Speaker: equal contributing humans, and no matter what their background was, that they too can lead a life, be a waiter, a waitress, bartender, barber.
Speaker: What I want to do, fulfillment, freedom basically, right?
Speaker: So I think one part of why it works, maybe I'm the lead ambassador of the values, founder maybe should, is, and hopefully...
Speaker: he can learn and improve on them and surround himself by or herself by like-minded people.
Speaker: But I think that sticking to what I see in my mother as a doctor, what I see in my father, sticking to values like love, to what that means of non-judging, of accepting freedom, which gets to respect,
Speaker: truth, truth to ourselves, right?
Speaker: I was telling my sister after eight years, Lucy, I don't think we got it.
Speaker: I think we may be here to discontinue.
Speaker: If we don't really solve it, why are we doing this?
Speaker: So really commitment to
Speaker: So on the values level, I think is one part of why it still is alive, because maybe then I'm able to honestly and vulnerably speak to donors, partners, friends, people that I need help from and tell them, look, this is difficult.
Speaker: Sometimes I don't know, but we feel we are onto something.
Speaker: Would you mind helping us?
Speaker: And maybe we're able to share this combination of courage and humility
Speaker: Because these kids, when you learn their stories, and those are immensely difficult stories, we don't speak about them because they give goosebumps.
Speaker: But I tremendously respect them, what they went through and how they still stand up.
Speaker: They could be a role model for all of us.
Speaker: That's why I guess volunteers, we have 200 plus volunteers now.
Speaker: I guess that's what they're telling.
Speaker: No, I don't guess.
Speaker: I'm saying that's what they're telling us.
Speaker: It opens them a new world.
Speaker: It shapes them, not just their empathy, but their respect to the kids.
Speaker: So that when we adults have difficult days, we look at those kids and we look up at them.
Speaker: It's like, wow, that they're still standing after what happened to them.
Speaker: So I think our ability, or maybe as I'm a strong ambassador of this cause,
Speaker: maybe my ability to be able to share this and tell this story with others through either media, we have now a big team that's working on regular volunteer campaigns that shares via cartoons.
Speaker: The cartoons and the colors of our phenomenal animator and graphic designer who's been with us 18 years, again, tell another element of the story.
Speaker: So I think
Speaker: the ability to not just connect science that's behind how we humans form relationships and how we experience pain and how we can heal, but also the art and beauty of when you see a sunset or you smile when you see your friend you haven't seen for a long time, our ability to capture that with video, with color, with photography, with storytelling, with words, turns the hearts of people on.
Speaker: And hence they,
Speaker: I want to join us.
Speaker: Hey, how can I help?
Speaker: And not just showing the face of the problem without the hope of the solution.
Speaker: And many times words, many times love is a difficult word.
Speaker: So many times we speak of acceptance, friendship, help, support.
Speaker: And that's where I get to the art science too.
Speaker: I think Da Vinci was speaking about the art of science and science of art.
Speaker: I think we need to, and we do maybe humbly have the elements
Speaker: of both of his Mona Lisa and his, you know, the story when he was trying to get a job as an inventor.
Speaker: And he also said, hey, and I can paint a bit too.
Speaker: So I guess we need to be super blenders.
Speaker: And I think that's what we are, what makes me really happy.
Speaker: Maybe I was blessed with this
Speaker: a talent toolbox of having studied finance and law and having an artistic background.
Speaker: When I called my sister five years ago, come help with the science measurement impact evaluation I felt,
Speaker: We need to have deep quality controls, surrounding ourselves with the best psychologists and social care experts.
Speaker: Because if we want to have the trust of the professionals who are working with these children in our state and orphanages, they need to see that, well, I'm not a trained psychologist.
Speaker: Where is the expertise coming from that these guys are not just freestyling, but actually they know who do we let go?
Speaker: with our children to spend time with.
Speaker: So I think because it's a blend to your question of what, I mean, who knows if it's successful, but if the measure of success is trust of volunteers, growing number of volunteers, children are saying,
Speaker: It works, children are saying they feel less burden, more free.
Speaker: We have data that over 90% have jobs and homes and are in touch with their volunteers.
Speaker: So we have some hard data on the success.
Speaker: We have a continued...
Speaker: a list of regular donors growing.
Speaker: So if trust of volunteers is one benchmark and trust of children is a second, then trust of donors is a third important element.
Speaker: Of course, sometimes donors leave for various reasons, but we see on average that they keep growing and coming.
Speaker: We need the trust of the specialist institutions that look after them, where the kids sleep and
Speaker: And we have over 24 children's homes that cooperate with us.
Speaker: So they're state-run.
Speaker: So that's another element of why maybe we could call it that there's some elements of success or some elements of the formula that work.
Speaker: So yeah, overall, sticking to values, high-quality standards,
Speaker: constant humility of learning.
Speaker: We don't know, opening ourselves.
Speaker: My sister travels the world.
Speaker: I do too, to learn from others.
Speaker: What are they doing in Germany?
Speaker: What are they doing in America?
Speaker: What we do differently as other mentoring programs.
Speaker: Ours is maybe this budding type of deep, long relationship is maybe a notch deeper than many other.
Speaker: So I think that's
Speaker: That's an element of success.
Speaker: And when we go back to love, when things don't work out, we are open to shift where needed.
Speaker: If for the cause, that's important.
Speaker: For example, we want to grow.
Speaker: to other regions, but if the next years we should stay in our core region and still work on improving the brand, improving the management team, then so be it.
Speaker: Maybe it helps my investment banking and finance background that we're very thorough in our cash flow management and recurring revenue, financial sustainability, matching long-term liabilities with long-term income.
Speaker: seems is very important, not just in the for-profit world, but in the nonprofit.
Speaker: And we have a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, so I think maybe the courage that we have, and I communicate with donors a lot and tell them we need long-term support.
Speaker: So whatever the amount is divided by 12 and, and be that on a monthly basis, what you will not miss that you can share with us.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: seems is giving us some better ability to plan, to hire psychologists, to open new campaigns in new towns.
Speaker: And we're all across Slovakia and in every single major region of our eight regions.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Humility and courage every day.
Speaker: Yeah, I see.
Speaker: So as you already said, the path is not easy.
Speaker: And although it's very meaningful and gives a lot of rewards and positive emotions and validation, it is always tough.
Speaker: So a question that I like to do is why to persist, right?
Speaker: Why not to abandon?
Speaker: Because in social entrepreneurship, the abandoning is like part of the thing, right?
Speaker: A lot of us abandoned the initiatives early.
Speaker: A lot of us are questioning if we should abandon it now.
Speaker: Why did you persist?
Speaker: I didn't say this.
Speaker: I, eight years ago, met one young guy and then some six, seven years ago another.
Speaker: And so I was fortunate to guide through the past eight years two young adults, two guys, two boys who are now adults.
Speaker: And I had a firsthand experience of being young.
Speaker: being part of their life and what they went through.
Speaker: And they're also very special because I met them when they were already outside of the orphanage.
Speaker: They were 18 plus, so not our typical kids.
Speaker: And when I see what I mean for them, how many things are they still struggling with and how many things they actually managed to move on.
Speaker: And when they tell me, where would we be without your support?
Speaker: I asked myself, where would I be without them?
Speaker: Because they taught me just how to be.
Speaker: They taught me when I sometimes wanted to say, hey, you should do this or you should do that.
Speaker: And then I realized, no, you shouldn't or you mustn't.
Speaker: You can, you may, but you're a free human.
Speaker: And they opened me
Speaker: my chakras on how many things I don't know and now you tell me, Laris, you must speak Chinese or next week you must run a marathon or be in shape or lose three pounds of fat and I'm like, but I don't know how, I'm not there on my journey.
Speaker: So these kids opened to me that how little I can do and I will definitely not succeed by saying you must
Speaker: And that allowed me to accept their speed, their own pace at changing their own life and accepting them and being able to love them.
Speaker: even as they're not doing according to what you or I think should be the pace on learning how to manage personal finance or how to find a home or a job.
Speaker: Because what do I know about the pain he went through?
Speaker: Why it's taking him so long?
Speaker: Or he just simply doesn't know.
Speaker: And it takes some time to learn.
Speaker: And it's that empathy on...
Speaker: How difficult it is for me to learn Chinese?
Speaker: Maybe it's so difficult for him to manage his personal finances.
Speaker: And how many people don't know just how to even manage money, don't take on debt and pay bills on time and stay in shape and sleep well.
Speaker: And we all know what we should do and we still fail.
Speaker: Yeah, we don't do it.
Speaker: We don't do it for a thousand reasons.
Speaker: So it opened my acceptance to...
Speaker: to this and that's partially the answer why I continue.
Speaker: It seems they're making progress, just me sticking around, not judging them, me managing my boundaries.
Speaker: So I see these relationships can achieve change.
Speaker: It takes time, super masterclass of patience.
Speaker: But I think if we continue...
Speaker: The past 18 years show us that we could heal a generation of children, not only in Slovakia.
Speaker: We have 5,000 kids and we're roughly now with 200.
Speaker: So we have thousands to go in my own country.
Speaker: There's 5, 10, 15,000 in Czech Republic, Hungary.
Speaker: If we add centuries to Europe, from Ukraine to Romania, we find 100,000 kids plus.
Speaker: If we add the world,
Speaker: And we could, if we raise enough capital, support other programs.
Speaker: So for sure, one girl, Nika was her name.
Speaker: She said, you helped me enough.
Speaker: We asked her how we can help her.
Speaker: And she says, you helped me enough.
Speaker: Go out and help other kids.
Speaker: So even the kids are saying and ordering from us, just like the orphanage director 18 years ordered from me, go on and help other kids.
Speaker: So the answer is because it works, because I think there's many people of good heart in every city in the world that would give once a week at a time, and we just need to find them, find them, search for them.
Speaker: I think there's a lot of managers, entrepreneurs, high net worth people who are willing to share their funds.
Speaker: If they see a high quality program that delivers real evidence-based value and real humans see benefit, we create magic.
Speaker: We turn money into time, into love.
Speaker: So what better can you do with your time than turn funds into love?
Speaker: So I see all elements in our Central Eastern European society for sure and in the world.
Speaker: to keep building the operations out so that we can connect donors with professionals in our organization who then find the volunteers who give time.
Speaker: And slowly, I guess, the entire society becomes a bit more equal.
Speaker: And actually, these orphaned, abandoned kids, they are our teachers of education.
Speaker: of love because I think somebody said, your true character is shown by what you do for somebody who can do nothing for you.
Speaker: I think it was good.
Speaker: Or double check for me, please.
Speaker: I might have forgotten.
Speaker: Yes, I will.
Speaker: So the why continue is we see trust and maybe this problem can be solved.
Speaker: Even if I'm dead 100 years from now, maybe this... And also, maybe we cannot solve alcoholism and abuse and total poverty.
Speaker: But maybe if there's for every kid who didn't experience love, a caring human who can guide him into light and freedom and liberate him from all the pain and help him become the best human, then, woohoo, isn't that...
Speaker: Isn't that like a flower?
Speaker: Isn't that a flower that we water and it just gives us beauty and it's the best of life?
Speaker: It is the best of life.
Speaker: Total abstract art.
Speaker: Basically, the pure supreme art is just the emotion, the energy.
Speaker: When you're looking at the flower, that just gives you beauty and doesn't want anything.
Speaker: You can experience this with those kids.
Speaker: A complete stranger you imagine, you're now hanging out with a 16 year old guy in Vienna or boy in Vienna or Bratislava and he feels immense gratitude to you and you are pinching yourself.
Speaker: It's like, hey, I'm the one who's feeling gratitude.
Speaker: So now for me, it's like a sunset or a flower.
Speaker: A sunset or a flower.
Speaker: Lovely.
Speaker: I don't know about you, but Ladislao's story blows me away.
Speaker: He reminded me that no matter what, I can always find ways to keep growing my social impact.
Speaker: And I would like to ask you, what did you get from his story?
Speaker: What did you get from his story?
Speaker: We are about to end this chapter and before leaving I'd like to share some of my notes with you.
Speaker: Giving visibility to the social challenges we do not hear about so often seems as crucial as letting everybody learn about the amazing number of social innovators worldwide.
Speaker: We must continue creatively solving problems, persisting despite the obstacles, finding validation in easing others' difficulties, living on purpose and connecting unlikely dots.
Speaker: I think those are the ingredients to a great life.
Speaker: And don't forget, you are not alone.
Speaker: I want to thank Isabel, Barbara, Dominic and Ladislau for your enthusiasm, wisdom and relentless entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Special thanks to Dominic for sharing his art with us in the shape of the song that you are listening right now.
Speaker: Be well.
Speaker: you
