Why I’m Here
After weeks of preparation and 14 hours of travel from Chicago in the United States, I finally arrived in Bucharest, Romania. I’m here participating in an SAP Social Sabbatical program that provides pro bono consulting services to non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This program operates in different locations throughout the year and aims to bridge the digital divide by solving specific business challenges for local organizations.
I’m joined by eleven other colleagues with diverse backgrounds and home countries. We’re split into four sub-teams that each work with a different organization. The project I’m supporting is called CODE Kids, run by Progress Foundation. CODE Kids is a program that creates coding clubs in libraries in order to teach 10–14 year old children in rural areas about technology so they can increase their opportunities for education and employment in the future.
The first few days were a whirlwind of team building activities and education on the organizations we’re consulting with, but it has reinforced how much the Social Sabbatical mission resonates with me. We’re working with committed organizations that will be here benefiting their communities long after we leave. Now the hope is that we can make a difference by providing recommendations that will allow our NGOs to amplify their efforts.
