Fengarion: News

Pecha Kucha Night

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:25:12 +0100

On February 21st, 2013, Fengarion did its Pecha Kucha! We had the opportunity to present Fengarion and the value of altruism in our society at the Maison de Quartier in Carouge as part of the 9th Geneva Pecha Kucha Night focusing on the subject of “love”. Not only was this event a great opportunity to bring the Fengarion message to around 100 attendees; but it was also an interesting challenge to prepare the presentation in the specific Pecha Kucha format of 20x20!

What is Pecha Kucha? It was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young architects and designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. Since then, it has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creative minds worldwide. It is free and aspires to be a platform for mutual exchange and enjoyment of ideas. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", Pecha Kucha rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace - images and ideas become performances. More information here.

Presentation charts here

Being helpful

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:41:08 +0200

When the Fukushima nuclear power plant exploded last year, there were maintenance workers who volunteered to re-enter the plant in the full knowledge that they were risking their health and lives.

In May this year, Fengarion was present at the UniCrea Arts and Crafts Show. We talked to over 100 visitors; some of them made donations, the largest one coming from a lady who lives below the poverty line.

A few years ago, I was driving back to Geneva after skiing in Col de la Faucille in Jura. It was a cold evening; the temperature was below zero degrees Celsius and there was plenty of snow around. While driving through Gex in the slow traffic, I noticed something black on the pedestrian area around 200 metres ahead of me. As I got closer, I could distinguish a person lying motionless on the snow, just 2 metres away from the busy road. None of the hundreds of drivers in front of me had stopped their car to help. I pulled over and approached the person, who turned out to be an elderly man who had slipped on the icy ground and was unable to get back up. He had given up trying. I helped him stand up and accompanied him to his home.

After the Asian tsunami in 2004, there was such a massive generosity mobilization that some of the NGOs received more money than they could use.
11th September 2001, fire fighters were going up the stairs to meet their death while helping, calming and reassuring people descending toward the exit.

There are thousands of similar examples. People can be very helpful; they can be also very selfish. So, what is the place of helpfulness in the human condition? Let’s try to define the chain of qualities leading to the act of helping others. The starting point is most probably "empathy", the ability of putting Ourselves in the Shoes of Others. Empathy paves the way for "altruism", a concern for the welfare of others and a motivation to provide something of value to a party who must be anyone but the Self. Altruism provides the grounding for "generosity", which is the habit of giving freely without expecting anything in return. Finally, generosity gives the grounding for people being helpful.

Empathy => altruism => generosity => help

Teachings about generosity and being helpful can be found in all major religions, such as (in alphabetical order) Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Modern Secular Philosophy (Rousseau, Kant). Consequently, one could conclude that generosity is the important part of human nature. However, there has been a time when this was challenged. Darwin's theory of evolution and the concept of natural selection drove some individuals to perceive egoism as the main social force. Herbert Spencer, the 19th century political philosopher, applied what he considered the laws of nature to business. He invented the concept of ‘survival of the fittest' and postulated that it is non-productive that the 'capable' should feel any obligation towards the 'incapable'. So in the 19th and 20th centuries, nature was used to justify and encourage egoism.

Today, the defenders of egoism as the main driving force of nature and humankind encounter more and more difficulties. First of all, excessive egoism in economy and business has now a strong track record of failures. For instance, the belief that egoism is the only driving force of humankind has been applied to manage employees at Enron Corporation. Enron bankrupted after committing unethical and criminal acts. Secondly, the interpretation of evolution as being driven by egoism is no longer factual, as within the last 50 years there has been growing scientific knowledge about help and empathy within several species in nature. Many astonishing examples are described in Frans de Waal’s book 'Age of empathy'. For instance chimpanzees, which cannot swim and are afraid of water, jump into it to try to save the life of another chimpanzee. Or in an experiment run in the 60ies by psychiatrists aiming to observe empathy, small monkeys refused to eat when noticing that each time they had a meal another monkey was administered an electric shock. One monkey stopped eating for 5 days, another for 12 (of course such an experiment would not be allowed be carried out today).

In the article 'Why we help' published in Scientific American in July 2012, Martin A. Nowak discusses how cooperation has been one of the primary architects of evolution. Nowak argues that evolutionary simulations indicate that cooperation is cyclic: after a period of cooperation, defection takes over. Eventually, however, altruism is always restored. Although it is not clear which cycle humanity is now in, let us hope that the time of altruism and generosity is coming. I believe that this is what we need at a time where the world's population has reached 7 billion and natural resources are overstretched.

Georgios Topoulos

References
Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, Being Generous, Templeton Press, USA, 2009
Frans de Waal, L’âge de l’empathie (French translation of « The Age of empathy »), Les liens qui libèrent, France, 2010
Martin A. Nowak, « Why we help », Scientific American, July 2012

Fengarion arrives in Greece

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 21:21:30 +0200

As you maybe aware, the origin of the word “Fengarion” , is from the Greek word “Fengari” meaning moon. The moon has a dark side and light side; thus, it is a parallel to the dark and bright side of human beings. The Fengarion platform is aimed at the brighter side of mankind which is altruism, a concern for the welfare of others and a motivation to provide something of value to a party who must be anyone but the self.

Today, this symbolic relationship with Greece evolves into a tangible activity. After hosting the Swiss, French, English and Polish associations, we begin our co-operation with the first association located in Greece, namely “Doctors of the World Greece”.

For over a year, Greece is hard hit by the economic crisis and we witness an impoverishment of the population. In the region of “Perama” port, located on the outskirts of Piraeus, the situation is particularly difficult. More and more of the Greeks have no longer access to proper medical care and food.

In this context, the Perama Open Polyclinic of the “Doctors of the World Greece” meets a fundamental need which is that of access to basic health care, emergency and medication for the most needy. In addition to medical care, for six months Doctors of the World Greece began distributing food. They discovered that more and more children who came for treatment had empty stomachs, without having anything to eat for more than 24 h.

Fengarion hopes to support the Perama Open Polyclinic through your donations, through the Doctors of the World Greece. We hope to help prevent Perama become the scene of a humanitarian crisis (see the BBC video on this subject).

An Enduro world champion becomes Fengarion's ambassador !

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:36:52 +0200

Juliette BERREZ started riding a motorcycle when she was only 13 years' old. She was also an excellent horse rider and for a long time she was competing in both horse and motorcycle endurance races. In order to compete at world level, she decided in 2007 to focus on motorcycle racing. She raced in the French Enduro championship and in 2009, she was hired as a rider by TM France Motorcycle racing team. In 2010, she competed in the European championships, and for a while was leading it when she won the Polish race, but lost it when she fell and hurt herself in the Portuguese finals. In 2011, she was runner-up in the French championships and was selected for the French National Team to compete in the world championship in Finland where the French team won the World title! Now in 2012, she is competing in the World championships and she has set herself the goal to win the French championship.

On top of her commitment to sport, Juliette would also like to get involved in humanitarian actions. She was impressed by the interactive capability of Fengarion and accepted to become it's ambassador. "Being able to follow the projects that one has chosen to support by receiving directly and regularly reports from the organisations was what attracted me to Fengarion".

In order to spread the notoriety of this Internet platform which acts as a link between donors and the non-profit organisations, Juliette will be wearing in several races in France and Europe the Fengarion colors as well as a specially painted helmet (decorated by Alex Bourdy).

2011 HIGHLIGHTS

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:26:34 +0100

We are now approaching the end of 2011 that was a very exciting year for Fengarion. We are now hosting around 30 non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NGO) from Switzerland, France, Poland and the United Kingdom. The donors who have joined Fengarion are supporting around 50 projects implemented in several countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America and are following their progress thanks to the reporting. We are also celebrating the completion of three projects: “Dispensaire” by SOS Enfants des rues du Vietnam , “Création de puits et d’un périmètre maraîcher” by CEAS and "Ferme biologique" by Nouvelle Planète.

During 2011, we have organised several fundraising events such as two Art Exhibitions “Retour” and “Donating through Painting” by Mireille Caloghiris as well as the participation of DuPont Running Team in the Geneva foot-race “Escalade Run”, in order to support a few projects posted on Fengarion. With all the fundraising events, we managed to raise over CHF 17’000. We have kicked off the in kind donations with DuPont Sontara® to support the project « Maison des Enfants de Kaboul » run by the NGO La Chaîne de l’Espoir. In 2011, Fengarion has increased with new members joining the association and as a result, we will be stronger in 2012 to support both the projects of the NGOs and the promotion of altruism.

We take this opportunity to thank warmly all NGOs that have joined Fengarion for their work for the projects and for reporting on them. We would like also to express our greatest thanks to the donors for their generosity in supporting the projects and to the volunteers for their contribution to Fengarion.

Finally, we are pleased to invite you to the first 2012 Fengarion fundraising event, the art exhibition “ALTERNATIVES” by Mireille Caloghiris to support the projects of the NGO Enfants du Monde and to the opening scheduled for 5th January 2012 at 18h30 in Art & Cadre Gallery, route Suisse, 1290 Versoix (Pl. Charles David 1).

We wish all of you great holidays and a Happy New Year!

Fengarion team

FLYER OF EVENT 'ALTERNATIVES'

RETURN

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:12:25 +0200

Artist, painter and philanthropist Mireille Caloghirisis is exhibiting her works from the 1st to the 11th December 2011 at Villa du Jardin Alpin in Meyrin.
100% of the profit from sale of paintings will be donated to two projects of the NGO Aide et Action :Schooling blind and dumb children in Cambodia and Schooling street children in Laos, Vietnam.
This art show includes watercolours inspired by Mireille's travels abroad and also, for the first time, acrylic paintings on Tyvek(r).

The opening will take place on Thursday 1st December at 6pm.
Commented visits
Sunday 4th and 11th December at 4pm.

Villa du Jardin Alpin, Ch. du Jardin Alpin 7
1217 Meyrin
tel 022 782 32 87

FLYER OF EVENT

East Africa appeal

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:00:49 +0200

By OXFAM UK

Following the failure of the late 2010 rains, large parts of the Horn and East Africa region are facing the world's worst food crisis.More than 10 million people in East Africa are facing desperate food shortages following the worst drought in 60 years. Oxfam's response includes providing urgently needed clean water and feeding families.

Support Oxfam's biggest ever emergency appeal for Africa

See also appeals in Switzerland & France and Poland

First anniversary of Fengarion

Wed, 18 May 2011 10:35:49 +0200

In May 2011, we are celebrating the first anniversary of the platform Fengarion.org. On this occasion, I would like to express my greatest thanks to all volunteers in Switzerland, France, Poland, Germany and Italy who have contributed and go on contributing to Fengarion. I am addressing special thanks to my partner and my two sons without whom Fengarion would not be successful. I would also like to thank very much all the NGOs who have joined us for their trust, cooperation and for providing feedbacks on their projects.

My biggest thanks are to the donors for your generosity and support you provide to the projects posted on Fengarion. I hope you are enjoying the Fengarion way of interacting with the projects and you feel great satisfaction and involved when you read updates on the progress of the projects supported by your donations.

This first anniversary was coexisting with the event of Mireille Caloghiris 'Donating through Painting'. The opening that took place on May 6, 2011 as well as the art show were an excellent way to celebrate this anniversary. With this event, Mireille Caloghiris raised over 9000CHF and I take this opportunity to thank her warmly for both her generosity and for pioneering the Fengarion events.

Again thank you very much to all of you and let’s grow Fengarion!

Georgios Topoulos
President

Donating through Painting

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:14:22 +0100

We are pleased to inform you that it is now possible, from your own profile, to organize and register a fundraising event for selected projects on Fengarion. For example, it can be a concert, a sport event, a reception, an opening prior to an art exhibition or an art sale to support a project on Fengarion.

We take this opportunity to welcome warmly Mireille Caloghiris, a third generation painter whose art has been featured through the world, who has been joining Fengarion recently. Mireille Caloghiris is a philanthropist as well as an artist who donates 100% of the proceeds from sale of her paintings to the selected projects on Fengarion. Mireille Caloghiris fundraising event « Donating through Painting » starts by supporting projects of the following organizations: Enfants du Monde and Aide et Action. In order to buy Mireille Caloghiris paintings, you are invited to attend her opening scheduled for 6th May 2011 at 18h00 in the Charmilles Cultural Centre in Geneva prior to the art show, which will last until 13th May 2011 at 20h00. You can also contact us here.

Early in April 2011, Mireille Caloghiris is planning to offer her book 'World Tour with Four Generations of Artists' in exchange of a donation of 80CH to the project of your choice selected on Fengarion. The books will be signed by the author and delivered free of charge to the donors.

Gift of giving 50CHF !

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 15:25:09 +0100

You may receive the gift of giving 50CHF to make a donation to the project of their choice. This promotion program is valid from 3rd January 2011 for the first 20 new donors. The condition is that a donor must be neither an employee nor a relative of an employee of the organization to which this CHF 50 donation will be given. How does it work? The 20 new donors will proceed on Fengarion as they will be doing a CHF50 donation, with the exception that the payment will be done directly by the Fengarion team to the selected organization on behalf of the new 20 donors. After confirmation of reception of this donation by the organization, both the project and the donation of CHF 50 will appear on the donors profile according to the privacy settings selected by the 20 new donors. For more information on the internet platform www.fengarion.org, please see FAQ. This promotion is financed by the «1'000 USD 2010 DuPont Volunteer Award» received by Georgios Topoulos, the founder of Fengarion. After registering on Fengarion, please send us a message at contact@fengarion.org confirming that you would like to be granted a CHF 50 bonus to support the project of your choice.

TV interview Léman bleu

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:32:08 +0100

On 26th November 2010, Georgios Topoulos, the founder of Fengarion, was invited to participate in the TV Léman bleu program « Le Journal des bonnes nouvelles » presented by David Cuñado, together with Vincent Gall, director of Partage and the singer Azania. The TV program was focusing on concepts of sharing and generosity. Georgios Topoulos outlined the website Fengarion putting the emphasis on the main goals and objectives of the project Fengarion. The Geneva event « Saturday of sharing on 27th November 2010» was introduced by Vincent Gall. Azania presented the organization All as One, which is taking care of orphaned children, victims of the civil war in Sierra Leone and her charity concert on November 28th 2010 dedicated to this organization.

Four months of activity

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:18:22 +0200

Fengarion now has been up and running for four months ! The first organization to join us was FSD (Swiss Foundation for Mine Action). We are very grateful to FSD for their trust, confidence and rapid decision. We are also very grateful to all other NGOs who have joined us and also those who are in the process of doing so. One of the goals of Fengarion is to represent diversity. We already have a great regional diversity, for instance programs in El Salvador in South America by Enfants du Monde, Sudan in Africa by ProAct Network, Philippines in Asia by Entrepreneurs du Monde and Europe locally in Geneva Switzerland by Croix-Rouge genevoise. We already have big diversity in topics, i.e. humanitarian relief, education, development, environment, social care and health. We are also pleased to have diversity in size of organizations. For example we are very happy to have WWF with us, side by side with a smaller NGO such as Graine de Baobab. As Fengarion Association is based in Geneva Switzerland, we started the project locally in French speaking cantons. As we grow, we are starting to extend the scope and now we are pleased to welcome the first NGO from the German speaking cantons, CO:OOPERAID located in Zurich. We also warmly welcome the first NGOs from outside Switzerland, from France, Entrepreneur du Monde and La Chaîne de l’Espoir. Recently we have started contacting NGOs in the UK and Poland. The biggest welcome is to all our donors! Although we have not yet started actively promoting for potential donors we already have over 30 people registered. In terms of platform development we are continuing to make upgrades. We recently added the possibility to write projects in multiple languages. The platform Fengarion is currently only available in French and English, however we have started translations in German, Polish and Italian. In terms of external communication we would like to thank Enfants du Monde for mentioning Fengarion in their news. We also thank the Polish auto rally team Czarnocki-Nowowiejski who agreed to partner with Fengarion in order to promote our concept and our values. Within the next couple of months we will focus on promoting the platform and getting the existence of Fengarion known to a larger audience of potential private donors. We will put the emphasis on the three key aspects which are of big concern to several donors and for which Fengarion provides a solution: 1. know where your donations go 2. get feedback from projects 3. feel involved We also rely on each and everyone of you to spread the word and we thank you very much for your support.

Fengarion is born !

Sun, 09 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

We have great pleasure in announcing the start up of the Fengarion project. After several months of concept development and programming of the web site, we are ready. Fengarion aims to change the relationship between donors and organizations. It will be greatly beneficial for both. Donors will be able to easily select specific projects they want to support and have all donations documented in one place. Organizations will be able to greatly extend their supporters network. One of the goals of Fengarion is to promote sustainable donations. Generosity is known for being driven by emotions. This was apparent after the Asian tzunami in 2004 or recently after the Haiti earthquake. In both cases there was a very strong mobilization of private donors during the period of media coverage when we were profoundly affected by what we saw. Then, as media moved on to other subjects donations rapidly decreased. Fengarion will allow donors to stay connected with projects long after media coverage stops. Such relationship between donors and projects are beneficial not only for maintaining a high level of empathy from donors whose everyday priorities are in different areas but also for those who have a strong interest in supporting humanitarian projects but feel there is a lack of visibility between donations and final results. Another objective of Fengarion is to promote responsible donations. Responsible donating occurs when a donor follows through his donation, for example by being informed about the progress of a project from start to finish. This will be a straight forward practice with fengarion.org as reports from projects will be accessible directly from the donor's profile. So, welcome to Fengarion and enjoy it !