"World Ed is My Way of Giving Back" Notes from Board Member Lee Goldberg
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From left to right: Konda Reddy, Andhra Pradesh State Coordinator; Richard Geeves, WE-Cambodia; Sunita Sharma, Former Country Director of WE-India; Lee Goldberg, Board of Trustees.
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Lee Goldberg is a silver-haired baby boomer with an easy smile and a warm heart. A quiet man, Lee spends much of his time in a competitive business world where decisions and strategies are bottom-line driven, eclipsing the kind of inspiration and spirit he finds from his work with World Education. "The world in which I work on a daily basis is the for-profit world" says Lee. "I work with companies that are underperforming, and my work is very competitive and sometimes, harsh. The world in which World Education works is one where people are very dedicated and they love what they do, not for financial gain, but because they make a difference. Experiencing this different world has been very satisfying to me."
A Vietnam veteran, Lee saw abject poverty up close during his tour. Like many in his generation, Vietnam profoundly influenced his decision to give back to his own community.
"I served in Vietnam and saw firsthand the hardship and poverty of the developing world and my work at World Education has been my way of giving back" says Lee. "It has allowed me to make a contribution to a cause that I care about and to make a difference. I also meet and work with some pretty amazing people—both in Boston and in the field—and that's kept me very engaged."
What inspired you to join the Board of Trustees at World Education?
I met World Education's President Joel Lamstein more than 25 years ago and found him to be a thoughtful, quiet, very smart guy. Joel introduced me to World Education and I found the place full of energetic, smart, dedicated people who were doing what they loved. I readily accepted when Joel asked me to join the Board of Trustees in 1985. Since then, I have been able to help develop and grow the organization through my for-profit experience and become part of an organization that I find very inspiring.
If you were to describe the work of the organization in three words, what would they be?
Grassroots, education, and empowerment. I think what makes World Education so powerful is their work with local NGOs at the grassroots level. Communities themselves know what their needs are and World Education helps people develop the skills and confidence to direct their own lives. It's a combination of working at the grassroots level, educating people and providing them with skills, and at the same time, giving them the ability to make decisions on their own, which empowers them.
You have always been a great supporter of the organization, what would you want others to know about World Education?
I would want people to know that World Education really does make a difference. The staff is incredibly dedicated to the work and to empowering people to improve their lives. This sense of commitment and determination to create change from the bottom-up means that people living in the most basic of conditions have some control over decisions that affect them.
Look at some recent results: 16,000 teenage girls in Nepal learn how to avoid exploitation and human trafficking, learn—for the first time—about nutrition, the dangers of early marriage. Last year, nearly 50% of the girls who graduated from this program are now in formal school. That's powerful.
Nearly 700 girls in northern Mali—one of the poorest places on earth—are continuing their education in middle school. Parents are supporting their education; religious and community members are getting involved—this is life transforming stuff!
This year, you spearheaded the launch of the Girls' & Women's Education Initiative. What inspired you to do this and what do you hope to accomplish?
The world is dramatically changing and far different today than just a few short years ago. To fund its programs, World Ed has historically relied to a large extent on funding from governmental or quasi-governmental agencies, yet we find that private resources offer the most flexibility and allow us to test new approaches or expand our best work internationally and in the United States. In the private sector, it's called seed capital, or early stage funding—the initial infusion of support needed to get a promising program off the ground.
Every $1 of private money typically attracts at least $5 in additional resources so we know private resources are used really well. It is also clear that educated girls and women have a powerful influence on their families and communities, as we have seen through so many of World Education's programs. The Girls' & Women's Education Initiative will help thousands of girls and women improve their lives around the world and help the organization diversify its funding sources, which is also critical as we grow.
With the important help of the Board of Directors, the President Joel Lamstein, and others, I aim to raise $1 million over the next three years to provide what I call seed capital to fund new programs. This funding is critical to their success. And their success is critical to the continuation of the meaningful work World Ed does throughout the world.
You recently met World Education Field Staff in Cambodia for a meeting of regional field staff. What struck you?
Prior to my visit to Cambodia, I had only met staff in the Boston office and occasionally people coming in from the field, but I had the opportunity to meet with field staff from all over Asia during my visit. I was immediately struck by how all World Ed staff, the world over, share the same level of commitment, dedication and desire to improve people's lives, as well as the difficult conditions under which they work. I realized for the first time how incredibly difficult the work is—long hours on poor roads, long hours in hot offices, seeing day in and day out the conditions that people live in all the time. I also learned that it's the spirit of folks—men, women, young people—at the community, no matter what their conditions—that inspire our staff.
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