Ever so gingerly, our Arab
friend lowered the paralyzed woman in a
wheelchair down two long flights of
stairs. Thump. Thump. Thump..

Then after he lifted her into his car, she
began to weep and weep and weep. She
confided that she hadn’t been out of her
home in two years.

His seven-year-old son absorbed it
all, transfixed.

These three arrived at a special reunion of
those with physical and mental
challenges. After locking her wheelchair,
our friend moved to welcome
newcomers. Slipping away from his
dad, his son declared, “I’m going to sit
with ‘grandma.'”

Afterward, with herculean effort his dad hauled her and her wheelchair back up those
two flights. Heave-Thump. Heave-Thump… She greeted a passing able-
bodied young man, her relative. He waved but walked on as the boy’s father hoisted her
up alone, step by agonizing step.

Our friend’s son then gave a rosebud to his new “grandma” when saying goodbye.

Our visionary friend explained, “I treasure my children. I want them to learn new values with
me by enjoying life together with my challenged friends.”

This visionary is not alone. Each dreamer has
a sacred trust to relay to the next generation,
regardless how daunting the difficulties. For
example, this year:

Over 1250 volunteers chose next-
generation coordinators for 41 war-
zone Middle Eastern networks to sustain
friendships with 550 mentally challenged
participants.
Despite crushing coup d’état brutality,
another dreamer ensured the futures of
17 marginalized Himalayan tribal
youths, securing ID cards, certificates,
training, and jobs.
Despite Lebanon’s economic collapse,
another dreamer streamlined training of
185 volunteers to mobilize 4600 blood
donors across sectarian lines.

Such dreamers in hard places, and our approach to strengthen them, are inspiring
others to join this relay race with the next generation. Just this week, for example:

After an intensive bottom-up economics session with David, a global private
equity investor texted: “Was walking with my kids discussing abundance and contentment vs supply and demand of greed and excess. Kids totally see
it. Cannot thank you enough.”

Janice’s graduate professor reported his students chose our article, Perspectives
on Values in Human Development, for their discussion on religion and
spirituality: “…probably 90% agnostic, they nonetheless felt that if one tries
to act with wisdom, humility, integrity, then something important is added that
was missing from other readings.”

A social impact researcher publishing on network leadership emailed,
“Your work and leadership put wind in my sails in articulating this approach. These principles
are learned from leaders like you who have built networks that demonstrate
them. The privilege has been mine to be a voice for wisdom to help move the
field forward.”

We are resolute to pursue our vision: “a light in every hard place in our generation.”

Building on twenty years of costly struggle and hard-won successes in hard places,
our boards have resolved to catalyze impact for this vision with two strategies:

Strengthen exemplary dreamer initiatives to model mission impact in hard places
Develop communications and tools to equip a new generation for hard places

Our network of professional advisors agree. A social impact investor from Harvard
counsels: “I believe it’s time for the leadership (namely David and Janice) to accelerate
the transition from doing to teaching…to codify the philosophy and learnings of the
past 20 years to multiply impact and foster long-term change for the vision.”

We agree. And so do the dreamers. They model that lights can shine in hard places –
even inside the top-ten hardest countries on the Fragile States Index!