Hi everybody,
I would like to use this opportunity to welcome you all to the new Blog of the Novak Djokovic Foundation. We’ve been all working very hard in the past months to make it happen so let me share with you the idea behind.
Through our work, we’ve been constantly asked “What is it that you do exactly?“, or “How do you help people/children?“ or “What can I do to help you?“ and many more similar questions. But you get the point. People want to know. People want to help. It is not always the question of money, there are many ways we can contribute and help and influence other people’s lives.
This is the purpose of creating the NDF blog. We want to share with you all of our findings, all the things that can inspire you, show you how other people do it, show you how we do it and why, recommend you the best practices, open up this whole new world to you. We are not alone in this world, and our purpose is far beyond just paying monthly bills and living for the next vacation.
In the era of social media and internet, you can find everything you are curious about – by yourself. The only problem is – there is so many information out there that we can get lost, and at the end we won’t know what is true and what isn’t.
There are so many people today watching Reality Shows and TV Novellas just to get away from reality. Yes, with all the hard work we do and the stress of everyday life, we do need to make a break and watch something to distract us. It is normal. I started thinking with my team about Reality Show in a different way. What if we can share with you the reality we face by doing charity work? What are the good sides and the bad sides? Share with you as many video materials and photos as we can… make you see through the eyes of the Novak Djokovic Foundation.
What if sometimes during the day/week you tune in here, and find some useful information about the education of the child, or nutrition, or what good and inspiring happened somewhere in the world, or how to complete a project for the benefit of the community…. wouldn’t that be more meaningful? What if spending a portion of your time here will inspire you to help somebody or many people? What if here you can learn and find tools to help you make a difference? Doesn’t that sound more attractive?
The truth is, we have this one life that we were given. In this one life, we have many opportunities to do good, to make a difference. Why should we be framed to believe that because we are not born into wealth, we cannot achieve big goals? Novak is a true example that you CAN and you WILL succeed if you work hard. He was not born into a wealthy family. He was not even born in a free country. Almost all the odds were against him. And there were not many people who offered a hand to him or his family on his way to the top. Believe it or not, he was just this random kid from the neighborhood who happened to be at the right place (on the mountain Kopaonik) at the right time (when workers were building a tennis court).
We always tell children and families to DREAM BIG. If you don’t, the chances of you doing something big in your life are quite slim. Actually, the chances are that you won’t even be motivated at times to get out of your bed in the morning, let alone changing the world.
We believe we can change the world by starting this blog, believe it or not.
We believe that every single one of you who join us in our mission, will make us one step closer to achieving our dream.
Philanthropy is team work. Each one of you can contribute. We all can help each other. We all can learn from each other.
We will share here all the useful information for families, parents, children, professors, neighbors. Information we find, the information you send us.
And we promise you, it will not be easy. Making a change is not easy, but that will not discourage us.
You will see that money cannot buy everything, and even if you have money, there is a big probability that it won’t be enough to achieve exactly what you wanted. The project you were hoping to finish in time, or the effect you were hoping to achieve… Remember how building your own house, or redecorating your own apartment, office…can be hard and sometimes impossible? But that doesn’t stop you from doing it.
We raise the money through our charity events. We want to put it into good use. We have good intentions. Sometimes good intentions and money are not enough. We need people. We need communities to join us and help us. We need children to want to learn. We need parents who want to educate their children. We need books, inspired professors to transfer the knowledge, healthy food that can give these children energy to last through the day and grow. We need lots of LOVE. And faith.
And we need you. To spread the word. To show us what you know. And believe with us that we can change this world to be a better place not just for us. But for future generations.
We are not alone. We are a team. NDF team.
Welcome to our blog!
Lots of love,
Jelena Ristic
Executive Director of Novak Djokovic Foundation