Journey to The Sunshine City
Two months ago, I received an acceptance email to participate in SAP’s Social Sabbatical program in October 2019. I was excited to make a difference in people’s lives but anxious about the short notice and location. Within days, I needed to confirm that I could step away from my daily personal and professional commitments for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Within weeks, a flurry of activities began: logistics planning, pre-work briefings and vaccination appointments. The support and encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, management and customers — made this process easier.
The SAP Social Sabbatical is a portfolio of global pro-bono volunteering assignments to foster social impact by solving concrete challenges for non-profit organizations and social enterprises. The non-profits and social enterprises are specifically selected due to their alignment with SAP’s Corporate Social Responsibility mission — “powering opportunity through digital inclusion.”
The Sunshine City
When I applied, I did not know where I would be assigned or when. When I received my acceptance email, I found out that I was placed in Harare, Zimbabwe. I travel a lot for business and personal but this would be my first trip to Africa. Harare is the capital city of Zimbabwe, the country affectionately named as the jewel of Africa. The city is home to over 1.5 million people from various cultures and ethnicities. Harare has long been called the “Sunshine City” and despite some recent woes, there remains hope of better times to come.
The Spirit of Unhu
Over the last two months, I got to know the SAP colleagues that will be part of the group of 12 traveling to Harare. It is a diverse group, from 9 different countries and various professional backgrounds. Our first team task was to select a team name and motto. We selected the name Unhu (pronunciation Hoon-who). Unhu is a word derived from the national language of Zimbabwe — Shona. Unhu is a social philosophy which embodies virtues that celebrate the mutual social responsibility, mutual assistance, trust, sharing, unselfishness, self-reliance, caring and respect for others among other ethical values. The team motto is based on this same philosophy — “I am who I am because of you”. The name and motto embrace the spirit of the Social Sabbatical and the purpose-driven promise of the participants.
We Multiply. Together.
The group of 12 was arranged into 4 sub-teams and assigned to different non-profits and social enterprises to multiply the impact. My sub-team of 3, consists of a colleague from Brazil and one from the Netherlands. We will work with a social enterprise focused on youth programs and community activities in Zimbabwe. Their mission is the integral development of underprivileged youth; to empower young people through skills training for employment and entrepreneurship. Teaching them skills of the hands to make them self-reliant, skills of heart and mind to live with dignity and responsibility, skills of the soul to live with purpose. This is a growing organization that seeks to train 500,000 youths in southern Africa by 2025. To drive sustainable growth, new digital innovations are necessary to solve complex challenges and increase social impact. We look forward to contributing to help the organization run at its best — Together, to continue the mission, to bring about social change and a better future for the collective youth of the region.
Follow me, on this journey, to help the world run better and improve people’s lives!
