Lq News Winter Spring 2009

Winter/Spring 2009

Special edition: Leaders’ Quest Foundation In this issue: 1 2009: Challenges and Opportunities

LQ News

聚贤社祝愿我们所有的中国朋友春节愉快，

2009 Quest Dates

在2009 年里吉祥如意，合家团圆！

2 Our Year in

Happy Chinese New Year and a Healthy and Prosperous 2009

Numbers: Leaders’ Quest Foundation in 2008

2009: Challenges and Opportunities

3 Centres for Leadership: Tomorrow’s Community Leaders Today

4-5 Changing Communities, Changing Lives

Best wishes for 2009 to all of our friends around the world. We wish you all a happy, healthy and successful New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai to our friends in China. 2008 was a year of tremendous growth for Leaders’ Quest with 13 very successful Quests in China, India, Brazil and South Africa, along with two new countries – Nigeria and Russia. We welcomed leaders from different sectors: business, government, academia, civil society – from all continents. Through our tailored Quest programmes, we worked with several outstanding companies to deliver Quests designed “We feel for their senior leadership including Actis, Apax Partners and Russell deeply that the Reynolds Associates.

Our team in Richmond grew significantly and we now number 17 at Leaders’ Quest and four at Leaders’ Quest Foundation, along with a 6 Message for Mumbai growing group of associates worldwide. As you will read in this issue, it has also been a remarkable year for Leaders’ Quest Foundation in scope, growth and impact.

work we do ... is more important now than ever.”

2009 brings a very intense start to the year with Open and Tailored Quests to all of our Quest destinations. We are returning to Mozambique, and undertaking our first Quest in Turkey. The New Year also begins with a series of Quests in India for leading civil servants in partnership with the UK National School of Government. Together with INSEAD, we are delighted to host with Professor Subi Rangan, the second AviraQuest for senior business leaders in February. We look forward to leading a Quest with Oxfam in Mozambique and South Africa later in the year to focus on business’s contribution to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. OPEN QUEST PROGRAMME DATES FOR 2009 We are also moving into what we know will be a very March 8-13 Africa – Johannesburg and Lagos challenging year in the global economy. There is an imperative to change the way in which our financial systems October 4-10 Brazil – São Paulo and Recife – and companies in general – interface with society and November 1-7 China – Shanghai and Chengdu understand their responsibility to it. It is also a time of great and growing social challenges, adding to what can feel like The next India Open Quest will be in early 2010; an overwhelming catalogue of existing challenges including the next Open Russia Quest will be in mid-2010. hunger, poverty, HIV & AIDS and climate change. We feel deeply that the work we do, and the purpose we seek to serve in inspiring and connecting leaders to catalyse positive change, is more important now than ever. We look forward to working with our hosts, partners and friends around the world in 2009. From all of us at Leaders’ Quest

Our Year in Numbers: Leaders’ Quest Foundation in 2008 2008 – the year the new vision for Leaders’ Quest Foundation became a reality.

£1.1 million – the amount already committed towards LQF’s goal of £1.747 to fund the first three years of the business plan.

118 –

the number of LQF donors, some of whom have donated multiple times.

227 –

the total number of LQF fellows (current and former) at work in disadvantaged communities. They are making a positive impact on the lives of some

340,500 people around the world. 125 fellows are currently participating in LQF’s two new Centres for Leadership (115) and Individual Fellowship Programme (10).

Through Leaders’ Quest Foundation, Russell Reynolds Associates provided a grant to fund Schools on Wheels for disadvantaged children in Delhi through partner Salaam Baalak Trust. Photo: Liz Lowther

£104,000 – the amount of pledges to our new Alumni Funds for grants supporting the vital work of host non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This includes £26,000 donated towards our China earthquake relief effort.

£76,000 – the amount of grant funding awarded to community organisations since May.

32 - the number `of senior leaders from arts, education and civil society organisations including Oxfam, Save the Children and local charities who participated in Quests; including four from partner organisations in India and China who attended as LQF scholars.

7–

the number of partnerships established with philanthropic institutions in Europe and North America to allow Quest participants to give tax efficiently (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada).

8–

the number of new LQF team members – five trustees and three staff.

Leaders’ Quest Foundation by 2012

1,000 –

number of emerging grassroots leaders benefiting from our Centres for Leadership and Fellowship Programme.

60 – number of Quest scholarship places for senior NGO leaders.

1,500-2,000 – number of Quest alumni receiving personalised follow-up or becoming more involved in the Foundation’s work. The vital work of LQF fellows is making an impact on the lives of some 340,500 disadvantaged people.

LQ Newsletter Winter/Spring 2009 Page 2

Centres for Leadership: Tomorrow’s Community Leaders Today Our two new Centres for Leadership (CfL) are up and running with 115 grassroots community leaders engaged in intensive year-long leadership training. Delivered in partnership with local NGOs in China and India, the Centres for Leadership are models for future centres allowing LQF to reach even more emerging grassroots leaders. LQF’s individual fellowship programme continues with 10 fellows in other Quest countries. To celebrate the new centres, we hear from our CfL Directors (below) and two centre mentors (see page 6).

Grassroots leaders at India’s Centre for Leadership attend workshops on leadership and community development.

Words on leadership from… Sujata Khandekar, Founder and director of CORO, India, and LQF Centre for Leadership Partner

Lanying Zhang, Country Director, ActionAid, China, and LQF Centre for Leadership Partner “If we want to bring change, to encourage leadership, we need to help people to use their hearts, brains and hands to take action. Only then can we can build the society that we want.

“For community development work to be sustainable, it should embrace local people, Leaders need to have a heart that is dedicated to the local strategies and local issues. people they want to work for, and a brain to Development issues are so understand the issues and the root causes of those Sujata Khandekar related to poor and problems. Leaders also need the skills, techniques and marginalised people that you have to bring leadership practical knowledge to address this by working with from there. So we must build the capacity of local people and mobilising people to try and “We know that with small, simple community-level others to work with solve these issues. action you can create a much greater impact.” them. This young We are talking about generation still has the people’s dream to look for a fairer, more just society, rather than participation... and even more... people’s leadership. just for material things. Those are the values in their Through the Centres for Leadership, we are choosing hearts; they want to do leaders, building their capacity, making them aware of something. Our Centre for their democratic rights, and then helping them to share Leadership can provide the this with larger communities. platform to equip them with Everything in CORO stems from first-hand experience of community work. It’s totally grassroots-based. We see to it that fellows get involved with the community and support them at every step. That’s how fellows grow and then they become an integral part of the whole system. We know that with small, simple communitylevel action you can create a much greater impact.”

perspectives, skills and methodologies so they can better contribute to society’s development. In that process they are also able to grow, to mature, and be a valuable part of civil society.”

LQ Newsletter Winter/Spring 2009 Page 3

Lanying Zhang

Changing Communities, Changing Lives Every day, around the world, the Leaders’ Quest community is making an impact. By developing and connecting leaders – from global to grassroots – we are addressing the world’s most pressing issues – poverty, justice, human rights, HIV & AIDS, education, environmental sustainability, access to livelihoods and discrimination. These glimpses of LQF projects, partners, alumni and fellows show the power of the LQ community to make a difference.

BRAZIL: Overcoming disadvantage from drugs, violence and abuse. Part of the Hummingbird Cultural Network, Djalma’s centre is one of many now reaching more than 700 vulnerable young people in a programme supported by the Children at Risk Foundation (CARF). The new centre marks the culmination of his two-year LQF fellowship with Hummingbird. “My fellowship helped me strengthen my capacity to better develop myself as a community leader,” says Djalma. Djalma (second from right) and the youth workers at the centre he runs protect vulnerable young people from drugs, violence and abuse. Photo: Tatiana Cardeal

LQF fellow Djalma dos Santos is putting his leadership skills to the ultimate test. Turning his own disadvantage upside-down, Djalma has opened a community centre for young people faced with the same grinding deprivation he is conquering – the poverty that pervades Brazilian shanty towns. He runs his own centre in one of São Paulo’s most deprived and violent areas to protect young people

Gregory Smith, CARF director and Djalma’s mentor, agrees. “The fellowship has been of utmost importance to Djalma’s personal growth and an important motivating factor for him to carry on believing in his own potential as an agent for positive social change,” he says. “Djalma represents not only the team of youngsters who follow him, but the future of a more equal society in Brazil.” Djalma is one of 125 LQF fellows in Brazil, South Africa, India and China addressing some of the world’s most urgent problems.

CHINA: After the earthquake Villagers in Anlong, South West China, at the epicentre of last May’s devastating earthquake, are joining forces to help neighbouring communities suffering in the aftermath. Not only are they reconstructing their own shattered buildings, the villagers are providing relief to surrounding communities with help from Leaders’ Quest Foundation. In association with LQF partner Chengdu Urban Rivers Association (CURA), the villagers have received training on rebuilding their village through a £4,000 LQF grant. They are completing reconstruction themselves so they can pass on the balance of their grant to nearby Chaping Village, where they feel the need is greater. Following the earthquake last May, LQ alumni rallied to support friends in the stricken areas around Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Over £26,000 was raised.

People in Anlong, China, joined forces to rebuild villages after the devastating earthquake in May 2008.

Through its local partners like CURA, LQF channelled assistance to the worst-hit areas. CURA is a grassroots environmental organisation promoting conservation and sustainable development. The villagers of Anlong are just one inspiring example of the power of grassroots leadership...and the far-reaching impact of the LQ community.

LQ Newsletter Winter/Spring 2009 Page 4

Changing Communities, Changing Lives SOUTH AFRICA: Breaking the cycle of crime Reformed convict, thief and drug addict Lucious counsellor through Khulisa, an NGO providing Mushwana, 28, is developing drug, crime and HIV education, training and personal development in & AIDS prevention projects in communities, schools and prisons. “I have Soweto, South Africa, with help Lucious and other offenders reached from a Leaders’ Quest over 2,000 prisoners and 5,000 demonstrated through the peer education Foundation fellowship. through my own life learners programme. Less than two years since his story… that through early release from prison, “I put a plan of action in place in order adversity, great Lucious founded and directs a to make a positive influence in my life dreams can be community development and those around me,” says Lucious. “I organisation aimed at reaching have demonstrated through my own achieved.” thousands of young people at life story that the circle of crime can be LQF Fellow Lucious Mushwana risk from the drugs and crime broken and that through adversity, that spring from poverty. He great dreams can be achieved. This works with two other ex-offenders to offer dance, fellowship will enable me to ensure a safer poetry, music and drama classes for vulnerable community by keeping children off the street and young people. He also offers HIV & AIDS by providing employment to other ex-offenders information, life skills and motivational talks to and members of my community.” schools and churches. By developing the leadership capacity of fellows Growing up in a deprived community and an like Lucious, the Leaders’ Quest community is unstable home, Lucious plunged into the world of impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of drugs and crime by the age of 9. At 20, he was people living in poor and marginalised sentenced to 18 years in prison for armed robbery. communities around the world. There he trained as a Peer Drug and HIV Education

INDIA: Quest for Change Alumni of the Open India Quest 2007 have together raised £20,000 to champion the work of the local NGOs and community leaders they encountered on their Quest. “Most of us came away from the Quest wanting to remain meaningfully and directly connected with our hosts,” said India 07 alumnus Paul Bernstein, Managing Director of Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), who led the drive. “We wanted to build on what we did on the Quest. I am often reminded of the leaders we met and the extraordinary insights they gave into their country,” said Paul, who congratulated India 07 alumni on “an amazing achievement”. In response to Questors’ wishes to remain involved, LQF has created Alumni Funds to provide a simple and effective way to stay engaged. Several of the India 07 alumni also remain in touch with the leaders they met.

The contribution of India 07 alumni (above) exemplifies how to maximise the impact of a Quest as a catalyst for positive change in the world.

LQ Newsletter Winter/Spring 2009 Page 5

Centres for Leadership: Tomorrow’s leaders today: continued from page 3 Centre mentors: Fellows Tu Bin and Anil Jadhav are mentors at LQF’s Centres for Leadership Having recently completed her own LQF fellowship in Chongli, China, Tu Bin, is helping grassroots leaders like herself get the most out of their learning at the Centre for Leadership. An ActionAid China staff member, Tu Bin is also Tu Bin pursuing further studies in social development. An advocate of mentoring, she Fellows share learning at India’s CfL where Anil is a mentor. trained college students as mentors for Anil Jadhav is working to Mentors – a core part of LQF’s leadership re-balance the scales of vulnerable children in development programme – are senior justice in the slums of boarding schools as part of her fellowship. She leaders who share their experience, skills Mumbai as part of his LQF also monitored the fellowship. A project and guidance with LQF fellows. impact of boarding coordinator at LQF’s partner school on rural children organisation CORO, Anil whose village schools had closed and designed pilot produces publications for Mumbai’s slum-dwellers projects to address their concerns. Tu Bin was able to introducing them to their develop boarding school policies more sensitive to legal rights. At the same rural children and helped to rebuild communications time, he is sharing his between families. She hopes that other organisations experience as a mentor at India’s Centre for and the government will support similar initiatives. Leadership. A fellow since “I think the CfL is a very good chance for emerging 2007, Anil is using his leaders interested in social progress to increase their research to improve the life work and experience,” she says. criminal justice system for Anil Jadhav Mumbai’s most vulnerable citizens. A role model for new fellows, Anil believes that by informing people about police procedures, they will be better equipped to seek justice. “They get knowledge about the police system and are better able to work within it – that’s the biggest benefit of my fellowship.” Anil’s work has created better police-citizen forums and improved advocacy on domestic violence and women’s rights. Tu Bin is a mentor for the inaugural class of fellows at China’s CfL.

Message for Mumbai Leaders’ Quest is thankful and relieved to confirm that our friends, partners and hosts in Mumbai are safe following the attacks on 26 November 2008. Messages of concern and solidarity on behalf of the Leaders’ Quest community were received during and following the tragedy. Leaders’ Quest is lending its support through these demanding times and is proud that the first tailored Quest of 2009 was held in Mumbai 12-16 January.

LQ Newsletter Winter/Spring 2009 Page 6

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