Off we go!

The 2009 Team Peru Outreach Trip is underway.  Our first team members left for Lima on Saturday, 27 June with the remainder of the group trickling down over the next couple of days.  We will converge in Lima on 30 June with a group bus trip (2+ hours at 3 a.m.) down to Camp Kawai for the start of our schools based outreach projects.

Stay tuned to this BlogSpot for updates, pictures and current events as we live, serve and learn in our 2+ weeks of medical, dental and social outreach.

Thank you for your support of HBI.

Another "Power Post"

The weekends are a great time to play catch-up. That is if you don't mind working 7-days per week. Alas, building a new organization is a very time sensitive activity. There is always a "bleeding" of the workload into the weekends and "down time" of our week.

Saturdays are a prime time to catch-up on a variety of "To Dos." This weekend is a busy time because we are getting the last minute details together for the Team Peru trip - a trip that takes place in less than 4-weeks. There are last minute reservations to confirm, in-country flights to secure, and a number of small tasks associated with running a medical outreach project into an impoverished school district that require an endless array of emails and phone calls. Thankfully we have a great staff of volunteers and employees who make such work pretty easy.

The real challenge is continuing to keep a focus on the "building" aspects of our organization - all the while attending to the day-to-day tasks of running the projects. I think this is the difference between "managing" a project and "leading" an organization. As we are such a small team of people - I have to continually push myself not to get mired in the "managing" aspect of growing our NGO at the expense of the "leading" or visionary aspects of our new organization.

Every organization that I have evaluated - from the very large NGOs like World Vision to the small upstart groups like Med-to-One, require a balanced focus from their leadership. There is a need for the daily, task oriented aspects of leadership; and a need for the visionary, planning aspects of leadership. I am working everyday to find the right balance that will enable HBI to grow, prosper and fulfill our mission of sustaining health through the creation of partnerships and the unending dedication of service to the poor and underserved.

Power Post 5

How do you prevent burnout? My Blog posts for the past few days have been an inside perspective as to what the staff and volunteers (and me - Wayne) have been doing to grow our organization. Tonight I am a bit challenged with the question of how to prevent burn out.

I think the answer to this question is very complicated and often times very different for different people. For me - the answer is . . . continuously remembering who we serve and why.

When I am in clinic and the rush of the day and the pressure of the patient load makes me want to drop what I am doing and run away - I stop for a second and think about the people I am so fortunate to serve. I allow myself to remember that the lives they live are often very chaotic and fractured. I ask myself what one thing I can do with my next patient to help them feel comfortable, to let them know that they are not alone in this life.

I do this same sort of thing with my work on HBI. Sometimes the e-mails, the endless reports and project plans - they overwhelm me. When this happens, I stop myself for a few minutes and I ask "who is this work for? And how can I ensure that it is the best I have to offer?"

I remember little Ines and her beautiful smile. I think about Father Alex and his tireless fight for the poor. I think about the many nameless children living on the streets of Lima who are cold, hungry and scared. I remember that this work is about something so much bigger than myself; and then I take a deep breath, stretch my neck - and get done to the work that I am so passionate about . . . serving others in the name of love.

Power Post Number 4

I always thought that there was a strange relationship between the number of e-mails a person received each day and a persons level of importance. Call it a blind exuberance - but I really thought that more e-mails equals a more succesful person - i.e. more is better. That is . . . until I reached the 150+ per day mark.

Now, don't get me wrong - I am not complaining. I recognize that this "high volume" e-mail reception is a sign that HBI is doing something right (or perhaps I am delusional and it is nothing more than a lot of e-mails) - but keeping up with a range of e-mails that can go in excess of 200 per day is really daunting.

Alas, another "learning" in starting a new NGO - time management!

Power Post Number 3

It is true - I am consumed with HBI. In fact, I think everyone that works for (and with us) at this time is consumed with HBI. We have so much going on - from the day-to-day activities like keeping our finances in order, to the bigger picture projects of planning for an outreach team to Ancash in October - that sometimes it feels like we jsut can't stop moving at 100 mph . . . even for a moment.

I think this is a common "feeling" for any new organization. Especially non-governmental (i.e. not-for-profit) organizations that rely so heavily on volunteer person-power to move projects forward. Perhaps the greatest learning I am gaining in this "development" phase of our NGO is that you really have to settle-in for the long climb. The hard work of HBI is letting go of any "expectations" or preconceived timetables; and just settling in for the daily work of making a difference in the world - one e-mail and one phone call at a time.

"Power Post" Number 2

There is not a day that goes by that I am not thinking about (or physically working on) HBI.

My thoughts range from the programs and projects that we are facilitating or organizing, our fundraising and donor base development, ongoing efforts to build our "stakeholder" pool, the work to develop a greater structure that will ensure that we have a sustainable infrastructure to carry our work into the future, and the many people we are fortunate to serve.

Today my time will be spent working on the fiduciary reports and programmatic updates that I will deliver to the HBI Board of Directors at our next Board meeting in 1-week. The work that goes into ensuring good communication between the staff of HBI and our Board of Directors is very important; and often times an "under the radar screen" type of activity that many people do not realize is seminal to the work of any good non-governmental organization.

Yesterday I had an e-mail exchange with Karen (HBI's Nursing Care Coordinator and Project Coordinator who lives and works out of Arequipa, Peru). She "said" (wrote in one of her e-mails) something that really had a strong impact on me. She said that she loves the work that we are doing so much that it rarely feels like work - and more specifically feels like a "lifestyle." She said that she was not worried about getting burned out by her seemingly endless 14-hour work days - because she knows how much of a difference we are making in people's lives.

Working with people like Karen is an amazing privilege and makes such a huge difference in my life.

A "Power" Post

I am going to start a series of new posts to the HBI Blog Spot. These new "power posts" are brief insights into the work that we are doing to grow our NGO.

My first "Power Post" -

Next weekend is a new fundraising venture for HBI. Today, Ben Grass and I spent most of the morning and afternoon planning the event, organizing our thoughts, compiling the supporting documents, and making copies of the HBI video/DVD. The new fundraising event is something we are calling "HBI Connect Dinners."

The HBI “Connect Dinners” are fundraising and social networking events that bring compassionate and concerned people together around the central cause that is building cooperation and collaboration. The “Connect Dinners” will involve an introductory video that describes the mission, vision, values and focus of HBI. In addition, dinner hosts will be provided materials and information to facilitate discussions about HBI and the work of the organization.

Hosting an HBI “Connect Dinner” will involve a few things: (1) Willingness and ability of event hosts to provide food and drinks to the invited guests (it is envisioned that Connect Dinners will involve groups of 15-20 participants) and (2) willingness of event hosts to ask family, friends, colleagues and congregates to participate in an HBI “Connect Dinner.” Each dinner guest will be asked to contribute a small donation to HBI. This donation will be tax deductible.

The goal of the Connect Dinners is to generate greater interest in HBI and to attract donations to extend and expand the work of Health Bridges International. I guess this is a good time to mention how much work it takes to continuously raise money for an organization like HBI. I think that there is a unique "learning curve" that any new not-for-profit organization must commit to tackle when they are working to increase their donor base and grow their financial coffers. We are on the steep side of that learning curve.

I am not complaining. I guess I am just mentioning this fact because it is an important part of what where we are focusing our efforts on at this time. We know that great programs and projects need money to facilitate them - it is, however, not always easy to step outside of your comfort zone and ask people to open up their wallets, purses and checkbooks to you.

We believe very strongly in the Mission of HBI and know that the work we are doing is a very important part of ensuring hope for people living in desperate poverty.