Back in 2016, when we were planning our first Board of Knowledge 5 teachings, we came up with the idea of donating part of our income from that activity to selected — officially recognised — Greek charities. Greece was still in turmoil, economically and financially, and most people had suffered severe set-backs during the preceding 4 years of EU-imposed austerity.
We had already been authorised to offer a 45% reduction on the fee for all the Board trainings to my students in Greece, in view of their economic hardship, but what about all the people in Greece that were not our students and that were even worse of?
As we were tossing ideas between us, me and my hubby, rejecting some, keeping others, we soon settled on about a further 45% of that reduced income from Board 5 to be donated. We had a shortlist of 3 Greek charities that we wanted to donate the money to.
Then it struck us that we could do so much better, involving my students, raising awareness of the plight of those even more unfortunate than them, motivating them to chose and actively support charity work in their own surroundings. We extended the shortlist of charities that were all operating within the Greek national borders, recognised by the government, because we explicitly wanted to target those people in Greece that had it hard, while at the same time keeping the process of managing that within reasonable bounds.
So we made a deal with our students, in that they would pay about 55% of the reduced course fees to me directly at the start of a training course, and pay the remaining 45% within 3 months to a charity of their choosing, to be selected from this (now) extended list of officially recognised Greek charities.
And so it happened. To cut this already-too-long story short, we are pleased to report that up to a
has been donated by our students to the following charities. In the chart you can mouse-over the pies to see the amounts donated. There is a table next giving the absolute amounts as well. At the bottom there is a chart showing the progress of donations over time. Enjoy!