I’ve been a disguised philanthropist for many years, offering bona fide legal advice to vulnerable individuals and also setting up VO’s and not for profit foundations for various people wishing to formalise their charitable work. I am a trustee and chairperson on a number of philanthropy foundations including my own FIDEM Foundation, which was set up last year.
FIDEM is about educating and empowering vulnerable individuals with the ultimate aim of helping them achieve whatever it is they wish to accomplish in order to live a self-sustainable dignified life. Unfortunately voluntary work is not cool nor sexy especially in today’s world where money and power reign supreme with little or no time for nurturing core ethical values such as fairness, respect for self and others, empathy and caring for those less fortunate. We tend to live in our bubble together with our materialistic toys whatever they may be, completely detached from the vulnerable and disenfranchised.
I am hoping that The Academy of Givers will encourage and ignite more people of influence and of certain business stature to jump on the giving bandwagon rather than only taking and counting their fortunes. The ethos behind the AOG is simply a continuation of what I have been doing in the past, with the sole difference that I am no longer in disguise.
