Overview

1 billion children grow up in poverty. That’s why I’m on a mission at Nofam.

Who: Sasa Radovanovic

In preparation for a presentation we’re giving tomorrow night, I’m just looking up some data on child poverty around the world. We were recently asked why we as Nofam have set the dream of helping 2 million children worldwide . How we arrived at this figure. It sounded high.

And indeed, it is also high. Hugely high. Then take a look at the numbers. My search brings me to Unicef ​​and the World Bank. And the numbers I find there are shocking, something I still can’t comprehend as I write this piece.

It turns out that nearly 1 billion children on our beautiful earth live in multidimensional poverty . 1 billion children with hardships in education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water. 1 billion!! My head goes and my heart .

And now, UNICEF research shows that COVID-19 affects children on an unprecedented scale and threatens to undo all advances in children’s rights. As a result, an additional 100 million children are affected by multidimensional poverty.

I almost get the feeling of, quickly going back to my own circle of influence and not thinking about these bizarre numbers…

And yet this is exactly the reason why after 15 years at an IT agency, 5 years in my own company, I have now been working on a mission at Nofam for more than a year.

For a long time I looked at the outside world from my profession as an IT professional and thought, why don’t you make it better and more beautiful. Why don’t politicians do their best, why don’t the rich on earth share their accumulated money anymore, why entrepreneurs don’t invest more in society, why, why, why…

Why not me?

It was so easy and safe for myself to look to the outside world and wait for actions outside of myself. But it wasn’t fair, especially to myself. I can only point out to one person that he or she can and should do something better. And that’s me.

That is why I left a career as an IT specialist at the end of 2015 and started a mission and founded Sosialforce as a social IT company. A number of great years followed, during which we invested the profits from IT projects in projects of charities to help children. A period in which I occasionally felt Don Quixote because of the tension between business and impact. And at the end of 2020, this field of tension, together with my need (/necessity) to be busy every day helping underprivileged children, ensured that my mission was continued at the Nofam Foundation.

By pure coincidence (does not exist… ?) I came into conversation with Erik Jager, another dreamer who founded Nofam together with Haroet Aragelian in 2018 from the dream of giving 2 million underprivileged children a hopeful future.

And then everything accelerates… it started with Erik’s simple question.

‘What are you afraid of?’

I afraid? Of course not! How can a Yugo be scared?
The most important thing I have to take care of is the (financial) security for my family. And then working on impact as much as possible.

This was followed by the next question that still touches and (gladly) surprises me.
‘What if I now remove that uncertainty and cover this financial piece? What do you say then?’
My answer to that was simple: ‘Then I’ll go all-in’ .

A consultation at home followed to determine together what maximum income we needed to be able to live well (/normally) as a family. As Maslow’s pyramid showed me in the years before, it is good to give a lot, but your own foundation must also be in good order. (And no, money never really mattered to me. Which could cause some tensions at home (sorry Issa) and at Sosialforce (sorry Olaf)…)

It turned out that Erik would rather invest in the future of children than a future of real estate. I thought I was ‘crazy’, but Erik can use it too and even more!

ps. I still have to be honest about this. There is one fear that I do have and that is that at the end of my journey here on earth I would have to say to myself, if only I… Therefore I would rather regret something I did than something I didn’t do have. No matter how exciting doing something is sometimes.

Gold is outside your comfort zone!

Twice I have made a big (professional) leap in my life. The first time brought me to Eindhoven, Utrecht and America for work, to Kadera and children in Enschede for impact and opened my eyes within the social enterprise world. Incredible and priceless experiences.

This second leap has brought me closer to impact and showing that love is still at the heart of our society. I know the names – not yet by heart – of 66 children we help and see them grow by sponsoring 62 involved child and the 4 charities they help. In addition, I got to meet 12 super nice (professional) volunteers who help us and 10 organizations that make a difference together with us.

Love and support is within reach

And I don’t have to look very far around for support and love. How my wife and daughters supported me in my wild dreams and plans. My parents, brothers, family, friends and former colleagues. Every time I asked for help there was someone who stood up and shouted ‘I’m in’.

That is why I am grateful that every time I can take a step that brings me closer to myself and therefore closer to society. Because in a world where 1 billion children grow up without a chance of a good education, where good health is at stake, where housing is not secure and where there is a demand for food, we desperately need each other.

I wish everyone and especially the future of our planet those opportunities that I get time and again. The children to whom we leave it. Because what would be left of our humanity (read humanity) if we were not committed to a society in which everyone gets a fair chance.

That’s why I perform my mission at Nofam. Because together we can make a difference for these children. And yes, then we dream about helping 2 million children. The goal is to help 5,000 children by the end of 2022 and 25,000 children by the end of 2023