Thursday, September 4, 2008

An Inspiring Bite of the Big Apple


On a recent trip to New York City, I had the privilege of taking a detour from my packed schedule to visit with some teenagers whose inspiring stories and smiles of joy made me reconsider how I experienced the city that day.


The four teens I met were aged 16 to 19, and traveled to NYC from India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Little Rock, Arkansas, to attend the annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations. The youths were representatives for Children International, a humanitarian nonprofit organization and client of Davidoff Communications, that provides health, education and life skills building programs for more than 300,000 children and youth living in poverty in 11 countries.


As part of the UN World Youth Day, these four amazing teens offered a workshop on the successes of their Youth Empowerment Funds, a unique component of Children International’s Youth Program, which equip youth with grants to plan, implement, and evaluate their own projects to improve the education and environment for kids like them and their communities.


The highlight of my trip came when I arranged to host the four youth and their chaperones on a VIP express tour of one of NYC’s signature landmarks, The Empire State Building. We all enjoyed stunning views of Central Park, the Hudson and East Rivers, Brooklyn and even the Statue of Liberty, which the Children International teens had visited earlier that day.


As these youth had never ventured very far from their villages, their trip to NYC was a big deal…but it may have been a bigger deal for me to have spent part of the afternoon hosting these very ambitious, bright youth and seeing their beaming smiles as they gazed from the top of the Empire State Building. It made me more proud to not only have Children International as a client, but also to call myself a sponsor as well. (I sponsor a 9 year old boy from Calcutta, India named Bikrim through Children International).


Children International has applied our Mission-Driven Marketing methodology to the development of a brand new corporate partnership program. I would encourage any company, consulting firm or other organization looking to expand philanthropic initiatives to consider Children International as a partner. I would also encourage everyone to sponsor one or more children or youth. It just might make you reconsider how you experience your day.