The story of VISIONEERS
Are you interested in Visioneers e.V.? Here you can read about how it all began.
First, a little about me:
My name is Natascha Tepass, I'm 30 years old, was born in Berlin and grew up there. But how did I come up with the idea of establishing a Social Start-Up which operates mostly in Berlin and Latin America?
Ever since I was a child I have stood up for the rights of others, and wanted to make a difference with my work and life. When I was 28, I had already achieved a lot. I had finished my studies, lived and worked in over seven countries, mastered four languages fluently and had been, for several years, successful in business. Everything went as planned, and I had founded my first Social Start-up in Brazil (www.go-brazil.org).
Despite my professional success, I was not happy. I woke up every morning tormented by memories from my volunteering work in Latin America, where I met many people in severe hardship and poverty. The idea of being stuck in my office every day without being able to help other people was bothering me greatly. I met more and more people who were also dissatisfied with their place of work and lifestyles, and who had know-how and wanted to use their talents for something useful. My desire grew to give people a new vision and to help them to look at the bigger picture. This is how, slowly, the idea of a Social Start-up was established.
Early in 2014, in spite of a lot of criticism in my private life, I left my job at the Embassy of Chile in Berlin. Then I went on a journey of discovery: I designed a concept, applied to support programs for foundation grants and scholarships, visited NGOs in Latin America and much more. After months of work, VISIONEERS e.V. was launched in early 2015.
VISIONEERS e.V. is committed to a world in which individuals can effectively use their talents to make a lasting change to the lives of others and help bring about social change. VISONEERS e.V. is still in the early stages of development, but it fills me with great joy to be a role model for other people, to believe in their visions.
In November we will finish building our first school in Costa Rica. We will fly there with a diverse team of volunteers for 10 days on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to build the roof and floor of a vocational school, together with local people. Here, specific training opportunities will be made available for the people. We also organise workshops at the local school, where we want to encourage young people to keep investing in their further training and development.
On this 10-day journey, each day is an opportunity to make a difference and develop meaningful and lasting friendships. Volunteer and experience Costa Rica's country side while engaged in leadership training, skill-building workshops and action planning.
We have also established ourselves socially in my hometown, Berlin. VISIONEERS, together with people from different backgrounds, ages and workplaces, have been renovating accommodation for refugees and hosting enterprise action days. VISIONEERS wants to overcome barriers, connecting the business world and the charitable world and to empower people to make a social difference in the world with their knowledge and abilities.
With this project, I would like to encourage everyone to believe in themselves and their God-given vision, and to begin new ways in their lives!
More information about VISIONEERS: www.visioneers.berlin
Have a great day!
Best regards
Natascha.
