Welcome!

Welcome! I'm glad you're here, and thank you for joining us on this long and beautiful journey.

Please, make yourself at home. There is so much in here to see and experience, and I can't wait to show you around. But before we get to that, there's something I'd like to share with you about why this place exists.

You see, I have come to believe that one of the most amazing, and perhaps most overlooked, things about being human is that we are never quite as self-sufficient as we might appear.

We all have our moments of strength and our moments of vulnerability.

There are times when we have the means, the knowledge, the experience, and the ability to make things happen for ourselves and others. And there are times when, despite everything we know and everything we have overcome, we still find ourselves needing a hand.

Sometimes we are the ones extending it. Sometimes we are the ones reaching for it.

And no matter how capable, independent, or seemingly infallible we may be, none of us is beyond needing someone at some point in our lives.

You don't even have to have made a mistake for that day to come. Sometimes life just happens. A frightening diagnosis you could not have prevented. A war you could not stop. A flood. A job lost when the business closed. A fight someone else started. It can come without warning, and just like that, you are facing something you don't know how to solve.

I don't think there is anything diminishing about that. If anything, I think it is one of the things that connects us. Life happens to all of us, differently, and it hurts each of us in our own way.

That is what being human is. Happiness and sadness, pain and pleasure come to each of us at different times and in different amounts, and each of them, at times, as strongly as we can feel anything.

But lucky for us, most paths have been walked before, by others, and sometimes by our younger selves. I can't think of any hardship without a history. Even the most frightening things we can imagine, a world war, a famine, a pandemic, have been lived through by people, some of whom are still alive today. And when a hardship lasted longer than one lifetime, the generations after kept going, until their grandchildren carried only its memory, and no longer its pain.

The most beautiful thing about being one of many humans is that we don't have to go through any of it alone.

It is also why I believe empathy and compassion matter so much. The ability to recognise something of another person's experience, to imagine what they might be going through, and to care enough to do something about it.

Not out of pity. Not because we consider ourselves better positioned in life. And certainly not because we expect something in return.

Simply because their place could have been ours, and because their possibilities matter, too.

And it doesn't matter what kind of pain it is. One person has lost a parent in a war. Another has just been told they have cancer. Another has lost the business they spent years building. Another is living with HIV after an attack they could not stop. Each of them is hurting, and no one's pain is smaller than anyone else's. What matters is not where the pain came from, or how much of it there is. What matters is that someone is going through it, and that is what moves us to act.

And let me tell you a secret. None of us here has fully "made it", if there is even such a thing as "making it" in life. We are all carrying something, and we all have to divide our time and what we have between many things. So the people who can offer someone, or you, a chance are no better than you. We are simply other humans, from the other side of this global village, who have a little more to share and have consciously decided to do so.

I have been so fortunate in my lifetime that life has handed me chance after chance, in the sunny seasons and the stormy ones, and I have never forgotten how much a little help, arriving at the right moment, can mean.

And that made me think about all the possibilities that might remain just beyond someone's reach, not because they lack the ability or the determination, but because something small is missing.

A fee. A tool. A skill. An introduction. An opportunity. And sometimes, just the right person showing up at the right time.

And I began wondering:

What becomes possible when someone gets that missing piece?

What happens when a person, with a hand from another, gets to take that next step?

Where might they go? What might they build? What might they become? And what might the rest of us discover along the way?

And most importantly, what becomes possible when I join hands with you to help someone take that next step?

That curiosity, together with a profound belief in human potential and a conviction that empathy should move us into compassionate action, is what inspired me to create Donum Foundation.

We don't rescue anyone. We open a door.

We may help make the next step possible, but the person takes it. Their journey remains theirs. We don't presume to know what they should make of their opportunity, and we certainly don't claim to know everything that might come from it.

That's part of what makes it so wonderful.

We do this because we care. Because we believe in people. Because we are curious about what is possible when they get the opportunity to find out for themselves.

And no one owes us anything for that.

Not a repayment. Not a promise to give back. Not even a promise to succeed.

A chance is not a debt, and generosity should never become an obligation.

We simply believe that helping someone move towards what is possible is worthwhile in itself.

That curiosity begins with us. And now, it goes forth with you.

Because Donum is not just about the chances we give. It is also about the people, stories, experiences, ideas, and possibilities that come together around them.

And there are many ways to be part of that. So let me show you around. Think of this place as a home. There are different rooms, different conversations, different stories, and different ways to participate.

You can read about people, their journeys, the moments that shaped them, and what life taught them.

You can listen to their stories, or perhaps lend your own voice to someone else's, as a narrator.

You can tell what life has taught you, in good times or hard ones, or tell it for someone close to you.

You can thank someone whose kindness, generosity, or simple presence made a difference in your life, in the Donum Thank You Challenge.

You can remember those who came before you and the lives that made yours possible, in the Donum Ancestor Challenge.

You can start your own next step, plan it one action at a time, and check in as you go.

You can promise yourself or someone else that you will keep going, keep trying, or see something through, with a Donum Chance Pledge.

You can give what you have to give. Money, time, knowledge, experience, a skill, a tool, an introduction, or something you may never have considered valuable until someone else needed it. Every way to give is here.

You can meet the chances, see what happened after every gift, and find ways to work with us.

Or you can simply explore.

There is no particular way you have to arrive here. You don't need to have everything figured out, and you don't need to come bearing something to give.

You might be here because you believe in what we're doing. You might be here because something caught your attention. You might be looking for a chance yourself. If you are, start with your next step, and we'll walk with you from there.

Whatever brought you here, you're welcome.

Take your time. Wander around. Discover what speaks to you.

If you'd like us to write to you when there are new stories, new recordings, new challenges, new chances to give, or new letters like this one, choose which emails you get.

Our first chances are on their way, and so is a way for you to give towards them. We will follow up every gift we give, and tell you what happened, including the chances that did not hold. No sugar-coating, just the truth, here in the Journal and on our Results page.

And if you find something that makes you curious, follow it. We are only beginning to discover what Donum can become, and what might become possible through it.

I hope you'll be part of that discovery.

Pull up a chair. There's room for you at this table.

Welcome to Donum Foundation.

May each of us be a gift to the people we love, and to the people we will never meet.

Amen.

With a warm and grateful heart,

Joel Kirabo