Helping You Bring Opportunity to Others
Helping You Bring Opportunity to Others
Origin/Mission/Vision Statements
The origins of Synergy and Grace (NGO) are found in the 3 weeks I spent in 2008 teaching & mentoring at Salaam Baalak Trust in New Delhi, India (I was drawn to SBT by Mira Nair's 1988 film "Salaam Bombay!" which I used in a film course I taught called "Surviving Childhood"). In 2012, I started Run with Joe (NPO), which eventually became a 501(c)(3) organization. Five-plus years of 24/7 caregiving for Mom (2013-19) necessitated shutting down RWJ. With Mom's passing in Feb. 2019, Synergy and Grace has risen from the ash heap of Run with Joe.
We believe that safe access to fresh water and a good education are essential to a fully-realized life. Additionally, we believe that if a child is to reach her or his potential, s/he should be encouraged artistically, athletically, and intellectually. To support students, as well as graduates, in their endeavors, we offer scholarships, mentoring and microloans when possible.
Eventually, we hope to expand our work. For water access, we hope to create a team whose business it will be to repair wells locally, rather than depend on and wait for our return to a given community. We also hope to open our own school, to be built and run by Ugandans. In all that we do, we work in tandem/partnership with the communities we serve.
Our Guiding Signposts & Principles
To borrow sentiment from Socrates, we believe that the unexamined NGO/NPO is not worth running. We have learned that best intentions do not always lead where we intend. Everything begins with close dialogue with the communities where we work. Regular self-reflection, in tandem with feedback from others, helps us stay the course when things are working, and to correct the course when we have gone adrift. To keep ourselves on course, we do our best to adhere to the following:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
This document, now translated into more than 500 languages, was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948.
Declaration/Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted by the U.N. in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted in 1989.
Community Engagement & Ownership
To ensure our work has lasting impact, we begin our work by engaging & dialoguing with the community where we intend to work.
Do No Harm
"Primum non nocere -- the last remnants of three years of high school Latin. Physicians subscribe to the words when they treat patients, and we use the words as a navigational tool.
Leave No Trace
We firmly believe that this maxim which speaks to our encounters with the natural world speaks powerfully, too, to our interactions with the communities we seek to serve.
The Power of Story
In his book "The Call of Stories," Robert Coles recalls the words of his mentor, the physician and writer William Carlos Williams: “Their story, yours, mine - it's what we all carry with us on this trip we take, and we owe it to each other to respect our stories and learn from them.”
Who We Are