Monthly letter – December 2021

Hi everyone,

and so, a year has passed. I have successfully managed to write a newsletter every month for the whole year! Dedicating my time to do something regularly within a time constraint is not one of my strong suits. I have stopped doing many things in my life that fell under the same class of work – yet, with these letters it has been thanks to you that I have not only kept them up, but also thoroughly enjoyed writing them. 

Personally, this year felt slower – ideas weren’t shooting out from person to person, interactions weren’t as frequent or as intense as in the initial 6 months of ideation. But, at the same time, the year felt more real – actual problems needed to be solved, actual steps were taken in us becoming a legal entity and actual work has been generated. These are not always flashy, simple to talk about or even maybe that interesting, but they are real. For me, a single small movement, is infinitely better than a thousand imagined ones. 

It is with this reflection in mind that I thought I would share significant real events, steps and actions that the foundation has taken this year in moving forward with its intended purpose. 

I would say the first significant milestone was a very “boring” one – we got ourselves our official NPC registration. A lot of legal documents, a lot of reading and editing. But what this allowed us to do is open an official bank account – and we know what this means. Moola! 

Over the past year we have raised R150 000. Just over half of that has been from donations, the rest has been from internal contributions. Of the donations around 30% has been from Spain, and the rest from within South Africa. To all our donors – thank you, really. It is through these donations that we had the funds to get our first project off the ground – the Umazisi project. 

The Umazisi project underwent a crystallisation process this past year – with Robyn and Tshepo taking lead roles they:

• formalised content for workshops (this is really beautiful)
• created a small internal logistic team
• created a mentor interview process
• finalised legal documents
• found mentors
• found a school – Sacred Heart College

lastly, the Umazisi project had its first mentorship workshop held at the Discovery head office in Sandton. It consisted of a series of talks from myself, Tyra, Elena, Luchy and Robyn on our philosophy of mentoring. My favourite part was seeing everyone listening intently and taking notes – that simple act of engagement made it feel very special. 

Our group grew from around 12 to 50 regular volunteers/consultants and members – that is 50 people who are in some way invested in what we are doing here, 50 people who, in their own way carry out Alvira’s values or at least are on a process of discovering them. Many people who joined were as a result of the Alvira School philosophy meetings that began. So far, we have had a series of 4 meetings since August laying the foundation for the eventual school we will start. 

From a social aspect we had four incredibly lovely Alvira events (the amazing race was my highlight). We would’ve liked to have had more, but due to social circumstances, four was the best we could do.

I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation; in total, with all the meetings, and discussions the various areas have had, we have accumulated around 2000 people hours of work and meetings this year – that is exactly 1 year of work of a single full time person. 

In summary for 2021: We raised over R150 000, we gained about 35 members, we hired an employee, we finalised a project and we found a school to partner with us. 

We have learned what works and what doesn’t; and with this we will forge ahead next year with renewed goals and objectives – all of which I will detail in the opening new year’s letter. 

I am writing this closing letter from the beautiful views of the northern Drakensberg mountains (for the international readers of the newsletter, I highly recommend on your next visit to South Africa you visit the Drakensberg mountains – I will be happy to go there with you). I hope you too are reading this closing newsletter from a space of rest, a space of love, and a space of happiness.  

I wish you a merry Christmas, happy holidays and a fantastic new year. For whatever next year brings, we are ready, and for ever happens we will figure it out, as we are in this together. 

Kindest regards, 

Luca Pontiggia

C.E.O