There are hardly any words for today, but yet so many that need to be said
Today was THE DAY — we finally got to meet our organizations and the people we will be working with the next month. For everyone that doesn’t know so much about the social sabbatical program — we are 12 colleagues from SAP worldwide supporting 4 organizations on a pro-bono-basis.
And it is really hard to describe what happened today, not in the sense of what we did, but what it did to me/us.
All of us (SAP employees and the main responsible people from the organizations ~35 people) met in one of the office spaces. The organizations spoke about themselves, their missions, why they are doing what they are doing. And I don’t know how many tears came to my face and how often I was sitting there with goosebumps. And I can only give a small impression, but these organizations and their employees are willing to sacrifice everything, for the better of others. They overcome hurdles, they fight with the government and they are willing to do anything to let their dreams and visions come to life.
It feels like such an honor to be able to work with these people and to be able to contribute to their dreams. It made me and all of the sorrows that we carry feel sooo small and unnecessary! How can we be so selfish and worry about our looks and doubts and everything, when there are others that would sacrifice everything just for the needs of others?
After we all got to know each other, we split up and my team and I drove to our organizations office. The organizations name is CEDUC, it is a non-profit organization. They support vulnerable young children, mainly in the age of 15–18 years, via a special learning program to find a job and stay within companies. And it is unbelievable how friendly and passionate the entire staff is!
We also got to meet some of the students and you can really feel their will and eagerness to get it all worked out and do something for their own life and that is so amazing.
The tenor here within every organization is really (and I believe everyone should give this a thought too) — you only have this one life — and you can waste it by waiting for this to change by complaining, or you can get up and do something about it yourself!
