At the end of last year, I got an email from Sarah Moran about a competition on Facebook organised by V Australia. When I clicked on it, the app asked me if I allow them to access my Facebook info and not wanting to risk it without reading much into their privacy terms, I decided to ditch the idea. A while later, Sarah Moran called me and convinced me to join it. So I did!

Basically, I needed as many people to vote for me as possible – the top 10 most votes get a free return flight to either Johannesburg, LA, Phuket or Fiji. Now, the first person I asked pretty much turned me down due to the access to their information on Facebook. I was kinda turned off by it but after much thinking, I thought, I really needed to do something if I really want this. As a social change agent, isn’t this how campaigns and fundraisers usually work?

So I sent a group email on Facebook to 20 of my “friends” and within a day, I got 18 votes which put me at number 4. I then sent out another group message to another 20, then 20 more, slowly to 40 and just before the competition closes, I was at number 11, so I sent out an appeal to about 50 of my friends. Within an hour, I was up in number 4 and won the free trip!

I then got informed by Amy Ward that the 2010 Non-Profit Technology Conference was happening in Atlanta, and I thought, “Great! I could use my free trip for that”. And through Amy also, I found out about the scholarship program – so I managed to score a scholarship! I then did a search on the web and found out about Global Engagement Summit, which I applied and got in – all expenses paid for! Two days before I left LA, I twitted, “Spending two days in LA. What should I do?”.

A friend of mine replied, and linked me to a friend of his who worked in Disneyland. After exchanging a few emails, he asked me to meet him out the front of Disneyland, near the kernel at 10.30am and that, I did! He got me free admissions to Disneyland and California Adventure Park which was freaking awesome!

At the Non-Profit Conference, I also got to meet Stacey Monk through Edward Harran. Two weeks after I arrived back in Australia, I got an email from Stacey inviting me to be a part of To Mama With Love and I jumped at the opportunity. In a week, I saw her put the campaign together and in 3 weeks, leveraged her community to make everything happen! She emailed to 60 people and everyone put up their hand to either help with coding the website, work on the social media strategy, launch plan or to organise their own projects that ultimately feed into the campaign. In the end, the whole campaign was rolled out at no cost at all.

Humans evolved to share and work together – its ingrained in us. Facebook status updates is a great example of that, however when it comes to making use of our community’s assets, we fail miserably at that.

The internet has made us trust strangers more easily, and this was a big part of Rachel Botsman‘s presentation at TEDxSydney yesterday. I didn’t know this guy who gave me the free tickets to Disneyland apart from his name and what he does. I know with this, it brings up the darker side of the internet – online safety and cyberbullying but I’ll talk about that some other day.

Technology has allow us to work together (through partnerships and collaborations) more easily than we have ever been. It has also increased interconnectedness and we are seeing a shift already. We are moving from networks of centralised groups to a more dissolved, decentralised networks of individuals and groups of highly skilled and talented people. The internet is becoming social and this is good news for change makers.

In the old fashioned volunteerism, there are volunteer application forms, bureaucracy and red tapes a volunteer have to crawl through, before he/she gets either selected to be a volunteer or gets a no-no. This system cultivate a culture where you are ‘not good enough’ to do the job regardless of how much passion and interest you have. A decentralised community means that everyone is recognised as a talent and brings something to the table. It embodies the whole phrase, “YOU can change the world”.

When Stacey sent out an email to 60 of her contacts, she introduced the project, got us to introduce ourselves and gave 3 easy steps for people to contribute. You can help code and build the website with the team, work in the social media strategy team or help create video and other contents.



This means that all the people that you are connected to, whether directly or indirectly is an asset to you and your work. We are more connected than we are ever before, and there is a phenomenal amount of potential in this hyperconnection. We have more resources, talents and skills than we think we do. Make your passion, interest, skills and yourself known and take the time to understand and know the people around you.

You have the resources, talents and skills. All that’s lacking now is your big bold ideas and your willingness to put the idea out there for people to scrutinise and more importantly, for people to join your cause. Build meaningful partnerships and collaborations with these people and you are bound to do great things. It is at the intersections of all these partnerships and collaborations that social innovation is at its best.

Think big, start small. You don’t have to be perfect or great at it, sometimes, you just have to share your idea and story, and things happen quite magically.

1. Invest in your social asset – this is your treasure box and your magic wand to do anything.
2. Share what you know, what you have and what you can give. Make it known and make sharing a big part of your life. You will get at least the same amount in return.
3. Understand your community – this includes your family, friends and acquaintances, and everyone around you.
4. Be bold. Either make your idea known or make your passion to social change known.

Some links to that I mentioned during the presentation:
Animoto – an awesome website to create professional looking videos and slideshows.
Plan Big – Plan Big is a great place for you to post your idea and get people to give you constructive feedback

Click here for more resources.

Check out ToMamaWithLove and create a heartspace for someone you love and together, we can help build a home for 50 determined kids in Tanzania.

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I am not ashamed to admit that my mum is one of the best in the world. Growing up struggling with financial resources, my mum has always provided with the best. Every morning, without fail, she would be up at 4am to do the washing and cleaning, and prepare breakfast and pack lunch for us.

When I was volunteering in the first aid team, she was up at 4am at times to drop me off where I was supposed to me. Growing up, my mum’s biggest lesson to me is to be generous to people around me with what we have. She definitely set a great example through supporting charities and support me when I was organising my own charity events. When I left my hometown to move 3,000 miles away from all my family and friends (to Australia), she left me with only a few words – be happy and be nice.

We grew up with barely anything in our house up until 14 years old, so my mum is not a materialistic person at all. This Mother’s Day, instead of sending her a gift, I am giving her something she would be very proud of. I know its never the gifts she’s after, but just the knowing that her precious children grow up to be wise and significant individuals in their own passion.

When @StaceyMonk contacted me to be involved in this project, To Mama With Love, there was no question, but a straight yes from me. It’s a no-brainer whether to support this cause or not.

To Mama With Love is a collaborative online art project that honors moms across the globe and raises funds to invest in one remarkable Mama who dreams of building a home for children in her village. Funds raised will be invested in support of Mama Lucy Kamptoni, a remarkable grassroots changemaker in Tanzania. Her next goal, which To Mama With Love seeks to fund, is to build a boarding facility on campus so that every child who attends her school has a place to call home.

Mama Lucy is an incredibly woman with extraordinary determination to change her community. On many levels, she is an inspiration to change makers worldwide. With a vision in mind, she sets out to change her community with whatever resources she has.

My village in Arusha, Tanzania did not have good schools. So, I started Shepherds Junior School in 2003 with money I raised from a small chicken farm. I began with only 10 students. With the help of Epic Change, now I serve more than 411 kids

Why is it worth investing?
To Mama With Love is more than a charity, its an investment. It’s an investment into the future of these kids and all the kids in generations to come who will have the opportunity to schooling.

The school, built in 2003 now serve more than 411 kids and in 2008, it was ranked #2 out of 118 area schools in the national exams. Giving access to education to these kids is not only changing their live, but changing their community and the nation. They have the determination, the inspiration and have put in the hardwork, its only fair that we give them our support.

We want to build a safe, and loving children’s home & boarding facility on the campus of Sheperds Junior School. A place where these courageous students can call home.

What can you do?
Those who reads this blogs probably are doing a lot of charities already, but I would be really happy if you’d come on board and help us make this movement a success. Make a heartspace for someone who has inspired you, who have played a mother figure at some points in your life, or even to your nephews and nieces as a gift to your mom.

This is not about charity, this is love. This is an investment. This is change and this is hope. This is about you and me, providing the resources to a group of inspired future leaders so they can bring about change. Make a heartspace and let me know how you go.

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