Charity Archives - Alvira Foundation

Monthly letter – December 2021

alviraadmin — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 05:16:00 +0000

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

The post Monthly letter – December 2021 appeared first on Alvira Foundation.

Monthly letter – November 2021

alviraadmin — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 08:19:00 +0000

Hi all,

I feel a bit like a student again making sure I hand in my paper before midnight! I am sitting on a plane flying to Milan – making sure that I can send this letter by the time I land. A lot of my spare time that I would usually use to write these have been spent connecting with old friends or gallivanting around London – Now, I find myself in a little chair making sure I can keep to my word let’s see if I can do it!

General

I and Elena met Thomas Alvira’s son – Raphael – at his house in Madrid. It was a lovely experience. We sat for most of the time discussing his parents, how they met, how they raised him and his siblings – their love for teaching and their passion for freedom. One of the things he said which stood out was that, if we want to really reach the person, the family, the teachers within a school, we need patience above all else. Especially in South Africa where family dynamics are so different. This is something I will need to remind myself often; especially in those times where frustration and difficulties are inevitably going to show themselves.

At the school of Maria Teresa, where Elena works, a few of the teachers have had poor experiences of mentoring, And so, Elena who is in charge of the teacher formation asked me to give a talk on mentoring and give them an explanation of why mentorship is important from an anthropological level. I chose to focus on how mentoring is the external manifestation of a process that happens internally already – a process that we just need practice in – hence the mentoring. This is reflected in the diagram below:

There appears to be, through my observations, a type of feedback loop which represents the state of being alive – a “circle of life”. Mentorship comes into effect on the right-hand side, between our life and our actions. It is the process of strengthening our internal feedback loop that enables us to live authentically i.e. to recognise when our actions are aligned with who we are.

The talk was well received and we had a good discussion session after. After the positive reception, we have decided to give the same talk to the mentors during the Umazisi workshop. For those who are curious, I have attached the presentation.

Lastly, due to countries all going into slight panic mode around the new covid variant, Elena and Luchy have had to cancel their visit to SA, and as a result, we have cancelled many events we had planned. It is a real pity as the timing just doesn’t seem to be in our favour. We will eventually get it right!

Umazisi

This has been a huge month for Umazisi!! Sacred heart college has agreed to commit its support to this project. This means we will be starting the 2022 year with our first project going live. Thank you, Robyn, Elena, Tshepo and Tyra for putting in the effort and hours to coordinate with everyone, to create beautiful content and to persist in the search for mentors.

We have a workshop scheduled for the first week of December, It is meant to be an in-person workshop, but due to the coronavirus deciding to do a wardrobe change, we might have to keep it virtual. Either way, we now have the job of getting our mentors up to speed with our philosophy of mentorship and the content we created for the first year of Umazisi. This is pivotal to their ability to mentor with peace and confidence. The exact list of mentors is not set yet and I hope to introduce them to you in the following month’s letter.

For now, I just really want to give everyone reading this the opportunity to spend some time to sit and give gratitude to our first milestone for the Umazisi project and the foundation itself.

Thought of month

I feel this months’ letter is already rather lengthy and so will leave you with this video on what makes Beethoven’s 5th Symphony a musical masterpiece. I was brought up with classical music so I am rather biased towards it!

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia

C.E.O

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Monthly letter – October 2021

alviraadmin — Sat, 30 Oct 2021 08:36:19 +0000

Hi all,

I write to you from the vivacious and beautiful city of Madrid. I think I have met more people and undergone more new experiences in this month than I have in the past 2 years. I am not going to give a whole account of my trip; that would be a bit cheeky of me given the context of these newsletters. However, I think I can share two reflections thus far:

The first being the difference in “living hours”. At 9pm in the evening, life in Madrid is only starting, whereas back in SA, I feel like life is ending. I could walk around at midnight on any night, and be almost guaranteed to find restaurants filled with couples, friends and families (little children included). It is a style of living which I feel suits people who seek more social interaction in the evening, I have discovered that I am one of them.

The second being the underlying unity of Spain vs constant tension I feel in SA. In Madrid, people who are mainly of a single culture and religion, are operating at a level which is far more conducive to “joyful freedom”– compared to in South Africa where are constantly working hard (or fighting) to agree on basic viewpoints and ensure total inclusion. My point is not to say one is better than the other; but, how they offer different things. For Spain, a sense of belonging and safety; for South Africa, solidarity and conscientiousness. I often wonder; imagine a South Africa where people feel safe – truly safe – feel cared for and feel heard. To heal and release of all the fear and pain that so often blocks us from moving forward in basic areas – all the hard work spent on the most basic of issues. Imagine how South Africa could move if it reached a level of fundamental unity and safety to then use its deep reserves of resilience, diversity, and hard work on innovation, art, science, culture, economics and, in our case, education. This would be a country of the future – a country founded and moulded by the suffering of the human spirt and transformed to achieve things we could only imagine.

I’ve added a few photos at the end of the letter for those who are maybe interested.

Updates

It has been a slowish month for Alvira. Myself, Tyra, Angela, Elena and Jason are experiencing far greater workloads than ever, and so, to balance all the ideas, operations and actions of an NPO we need time to manage our priorities. We want to move with certainty and, when possible, move swiftly not because we feel like we “need to”, but because we are fit and ready.

With regards to my networking and meetings – I will reflect in more detail next month when I have finished all of them. But out of interest, I am giving a talk on mentoring and the importance of it to

various teachers at the school whereby Elena works. I will be presenting a version of the presentation at the beginning of December when we have our mentoring workshop.

The school’s philosophy team met for a discussion on human anthropology to discuss if the human-centric view of the Alvira school is really what we want, or it’s just something that “sounds nice”. One of the major post-reflection outcomes of this meeting was that; when talking about the “type of school” the debate isn’t about what religious or cultural association it should have (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, agnostic, African, European) as we could, in theory, have any one of them. We might have 5 schools and each one with a different religious or cultural layer – they could each be an Alvira school. The point is that the school’s philosophy should educate at a more fundamental level – the anthropological one – and this should be compatible with any school. It is a bit like language; we all have a fundamental desire to express love, the language we use is just the filter by which the desire passes through. So, it is the same within the school; the “type of school” is irrelevant as it is just the filter through which Alvira’s anthropological education of the human being is expressed.

Thought of month

I suppose, in a way, my intro holds a little bit of a “thought of the month” kind of feel, but It felt more appropriately placed in the introduction.

Thus, for the here, I want to share another video from a channel called Mark Rober. This video is about a drive to clean up the plastic from all the rivers, seas and oceans.

His is a really incredible channel as his videos are entertaining, informative and heart-warming. His channel has grown to be one of the largest YouTube channels, reaching over billions (yes billions) of people. Him and another YouTuber giant, Mr Beast, are using their clout to create social change on a scale that no single government could ever do. It absolutely amazes me at how – when used in a life-giving way – a connected system (like YouTube) can create incredibly powerful change. I hope, that one day Alvira might have the same clout and use it to assist change, transformation and growth in government and countries so that they can effectively rally behind the human condition.

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia

C.E.O

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Monthly letter – September 2021

alviraadmin — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 05:16:34 +0000

Hi all,

Last week (the 18th September) we had our birthday – Mexican themed – bash. I was chatting with Angela and laughed,– we are not actually sure what counts as the “official birthday”. But hey, who can say no to more than one birthday! There was a mammoth amount of effort that went into organising this – huge, huge, thanks to the events team, Nella in particular, who really went out of her way to put everything together on the day.

We had around 20 people attend all of whom chatted, played games and caught up around a fire later on in the evening – I think… I was unable to stay for the full duration, so I just came, said hello, ate, guessed how many sweets were in a jar and left. Despite my short appearance I got enough of a sense that everyone was sharing laughter and stories – amazing.

In October I will be going to Spain for a month. It is mainly for personal reasons (part of a longer 2-month work-cation). But Elena and I thought that If I do come to Spain we can use it as an opportunity to move forward with several Alvira related matters. I will mention more in the next newsletter, but for now, I can say it entails speaking to potential donors, meeting various people in Spain that have been supporting us from afar and, of course, meeting with Luchy and Raphael (Thomas’ son) and Pepe (institute) in person.

General update

Over the past few months I’ve had a number of people saying that they really want to help and if there is anything they can do, to let them know. At the time, although very grateful, we just said – “hold that desire, we’ll find something”. Well now, we have those “somethings”. We created a document (a bit rough for now) listing various tasks that we would need help with.

The QR code you see on the right is a link directly to the google sheet with all the information. In it you’ll see 29 tasks spread across our various areas – from finance to marketing to research. For every task there is a description giving a bit more information and adjacent to it the relevant contact person (see the second tab)

One example is for the research institute; to compile a summary of all the various educational research institutes in South Africa. This allows us to get an understanding of who is doing what – aiding us in potential networking and/or collaboration.

This will be a maintained list where we will add/remove tasks as needed. In time, it will be hosted on the website with a better and friendlier user design (possibly with embedded sharing functionality for social media and or friends). I have below the three tasks with the highest priority.

Thought of the month

This month has been a pretty intense one for me, and so I haven’t really had any particular thoughts and or experiences that I feel are worth sharing here. So instead, this month, I will share a video – for no other reason than I think it is nice.

I recently found the channel Great Art Explained. It explores the famous historical artworks and what makes them “great”. I have found the channels’ videos genuinely interesting – well explored and insightful. I recommend watching the other videos, but for now, I want to share one on Monet’s Water Lilies. It is a piece I’ve seen referenced many times, but knew nothing about! For example, in person, they are over 2m long! Hope you enjoy it – and if there are any YouTube channels you find yourself telling people about, please pass them onto me, I’d love to watch.

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia

C.E.O

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Monthly letter – July 2021

alviraadmin — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 05:16:00 +0000

To the Alvira family,

Sho… has it been a few weeks or what! I don’t think I’ve ever felt a period with so many things going on – the fireworks of emotion; anger, worry, fear, but also, resilience, defiance and care. Few times is the internal chaos of inner selves so aptly reflected in our immediate external environment.

There are times for action, for planning and times for quiet, for healing and rest. We are in the latter, we have a lot on our mind and our hearts – and because of this we have decided to postpone the planned trip of Elena and Luchy discussed in June’s letter. We will get there; we will have our training session, we will have meetings with the schools to discuss plans for the future – just not right now. We are provisionally discussing plans for early December as it is the next time that makes sense for us and Elena and Luchy.

On a practical and POPIA compliant note, as much as newsletters are helpful to give news and let everyone know what is happening in the foundation – you are free at any point to unsubscribe from them. If you so wish, just reply to the e-mail requesting to unsubscribe.

A word from Jason, our CFO:

In March we received our first round of generous donations which allowed us to budget for 6 months and move ahead with all our projects – in particular with the Umazisi content creation. We are now at the end of those 6 months and are running very low on our finances.

In light of this, the finance team has created a flyer that hopes to generate interest in both immediate and long term funding. I encourage everyone to send this flyer to family and friends and anyone who may be willing to help create a future for this foundation and everyone involved.

For the remainder of 2021, a total of R 85 000 is needed to bring us into the next phase of development. This includes several trademark registrations, a website, Umazisi mentor training and additional content creation. For more detail please see the flyer attached in conjunction with the newsletter.

Our proposal for either project is available at request for anyone who may want to know more about the foundation.

Thanks

Jason Gaskell
CFO and Public Officer

Updates – Marketing

For many months now, we have been investigating how to create a social media presence. What would this presence look like, how do we build an image of who we are which is both authentic to our purpose but also strategic and marketable to those who know nothing about us.

We have finally found real assistance in the form of a social media company called Vidhq.studio. Ntombi Ngubane, the founder, has generously volunteered her time in generating the initial content for our social media campaign launch. This will be across Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Our first brainstorm session starts this week and we aim to have the launch within the next two months after having generated all the necessary content. Thanks, Ntombi and also Robyn who will be the person doing the admin of curating the post and posting the content every week.

Thought of the Month – who are we, when things go wrong

This months’ thought comes in the form of a video. A video which, to me, so well encapsulates what we all have experienced over the last few weeks. A video that asks the question: “who are we when things go wrong?”

The author explores how there seems to be an implied belief that amid chaos and difficult times we are alone, an “each person for themselves” kind of thing. A point most poignantly shown in post- apocalyptic stories where our true nature is selfish, aggressive and suspicious of one another.

But is this true? In the face of destruction or disaster, it has been seen time and time again that the outcome from these moments of chaos and deficiency turn into order and abundance by the will, empathy and resourcefulness of our fellow human beings.

What I find the strangest thing is that no matter how unpredictable disaster – man-made or other, the most predictable and certain thing, is the love we show one another to support each other through the worst. As the author of the video puts it: “There is something about a disaster that helps us understand who we really are, and, what we are supposed to do”

Is there space, that we can find this love and this support not only in moments of disaster and chaos but in the everyday life of our existence?

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia
CEO of Alvira Foundation

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Monthly letter – June 2021

alviraadmin — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 12:25:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

in the previous two letters, I’ve mentioned that Elena will be visiting us in July. I want to dedicate some reading time to give a bit of context for why this trip is happening and introduce Luchy, who is travelling down with her.

Lucía Calvo (Luchy) has been with us from the start of the foundation. She has acted as an external consultant over the past year, guiding us through the nuances of starting a foundation that is fundamentally reliant on the human spirit.

Currently, Luchy resides on the board of *Arenales Red Educativa* – an international network of associated educational centers. They seek to provide students with high-level academic training and promote values that support hard work and service to others. Their relationships with schools around the world allow them to implement improvements both technological and cultural, to expand and share expertise. Their educational process is carried out in a context of absolute individual freedom as we teach lessons on responsibility, social transformation, and personal development that seek continual self-improvement for each individual.

By partnering with the Arenales network, through Luchy, we have access to resources, knowledge and experience guiding and supporting us to building a solid foundation (double meaning intended) built to carry out its intended purpose.

Alvira school

If you recall on the May newsletter mentioned our proposal for two teams to help us with the Alvira schools project – the philosophy and business teams. Late in May, the philosophy had its first meeting. A team of fifteen people, all with some involvement in a school, as a teacher or parent were introduced to Alvira, and our core philosophy of teaching. Over the next few months, the team will break down the why’s, the how’s’ and the what’s of starting a school. Drawing on everyone’s’ heart, mind and will we are excited to see our most ambitious project lift off the ground.

Idea of the month

I have been told many times growing up: “it gets harder to make friends as you grow older” – and as much as I stubbornly disagree, I do feel a growing difficulty to make meaningful friendships. But, why? Why should that be – to just accept the common response “that is life, we get busy”, to me, is frustrating and sad.

Then, three weeks ago, something happened that I had experienced many times as a young kid, but never took notice of. Sitting in a small restaurant in the Karroo with some people I’ve known

from varsity, I looked at them and suddenly thought; these are my friends and smiled realising what just happened.

We had all just woken up in a small church turned hostel after arriving the day before. Groggy, poorly dressed and hungry we got out of bed and walked to the restaurant. Waiting for our coffee we started talking, but this was a different conversation. There was an ease to it; the kind that ebbs and flows between the ridiculous, the serious and the silent. No agenda, no “having to catch up” – just being. It wasn’t so much “what we spoke about” but how we felt while speaking – we spoke our mind and felt happy and comfortable to do so. Somewhere in the moment, my inner me showed itself, was greeted and warmly welcomed.

That morning gave me a renewed sense – maybe we still can make friends just like when we were younger. what we need isn’t simply “more time and more effort”, but to find spaces which encourage us to feel comfortable with who we are and feel comfortable for others to see us – like kids playing in the park full of mud and dirt. For me, those are mornings, for you that might be in your pj’s or maybe after a long sweaty workout; a place where we welcome our true, undecorated, selves. And so, I don’t think it is more difficult to make friends as we get older, but perhaps, instead, it is more difficult to feel safe to show our true selves as we get older, and as a consequence find it more difficult to make friends.

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia

C.E.O

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Monthly letter – May 2021

alviraadmin — Sat, 01 May 2021 03:55:00 +0000

Although a monthly newsletter is not bound by when in the month it is sent, it is, however, bound by the month in which it needs to be sent. And so, considering my time restrictions my aim is density contained in brevity.

Our third calendar event – the amazing race – was an extraordinary event. Executed in a manner described by its own self-referentiality – amazing! What a race it was; after 4 checkpoints two teams were running to the final stage. Winners separated by mere seconds. To Daniella, Claudia and Daniella, thank you. Your effort, ideas and creativity were wholly felt by all those who participated.

A quick note, with Elena and Luchy’s arrival in July, we ask if everyone can keep Sunday day 25th July and Monday evening 2nd of August free. More detail will be given in next month’s newsletter
.

Umazisi

This month saw some important events for the Umazisi project. The core team had their first meeting – passion, ideas and desire were evident within everyone. Going forward, Robyn and Tshepo will lead the project and self-organize in terms of executing all necessary actions to move forward. Tyra and Elena will lend their vision and commitment to seeing that the project maintains its purpose

Last week I met with Greenside and learnt that they are undergoing a change in leadership. Despite their interest and desire, their position means we will not be able to use Greenside as a school for the mentorship in 2021. Discussion, as asked by them, will resume for 2022. A disappointing outcome, yes, but a reflection of our hard work, no. The Umazisi team will continue to look for schools, to create content, to train mentors and to develop its own identity.

Idea of the month

An experience which also shaped my desire to write this letter with succinctness was that of the movie “The Prince of Egypt”. A movie that reminded me of how the power of a story, told with purpose and beauty can, in a single moment, express a feeling or idea shared by generations of humans. In one second, one lives a millennia of shared experiences – a spiritual ear listening in on the echo of life.

Which movies, stories have had these igniting effects within you? What about the story connected you to something greater than yourself? And, what life within you is asking to be heard? Such moments are powerful and special, listen to them and share them for you might ignite something in someone else.

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia CEO

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Monthly letter – April 2021

alviraadmin — Sat, 03 Apr 2021 13:20:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

when I decided to do these monthly newsletters I had the intention to send them out at the start of every month – funny how things turn out in a manner different to expectations. At this point, we’re more on the side of they come out when they come out – beginning or end.

Over the past year I’ve become more far more engaged in the interplay between concepts of form – generating beauty and enjoyment – and function – fulfilling a purpose or need. Themes that present themselves when writing these newsletters. I want to address the purpose of giving you updates on the Foundation and its projects but also, in such a manner that the words are enveloped with ideas and beauty. Neither should overpower the other; but work in harmony and, hopefully, reach a point whereby the two, form and function, resonate off each other; resulting in an experience greater than the sum of its parts.

It is for this reason these newsletters will undergo a natural ebb and flow in timings.

I hope that we all in the foundation can move with purpose and beauty in our projects and lives; whilst also being open to the timings of life.

Alvira Updates

General

This past month we moved forwards with small, but significant, steps. Our bank account has officially been created; thanks to Jason for all the admin and scans upon rescans of documents. With a bank account open, we have completed the penultimate step in being an official NPC. The final step being: tax exemption.

Why this is so important for us is that now we can start putting moola in the bank!! Speaking of which, we received two sources of donations this month! Enough to see us forward for the next 6 or so months and buy us time to work towards additional fundraising.

After Elena met Tere Garcia Ledesma in a weekend of networking, Tere, with over 10k followers, decided to make an Instagram post of the Alvira foundation. In her story, she told everyone that a foundation – withholding the same philosophy of the schools she and many of her followers went to in Spain – is starting in South Africa – a.k.a us!. In the story she said how they have witnessed the change these schools have had in their life and so, to support us so that we (the foundation) can too give similar opportunities to South African students. Through this story, she set up a payment link whereby all donations would go directly to the foundation. Ever since then, small donations have been trickling in – amounting to a real difference! In addition to this, a huge thank you to the Lawrenson family, who after listening to Tyra tell the story and vision of the foundation, were incredibly generous in their donation.

To see people so effortlessly give us an opportunity to build the foundation is a great experience of human compassion and understanding. Thank you!

We had our picnic function this month organised by our events team. Despite it being a smaller gathering, I enjoyed being in a space in which I could connect on a more personal level with various people. Sometimes the buzz of large functions renders us deaf to the quiet whispers of peoples personalities. We played a few games, one in which I discovered a knack of flipping an oreo biscuit from my forehead into my mouth, and another where I discovered I could fit the most marshmallows in my mouth! Below are a few pictures from the picnic (I hope I have blessed everyone with their best smiles in choosing the photos, as I know those in them will all be scrutinizing them )

A small request is that moving forward, we give adequate heads up to the events team on our availability. They go through a fair amount of effort to ensure everyone is catered for and that we have a good time. Giving a reply will go a long way in ensuring their planning success!

Lastly, Elena will be vising South Africa end of July with Luchy. Luchy is from the Arenales – a network of schools in Spain who also follow the philosophy of Thomas Alvira. They will be here for two weeks to do some networking and training for the foundation. I will put more detail in a later newsletter about the Arenales schools, who Luchy is and the incredible support she has been giving us, as well as all the planned social events in those two weeks. For now, just know you will all get to say hello and give a big welcome hug back to Elena, albeit if only for a short period.

Umazisi

For most people, the Umazisi project will have been, like me, your first exposure to the Alvira foundation. Most of the time, attention and effort was devoted to the project with regular meetings, think tanks and weekly status updated. This was necessary as it gave us the momentum and excitement to carry us through the initial hurdles of doubt and confusion.

For most, that momentum probably seems completely gone, with little to none of that interaction like before. This kind of ucertainty in the progress of the project and foundation itself is completely natural. However, I can ensure everyone that the momentum in the Umazisi project and the foundation is anything but gone!

I would say, two main reasons can be attributed to an apparent external silence from the project:

Covid created a lot of chaos in the schools at the beginning of the year putting them in a position whereby they decided to start much later. A result of all this chaos is that we did not hear back from Jeppe girls or Greenside for a good few months. And so, we realised that it would put everyone under unnecessary pressure to push for a start in March. Now, we intend on having the project underway beginning of August With regards to the school interested in the project, Greenside high has come back to us with continued intention to look into a collaboration. Jeppe, on the other hand, have not come back yet and so, in the meantime, we will focus our efforts on getting a firm yes from Greenside High.
We have been generating all the content for the workshop. In this, Robyn has taken all the initial work from the think tanks and is in the process of combining and enriching the content in a collection of workbooks, guides and lesson notes for the Umazisi project – both for mentors and mentees. Robyn recognised that for the mentor to adequately convey the content, a workbook would need to be created to guide the mentor through all the intricacies of the content. Elena and I believe that she is producing a body of work that is world-class and deserving of great appreciation and thanks. We hope to have the workbooks completed by end of June to use in training the mentors.

Finally, I want to congratulate Tshepo Motaung on his role as head mentor of the Umazisi project. His practical and creative mind for growth will greatly benefit the Project moving forward. While we are still outlining his exact roles and responsibilities we are excited to see what will come from his desire and drive.

Over the next few weeks, we will establish our first meetings with the Umazisi team comprising of all the mentors and volunteers of the project. A way forward will be carved taking care of training, strategies and admin. I will try as best as possible to be transparent and informative of the progress in the Umazisi project over the next few months!

School

Starting a school is a strange project in that, it is so large that one can’t quite comprehend the myriad of requirements. With this “knowledge of our lack of knowledge” we decided the best way forward is to form two teams:

A philosophy team: purpose of which is to establish a clear path on how the school will function from the perspective of its ethos, teaching style, human support structures, needs and desires. The philosophy team will comprise of people who are, at their core, educators of mind heart and will – in whichever way that is manifest. They believe and live the philosophy of the Alvira foundation and seek to establish a school that reflects this philosophy in every way possible.
A business team: purpose of which is to deal with and strategise the financial and business model of the school as well as the school grounds. The business team will be a team of people who seek to move with practicality, creativity and thought. Running a school is at its core a business and so questions like: what will the fee structure look like? – what will the generators of income be? – and how should the grounds be used and maintained? – will need to be taken care of by the business team.

The two teams will naturally move alongside one another making sure the needs of the one or supported and refined by the other. Currently, we have drafted an initial idea of who we believe could fit in either team, but, we are still in the early phase. If anyone reading this has strong ideas or suggestions of who they think could fit into either of these two teams, you are more than welcome to contact the foundation!

Thought for the month – what is beauty?

A few weeks ago, I came across a wonderful video essay titled “In search for absolute beauty”. In which questions like: “why does beauty have such a strong influence on life?” – “why is it beauty which we so often seek when creating something?” – “why is it beauty which drives us, at times, to move with incredible conviction?” – are explored. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so give it a watch and let me know if it stirs up anything in you next time you see me.

Beauty is something which has found itself consistently appearing in my life. I suppose the first cognition of it, would have been like many people, in the aesthetic beauty – most notably of the human form, Over time, this expanded to a larger scope – landscapes, art and music. However, these still remained within the aesthetic realm. Now, as I’ve been exposed to more life encounters, I notice beauty has begun to transcend inward – a beautiful space isn’t one that “pleases” my senses, but one that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Makes me feel like my soul is being hugged. Why the video speaks to me, is because it is an articulation of beauty which gives form, and reflects the abstract experience that I have been feeling more and more within me.

To me, beauty lies as the heart of truth – a physicist named Richard Feynman, in his interview about “The Beauty of a flower”, aptly makes this argument for how, in its pursuit of truth, science and physics only enhances the beauty rather than detracts it (a sentiment often shared by public opinion). Einstein was once quoted with – “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain, children, all our lives”. What I find incredible, and telling, is how, in a field of ultimate reason and rigor, something as ethereal as beauty would sit at the cornerstone of its great thinkers; an example made concrete is how Einstein, as many other physicists, would often look at his equations and use beauty as the yardstick to decide if they were correct or not.

As a quick aside, one last source of beauty which I did not include, as it did not fit the narrative I was expanding on, is that of the poem by the poet Kahlil Gibran – On Beauty. I really wanted to still put it here, as he offers a unique perspective on beauty; a perspective that hopefully sparks ideas for anyone who reads it.

Next time you have a conversation with someone, ask them what they find to be beautiful, how beauty moves them and why it moves them. In doing so, you might just find a sense of beauty in them that you never knew.

Thank you for you time reading this, and I wish you all a fantastic last few days of April and beginning of May!

The post Monthly letter – April 2021 appeared first on Alvira Foundation.

Monthly Letter – March 2021

alviraadmin — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 05:16:00 +0000

I welcome everyone to the inaugural newsletter for the Alvira foundation. This is my (Luca’s) first time writing one of these letters, and so I hope to have as much fun writing them as you do reading them.

I was once lucky enough to have participated in a reality-style tv show a few years back and the most enjoyable part was probably the fact that I finally got to see what happens behind the scenes. What is scripted, what is fake; what happened vs what was edited to be seen. Incredibly, despite the show trying to be as transparent as possible, there was still a polished and scripted appearance to the episode when it aired.

With the Alvira foundation, I too have the great privilege of seeing what happens behind the scenes in building a company, an NPO, a family. There is so much more than you might expect: planning, discussing, brainstorming, emailing and my favourite – questioning. It is important that behind every move, every action you know the “why” behind it – or at least be able to articulate your best version of it. Questioning, for myself, and the rest of the board of directors is the chisel that we use to refine all that we create.

It is my desire, that for this monthly newsletter, I get to share with everyone what happens behind the scenes in such a way so that everyone is part of the process, that you may too know the why behind how we move, that you too may offer your questions and your voice to us. So, unlike a reality show, what we present is the same as who we are.

I will begin every letter with some updates, significant milestones or frustrating challenges that we face. After which maybe share something I found interesting – video, thought or song.

This first newsletter will probably be a bit longer in length seeing as it is the first one, so I appreciate the time you take reading it.

Alvira updates

General

In one of our final meetings last year, we decided that to move into the new year, into this year, we needed to start creating structure. First within the board of directors and second, within the key members in the foundation who are assisting closely. I plan on creating a comprehensive organogram by next month’s letter in which we explain the roles in more detail but, in summary, we decided on some of the following responsibilities:

Angela (President): Angela was single handedly responsible for finding the right people to connect to the foundation. Without her eye for people, we would be much further back in this process. Angela is probably one of the best managers and networkers I have come across; because of this, she naturally will take on the responsibility of expanding our network of people and ensuring we always put our people above all else.
Elena (Vice-President); Elena has the incredible capacity to be present with people, to see their beauty and to cultivate freedom – skills inherent to her and sharpened over her many years teaching and mentoring. Thus, she will assist Angela in making sure that everyone in the foundation is seen and cared for as a family. From her wealth of experience and connections in the Arenales schools her primary role will be to the school – in particular, forming the business team.
Tyra (Secretary): Tyra, the brainchild of the foundation, what started as ideas on a paper has become a team of people, from various walks of life and background. Her primary responsibilities are for the mentoring program and the philosophy team within the school. Her fierce desire for true human education will give her the resilience necessary to see these projects flourish.
Luca (CEO): My responsibilities as CEO, are currently to ensure that our vision is ever-present in anything we do, to connect with people in the foundation and provide a space that we are heard, respected and loved. From a more operational perspective, I am in charge of the Alvira Institute, Alvira Studios and the marketing team (when we eventually get one).

Each one of us also holds support functions whereby we assist each other’s primary responsibilities. The idea is, for now, to have at least two of us involved in a project at any given time. I would like to mention three people in particular for the time, assistance and creativity they have offered the foundation in the past few months:

Jason Gaskell – Jason, with his actuarial background and experience in finance is head of finance and has been handling all the necessary admin to set up our official NGO bank account. At which point we will have a place for future donations to go into! Yay!
Robyn Smutts Erasmus – Robyn began with us by assisting Anthony in the brand and proposal design. Towards the end of the year, her desire to assist and her superhuman work ethic has put her into the role of consolidating and writing up all the content for the Umazisi projects. She will then move into assisting Tyra with more admin duties (you can’t believe the amount of admin work required!)
Anthony Catano – Anthony was responsible for creating the “brand” of Alvira, the colours and the image that is on our proposals, and now, the Umazisi website! Yes, as of last week, the website is live! Thanks Anthony and Elena for reaching the milestone!

https://umazisi.org.za/

On the 6th of February, we had our first event of 2021 – an online games night. What a success, to the events team – Daniella de Freitas, Daniela and Claudia da Silva, we thank and congratulate you on pulling it off. To the winner – Brian, Jinsi, I hope you enjoyed those UberEats vouchers!

Lastly- our first bureaucratic milestone has been reached! We are officially a registered NPC! Thank you Shelly and Tyra for all your work in assisting with the MOI – a tedious yet important process.

Umazisi Project

Last year we had set a meeting with Jeppe Girls and Greenside high to discuss in person what we could do with the schools – they both saw the proposals and were interested. However, the chaos of the end year + covid kicked in and both meetings fell through. With the schools reopening late this year we have decided to delay the project to June/July whereby we can meet with schools with more peace – this also buys us more time in building the Umazisi team.

The main priorities are:

Getting a school to commit to the project
Finding and training mentors
Creating consolidated content for mentors and students

Alvira Institute

For those who may not know, an important project for the foundation is to create an academic research institute. The purpose of which is to network with thought leaders in education both local and international, as well as to establish a body of knowledge which guides the foundation in its educational philosophy. In this, the research institute took its first step in establishing its ethos, the kind of questions it seeks to ask and what function it serves the foundation and all South Africans. As a first avenue, the most natural topic to research is Thomas Alvira’s philosophies. We want to assess its truth and validity from an anthropological perspective and the perspective of the modern South African context.

We are currently in contact with two professors (specialising in the field of economics and education), Dr JJ Clavel from Spain, and Dr Volker Schoer from Wits. The two researchers are assessing the potential of collaborative research amongst themselves and then with the Alvira Institute. The most important aspect right now is that the two professors and the Alvira institute believe in the value of working together.

Alvira Schools

Towards the end of last year, all the board of directors and some consultants met with two facilitators of a school ground that is currently vacant and looking to find potential tenants. The

purpose of the meeting was to assess their expectations and for us to communicate our intentions and ask them for logistical information on the school.

Subsequent to this, Tyra and Elena have been corresponding with them and are carefully doing their due diligence in assessing the viability in obtaining the grounds for the Alvira school. There is a lot of work, a lot of investigation, and a lot of discussion around this topic. Despite the fortuitous timing and amazing opportunity, we are firm in not rushing any decision and in doing homework where necessary.

Our current focus for the schools is to begin the process of creating two teams:

Philosophy team – responsible for constructing the ethos, vision and structure of the school in all its teachers, staff, parents and students.
Logistics team – responsible for creating a business model of how the school will run and how the grounds will be used for business opportunities.

Thought for the month

I have, for the past year now, been drawn in more and more by the biology, philosophy and physics of life. With a lack of time I have resorted to reading the odd non technical book here and there, however, my primary source of information at this point is watching Youtube videos. There is one in particular that just astounds me everytime I watch it. It is a video detailing the biological machines that exist in our cells, at the level of our DNA, which perform mechanical functions like, splicing, joining and transportation (via actual walking, like little proteins with legs, no jokes).

The video titled “Molecular Machines ” is just an astounding realisation, not only of the intricacies of life, of the process going on millions of times a day in every single cell, but of the ability of the observant and questionaning human mind capable of understanding it all with so much precision.

Have a look at it, and if you feel compelled to, let me know what you think.

I hope your month of March is filled with life and I look forward to next month where I get to write to everyone once more.

Kindest regards,

Luca Pontiggia

CEO of the Alvira Foundation

The post Monthly Letter – March 2021 appeared first on Alvira Foundation.