Initiatives Overview

The Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow impacts people whom we call leaders. Leaders aren’t only politicians or CEOS; they are individuals who have the ability to impact lots of other people. We empower leaders in areas of conflict and in dire circumstances by walking the talk ourselves, leading by example and by getting our hands dirty. By supporting micro enterprise in Rwanda and Palestine, training Afghan women doctors to teach community healthcare workers so that they can become leaders in their families and communities, training teachers in Pakistan, teaching Western science to high Tibetan monks who are the next generation of leadership in the Tibetan monasteries, developing soccer coaches to be mentors in Iraq, or working with YPOers through Peace Action Network, we have found that the purest and most powerful kind of charity is helping people who are directly opposite of whom you are. None of our initiatives will immediately change the course of the entire world. Instead, we focus on the tiny granular changes that collectively may be the best solution we have to solve the world’s biggest problems. These concrete baby steps are tangible actions taken by individuals or groups to in some way impact others.

For instance, in 2005 after the devastating earthquake in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan my family and I went there and personally delivered blankets so the people who were left with nothing after the earthquake could survive the harsh winter. We didn’t just give them the equivalent of airplane blankets. We gave them really good blankets. While none of these blankets that we provided addressed global climate change or childhood obesity or a devastating political-religious conflict or any other major problem facing our troubled world, with each blanket we took a step forward. Perhaps that blanket kept an impressionable teenager from feeling bleak and joining Al Qaeda. Perhaps our kindness inspired someone else to go out and help others. By being there and looking the people we were trying to help in the eye we proved to them their self-worth. This initial program took one step further. Due to the tremendous support for this project we were able to convert the funds we raised for blankets into the initial investment in our Pakistan Teacher Training Center initiative.

It is changes like those that will start to address the big issues. In 2005 we took a concrete baby step toward economic justice, a higher standard of living, and rebuilding Pakistan’s educational system. Today we can build on that step. More than anything the Sager Family Foundation is a catalyst for concrete baby steps.