What We’re Learning

This is my first annual letter as CEO of Selfless. I’m excited to be able to share some thoughts about our work over the past year and our plans for the future.
Before starting Selfless in September 2009, most of my time was spent studying medicine and managing community projects. As I started to increase my involvement with international development, I asked many people for advice. I struggled for a while to understand, during my transition, how the skills that I had acquired thus far would be of benefit in my new role. In fact many said that they were of no use.
Gradually, I started to take some issue with this notion. Medicine and the life of a doctor involve listening to your patient, understanding the community and finding solutions to problems allowing them to lead healthier and happier lives. The patient will always hold the key to their diagnosis, point out where the difficulties lie, and often suggest ways of addressing them.
Selfless appears to be in a similar position. For us to help people and their communities we need to listen and understand them. This will allow us to find out the problems and how we can possibly help address them. It is important for every potential volunteer to understand that our work is as much about educating and developing ourselves as it is sharing our skills with others.
We’ve spent the majority of last year doing that, sitting down, talking and planning some ideas which we hope will make a difference. In business sometimes you invest in products that do not reach the market for twenty years or more. You rely on your research, planning and advice from experienced individuals to determine whether it is worth the risk.
Development work is similar, although we are not pursuing financial returns, sometimes finding the best way to help others will take many years of experimentation and risk before we see the fruits of our labour. Because we are taking risks, we must accept that some of our projects will not get the results we expected or will take a long time to do so. But we are active in trying to bring about change and one day we might just do it.
We have to accept a series of responsibilities, setting clear goals, researching effectively and relying on others’ expertise to make sure our work is as effective as possible. At Selfless, We have worked hard on setting our goals for 2012. We have built links and engaged a wide network of partners including the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) abroad. In the end, these partnerships will enable all of us to increase the impact we’re having.
Financially, it has been a year for all charities and there doesn’t appear to be any improvement in the near future. Everyone appears to be digging deeper into their pockets and coming out with less money. It is hard for us to find fiscal balance, when we are an energetic young organisation led by enthusiastic individuals hoping to meet many demands.
However we remain optimistic that despite funds, we will be able to harness the raw energy of young people, capture their imagination, and use their skills to help worthwhile projects across the globe.
In July, I travelled to Bangladesh with our Elective Aid scheme. Over the fortnight I spent out there I began to realise the significant difference young people can make. In total 8,000 patients were treated by doctors and given free medication. In a country where 60% do not have access to basic healthcare, this project was a lifeline for many. The whole project was planned and executed from start to finish by a bright group of UK medical students who wanted to make a difference.
During the trip I met, Abdullah (pictured below) a 42 year old blacksmith from a small village in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Abdullah had travelled for 7 hours by foot to attend the Elective Aid camp as he could not afford to see a local doctor. He had been unable to work for the last month as his eye had been troubling him and he was complaining of blurred vision. The ophthalmologist at the camp prescribed a pair of glasses for Abdullah, which cost 100 Taka (roughly equivalent to 1 GBP). On receiving his new glasses, Abdullah grabbed my feet and wept uncontrollably.

This is my first annual letter as CEO of Selfless. I’m excited to be able to share some thoughts about our work over the past year and our plans for the future.

Before starting Selfless in September 2008, most of my time was spent studying medicine and managing community projects.

As I started to increase my involvement with international development, I asked many people for advice. I struggled for a while to understand, during my transition, how the skills that I had acquired thus far would be of benefit in my new role. In fact many said that they were of no use.

Gradually, I started to take some issue with this notion. Medicine and the life of a doctor involve listening to your patient, understanding the community that you work in and finding solutions to their problems allowing them to lead healthier and happier lives. The patient will always hold the key to their diagnosis, point out where the difficulties lie, and often suggest ways of addressing them.

Selfless appears to be in a similar position. For us to help people and their communities we need to understand them. This will allow us to find out where the problems lie and how we can possibly help address them. It is important for every potential volunteer to understand that our work is as much about educating and developing ourselves as it is sharing our skills with others.

We’ve spent the majority of last year doing that, sitting down, talking and planning some ideas which we hope will make a difference. In business sometimes you invest in products that do not reach the market for twenty years or more. You rely on your research, planning and advice from experienced individuals to determine whether it is worth the risk.

Development work is similar, although we are not pursuing financial returns, sometimes finding the best way to help others will take many years of experimentation and risk before we see the fruits of our labour. Because we are taking risks, we must accept that some of our projects will not get the results we expected or will take a long time to do so. But we are active in trying to bring about change and one day we might just do it.

At Selfless we have worked hard on setting our goals for 2012. We have built links and engaged a wide network of partners including the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) abroad. In the end, these partnerships will enable all of us to increase the impact we’re having.

Financially, it has been a hard year for all charities and there doesn’t appear to be any improvement in the near future. Everyone appears to be digging deeper into their pockets and coming out with less money. It is hard for us to find financial balance when we are an energetic young organisation led by enthusiastic individuals hoping to meet many demands.

However we remain optimistic that despite funds, we will be able to harness the raw energy of young people, capture their imagination, and use their skills to help worthwhile projects across the globe.

In July, I travelled to Bangladesh with our Elective Aid scheme. Over the fortnight I spent out there I began to realise the significant difference young people can make. In total 8,000 patients were treated by doctors and given free medication. In a country where 60% do not have access to basic healthcare, this project was a lifeline for many. The whole project was planned and executed from start to finish by a bright group of UK medical students who wanted to make a difference.

During the trip I met Abdullah (pictured below) a 42 year old blacksmith from a small village in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Abdullah had travelled for 7 hours by foot to attend the Elective Aid camp as he could not afford to see a local doctor. He had been unable to work for the last month as his eye had been troubling him and he was complaining of blurred vision. The ophthalmologist at the camp prescribed a pair of glasses for Abdullah, which cost 100 Taka (roughly equivalent to 1 GBP). On receiving his new glasses Abdullah grabbed my feet and wept uncontrollably.

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It was a small thing maybe for that person to donate £1, or for me to want to use my limited skills as ‘just a medical student’ abroad. We all fail to realise that we have the potential to make the greatest difference to someone elsewhere in world and that we all have to start somewhere. That day, I was humbled to see the impact that philanthropy can have.

For this year I have two priorities as CEO of Selfless.

The first is to make sure our organisation runs smoothly. One of my key responsibilities is to ensure that we have a solid management structure in place within which our volunteers and staff can work effectively. Furthermore we need to continue to recruit volunteers to take our projects forward and to expand them. I am heartened by the fact that many that have come to know of Selfless, are proud of what the organisation stands for. We need to keep spreading the message and igniting a flame within people to volunteer and help us deliver our projects.

My second priority is to increase the number of our external partners abroad and ensure the sustainability of our projects. This is important for any international development organisation. Listening to and co-operating with external partners will help us understand their changing local needs and help us monitor the impact our work is having. We need to also work on securing long-term funding to allow us to continue in supporting them.

As we address these important issues, we will be guided first and foremost by how our work contributes to our primary goal of helping improve the lives of people like Abdullah. In that spirit, I look forward to reporting back in next year’s letter about how we’ve done so.

Sincerely,

nsig

Na’eem Ahmed

CEO, Selfless

November 2009