0:00 i walked over to that little boy just to basically inquire or say hello and you 0:05 know when you look into someone's eyes and you can see um well it tells you tells you a lot about someone's health I 0:11 suppose when you look into the eyes when I looked into this little boy's eyes um I just 0:16 saw emptiness there was soullessness almost like there was nothing there 0:22 um his light in life was look after this goat and um and I guess he saw all the 0:28 other children or a lot of the other children uh walking to school um getting educated he wasn't one of those children 0:34 that got that opportunity his lot in life was to look after this goat and I look like I said when I looked into his eyes it's just there's an image that 0:40 still still sits with me right now and it's an image that keeps me going I suppose and um is that this boy who had 0:48 no [Music] 0:55 hope welcome to the Debt to Financial Freedom podcast i'm your host Victor 1:00 Lagos i'm also the founder and CEO of Lagos Financial a residential and 1:07 commercial finance brokerage where our mission is to help good people become 1:12 wealthy to help wealthy people do more good in the world so today is a is a 1:19 special episode because um Grant Chug who is my guest is exactly 1:26 that he's someone that is doing good in the world that has actually created uh 1:32 personal wealth for himself over the years and we're not here to talk about his personal wealth but we are here to 1:38 talk about the good that he's doing in the world so um I'll just do a quick intro so Grant Chug he's a managing 1:45 director of Granch Chug Plumbing in LCS and he's a passionate humanitarian 1:52 he's dedicated over 31 years to the plumbing industry where he built his business from the ground up after 1:58 starting as an apprentice grant serves as a vice chair on the master plumbers association board 2:05 and has built a diversified business operating operations that include Grant 2:10 Chug plumbing um specializing in different divisions for gas bathroom 2:16 renovations and uh solar solutions he's also the founder of the smart living center in invet which specializes in 2:23 sustainable home solutions including solar power uh heating cooking and 2:28 skylights in 2017 Grant's life took a meaningful turn 2:34 when he joined an expos an exposure trip to Burundi and Africa with villages of 2:40 life this experience helped him discover his deeper purpose beyond business 2:45 success today we're going to hear about Grant's humanitarian work and his current efforts to provide immediate aid to 2:54 50,000 displaced pe uh people from the uh Congo in Burundi at the moment so he 3:00 lives in Tasmania with Sheree his wife of 31 years and he's a proud father of 3:05 three adult children and a grandfather to one welcome Grant thank you Victor 3:11 how's that intro sounds very very impressive sounds a little bit like me though you've you've done your research 3:17 so look bit of background um so Grant and I have known each other now what 3:23 probably coming up to a couple of years now couple of years yeah yeah we're in the same networking group and I've always kind of looked up to you because 3:29 you know I've known that you're kind of one of the seniors in the group and um and you're you're a seasoned business 3:35 owner and everyone knows you yeah i guess um being in the same town for um 3:41 30 odd years um people get to know and trust the brand I suppose and and um you 3:47 are the longevity I suppose in this area and expertise that people look to especially in the plumbing side of 3:52 things yeah and you mentioned that you've always been sort of passionate about about plumbing what drew you to 3:58 that in the first place oh it was actually working at a friend's house and 4:03 they were this was probably when I was only 14 and um they were building a new house and the plumber having to be there 4:09 with with my mate and the the plumber on site just asked me whether he wanted to give give him a hand and um probably 4:15 want some cheap labor for the day and actually enjoyed it and uh I guess from there I never wavered from it like all 4:21 through school people were searching out careers as to what they wanted to do for me I knew what I wanted to do so as soon 4:26 as I left left school um got an apprenticeship um did that for four 4:32 years did another four years with that company and then I guess somebody um pat you on the 4:38 back and just say "Look you're pretty good at this why don't you go out on your own and give it a go?" So yeah 31 years ago that's what we did and um and 4:45 still um this day still enjoy the industry giving back in that area like like you said in the intro the Master 4:52 Plumbers Association is a way of serving the um the industry and and setting some 4:57 of the standards that we uh we enjoy today but um but I don't know it's it's nice to have a a goal and just sit to it 5:05 and nothing gets in the way of it and and nothing has drawn me away from from that plumbing industry i still enjoy it 5:11 to today yeah yeah and I guess being you know there's a difference between being the technician which is the actual 5:17 plumber doing the work and being the business owner and managing people and growing teams and expanding have you 5:25 found that to be more of the interesting part of the plumbing game absolutely i 5:30 mean I've always had an interest in people uh I guess if you want to try and build a team you can't do that unless you have an interest in the in your 5:37 staff and your and your team and building into them obviously I have a very um interest in the clients as well 5:43 and making sure that the client has a great journey um from their engagement with us but um to be honest this is 5:50 probably one of my other passions is that I actually do enjoy engaging with other business owners especially in the 5:55 trades area because again as a tradey you're good with your hands and um and 6:01 the paperwork the book work the accountability side of things is something that you uh aren't good at and 6:07 um and it's a very important part of business if you don't have your books in order and and managing your finances 6:12 then um your business won't be very successful and a lot of people again especially trades who go out there and 6:18 work on the tools um don't pay much attention to that side of it and that was certainly my case um there was 6:24 plenty of times where I just had no clue about the finances in the business and didn't care to be honest i was more 6:30 happy with the operations just quoting a job winning a job and making the client happy and uh and if the money wasn't 6:35 there I wasn't too concerned which might sound strange being in business for that long but to be honest it's probably only 6:42 been the last 5 years where I've really got some um business coaching that's 6:47 helped me in that area and from there it's really transformed u my business and also the way that I look at business 6:53 and how um the numbers do tell a story and if the numbers um you look at the 6:58 trends you look at where it's happening happening and where it's where the things are dipping how you can head that off rather than just being totally 7:05 reactionary you can now be proactive and you can pull the levers in different parts of your business to um combat 7:10 those so it's really important to u understand that but I think I have got 7:16 um my next journey I suppose will be probably to be helping trades to um understand the importance of all of the 7:23 things that you need to do to run a successful business yeah no I love that you know because uh the reason I started 7:29 this podcast is is to educate people because that's what we need we need more education it's cool they don't teach you 7:35 the fundamentals of of money of debt of saving of investing of business um 7:43 really people skills management all the things you actually need in life they don't teach you that no absolutely like 7:49 I went to plumbing school and learned plumbing and then I started a business but had no business training had and no 7:55 one taught me that so it's just one of those things where you think you could just go and do but uh it's like another 8:01 another degree in a way learning learning business and um yeah and unfortunately in our trade sector then 8:08 we don't get get taught any of that we just get get taught the practical the what it takes to do the plumbing side of 8:14 it but not the not the business but all these people decide to go into business and I was one of those who had had no 8:20 clue and um fumbled your way through it for many years and uh like I said until recently that actually got a handle on 8:27 on what what it what it is to know the numbers of the business and when you do then that's the where it gets exciting 8:33 that's running a business and um like I said pulling those levers to make that 8:38 change that's the um that just gives you a whole sense of um choice and freedom 8:44 and um control that you that you now have that it's always been there but if 8:49 you're not aware of it then you you don't um you don't know what to do with it yeah definitely yeah you use the word 8:56 lever and that's where the word leverage comes from right yeah lever leverage and 9:01 to be able to pull those levers at will essentially and and know what um what 9:07 the cause and effect relationship is right whether it's doing more marketing whether it's you know bringing in you 9:13 know hiring a you know sales manager or all these things that actually you know free up more time uh but actually grow 9:21 the business significantly right yeah no absolutely if you've got if you can master um your time um your finances 9:29 sales and marketing operations and your team they're the five pillars that we focus on if you can master those five u 9:37 they all interact with each other of course but if you can know what each one of those um barometers are telling you 9:43 then you can again like I said pull a lever to if you need more sales then um 9:48 you can pull that lever in the marketing side of things and if you need more team or less team then your finances will 9:54 tell you whether that's possible or not um so it's all inter interconnected but if you know what each one's telling you 10:01 then you can be in control of that and uh I guess when you when you say levers 10:07 that it is leverage um I sort of refer levers to um like an excavator you 10:14 sitting in the seat uh you got a couple of levers in front of you if you pull a lever then it it will move something or 10:20 if you push a lever it will move something so um but if you don't touch it then it won't do anything so you have 10:25 to do you have to pull it or push it whatever you wanted to do but you choose if you've got the information you can say I can actively do that and that will 10:33 affect that um but if you're not aware of that then you just sit there and let 10:38 it all happen around you but you're not actually uh not not making that change no that's a great analogy because I 10:44 think anyone well a lot of people in business who are good at their craft they end up becoming I guess they 10:52 end up just spinning the wheels every day right do the same thing over and over and then expecting a different 10:57 result yeah there's a definition for that mentality right 11:03 but I think the coaching side is is really important right so as much as you have um you know you've mentioned that 11:10 you want to mentor other other trades but you've also been coached so to me that looks like the the natural thing 11:16 about you know the the nature of the universe right it's it's giving and it's receiving so you've been you've received 11:23 and now you're at a place where you want to give yeah even like you started from the from the start that you looked up to 11:29 me whether that I'm not sure exactly why but whether I mean sometimes it can be just age you know age will give you a 11:35 certain degree of respect or notoriety you know I mean if you're a teenager then not not so much so you know I mean 11:42 just age is not something that respect comes your way um and if you stick to something for a long period of time then 11:48 people also look at that and say okay there's um predictability there's u durability u that you've actually stuck 11:55 it out and you've worked through that so um but again it gives you a platform to 12:01 to speak off of if you um if people are looking to you and when I say that if 12:06 you are a teenager yeah people are still looking to you there's still people that are younger than you still looking up to you so you don't want to forget that 12:12 either but essentially as we get older then older you get then the more 12:17 knowledge wisdom that you've probably collected along the way and and if you're a younger person they're the 12:22 people that you need to be around to to gain understanding and and it's always the chiefest lessons is to learn it off 12:28 someone else rather than learning the lessons yourself so if you can um step over that that pitfall rather than 12:34 stepping into it because someone has told you to step then um through through there stepping into plenty of those pit 12:41 holes then then you're going to be um a lot more successful and not have the hurt and and the financial stress of 12:49 some of some of the holes that you can sometimes step into yeah yeah no that's that's really good and it's true if 12:54 someone has you know learned the lessons through trial and error and they're 13:00 willing to share those lessons with you without any real um agenda of wanting 13:07 something back of course you know time is money for everyone and I think there's a there's a thing around um you 13:13 know it's got to be mutually beneficial but I think as as humans we get we get a 13:20 positive feeling when we can make a positive impact in someone else's life 13:26 and and I feel like that is enough a lot of the time absolutely it is you know 13:32 what I mean it's um again that comes with a bit of age too i think in sometimes when you're younger the 13:37 striving and the the wanting to be use somebody potentially as a leg up to get 13:42 further up the ladder or whatever when you get a bit older that none of that really matters anymore like you actually become secure in your own self and what 13:50 you've your achievements maybe or where you are as a person that um I don't need to be dependent or relying on what other 13:57 people think of me you actually have proven to yourself and others that I am 14:03 who I am and you yeah insecurity then disappears uh and I can think security comes from not wanting sharing 14:09 information because you don't want someone else to get a leg up on you or gain that information but um when you 14:15 get a little bit older I think you think well no if I can help uh a younger person starting out in business or life 14:22 or journey or whatever they're wanting to know then um then it's why wouldn't 14:27 you want to hold that information back you know and um obviously some people 14:32 still might want to but for me if you can pass that on then uh and you can see somebody else be propelled um yeah and 14:40 you're connected or part of that then that's that almost another part of giving back that makes you feel good 14:45 that you've you've helped somebody and I think you know me looking up to you was a combination 14:51 of knowing like what you said you've been in business for a long time um you've got a lot of respect within the 14:57 community um and And I think there's a certain calm demeanor that you have 15:03 about you that um you know you're not sort of stressed out and a lot of people 15:10 in business who have been in business for a long time are tired they don't they don't they've lost that spark and I 15:16 feel like your spark is not only is your spark not out but it's ignited in other 15:21 directions and I guess that's where I wanted to ask you about is like how did like 2017 you get invited to go you know 15:29 to to Africa by an organization called Villages of Life firstly what made you 15:35 want to go along in the first place what was going through in your mind at that time and 15:40 secondly what what did that do for you when you went on that trip yeah um when 15:45 you talk about life and spark and what have you um 2017 was I guess a time in 15:51 my life where I've been doing business for 20 odd years and I was getting a bit bored with it um when I say a bit bored 15:58 with it I was a bit bored of just doing the same rinse and repeat again I didn't have the knowledge of finances and 16:03 understanding of running a business back then it was really just quoting a job um 16:08 making the operations work and collecting the money at the end of it and it was rinse and repeat and um whilst I enjoyed it was just becoming a 16:15 little bit tired and and I thought what's there's got to be more to it than this you know I mean what is it that 16:22 business is supposed to be about and for me I didn't 16:27 know 2016 um I made a New Year's resolution um New 16:32 Year's Eve and I'm not big on New Year's resolutions i don't think I've made one since um but the New Year's resolution 16:37 was to say yes to some things uh I think in life uh again things were passing me by there's some things that you can't do 16:44 uh anymore those things have gone but um rather than saying one day I'll get around to it one day I'll do that um I 16:52 was going to be a bit more intentional about doing things and saying yes uh it was the very next morning um a good 16:58 friend of mine um Ted came up to me and said I'm going to um Africa place called 17:04 Bundi do you want to come and without even knowing thinking I just said yes 17:10 and uh it wasn't until I got home that I did some research on this place called 17:15 Bundi which I'd never even heard of before and and even Africa I had no desire to go to Africa but I just said 17:21 yes to something that I had no clue what I was saying yes to so uh I guess I I I 17:27 did that and I'm glad that I did um I think I was just being prepared for that 17:32 time to say yes and then stepped into uh a journey that's has that's has truly 17:37 change the way I see life and and um and business as well so um yeah went went on 17:44 uh a journey um with no agenda other than just to go and have a look um join 17:50 the team with Ted there was 17 other of us that went um as it turned out they had bought some land and they wanted me 17:58 to do some irrigation on that land so uh I guess I had a purpose for going or reason for going but that's not why I 18:05 said yes to that came afterwards i said yes for no other reason than just to go um but yeah went there and um and did 18:13 the uh our first irrigation scheme in in Burundi uh was nothing very elaborate it wasn't uh wasn't like all these center 18:20 pivot type irrigation schemes it was just a a fire pump with some heavy droplet sprinklers on a uh on some stars 18:27 but uh to see grown men run underneath sprinklers um which they' never seen 18:32 before in their life um was something I won't forget but um I I 18:37 guess that was the start of especially in Burundi um a little bit 18:44 of context with Bundi bundi is um sits below Rwanda it's a very small country 18:50 it's only about half the size of Tasmania it has the population of Australia so it's very heavily densely 18:56 populated it's the that's the most heavily densely populated country in Africa um and it's the second poorest 19:02 country in the world so the um the poverty and need is is quite high but um 19:07 just to paint you a bit of a picture Bundi is a tropical oasis um there's water everywhere there's ground that can 19:13 grow and you think there's sunshine all the time m um so there's no there's nothing missing as far as growing food 19:20 and crops uh yet there's people starving everywhere and you think how does this 19:26 how's this even possible and um so again as a business owner the I guess you look 19:32 at opportunities and potential everywhere and there was opportunities potential everywhere in that country and that's what drew me to it and I suppose 19:39 even doing that first irrigation scheme um it's like going back they haven't 19:44 even gone through the industrial revolution yet like everything is done manually um there's all manual over for 19:51 everything if we want to dig out foundations for a school then um 100 people will turn up with their picks and 19:57 hose and start start digging and um if you want to go quicker then you just get another 50 or 100 people and you dig it 20:03 quicker you know what I mean so uh even machinery like excavations excavators or 20:09 um there's just very few of those in the country and um so yeah and it's all 20:14 manual labor it's no um there's no machines mixing concrete there's no concrete plants there's just people 20:20 would cut rocks on their heads um people will cut water up from the stream and they'll start mixing concrete on the 20:25 side it's just um it's quite unusual to step back in in time in 20:31 a way when you go to some of these countries so um but yeah it's certainly 20:37 um sparked my desire that uh here I am i've got opportunity to create wealth 20:43 with my business um how can I help how 20:48 can I do something um and I guess for us then yeah being part of villages of life 20:54 is where where that journey started so villages of life we talked about 21:01 education their focus is actually to uplift um children so that they have a 21:07 proper education and they can get themselves out of out of poverty yeah that's exactly right i guess when 21:12 villages life started it started with an orphanage um from there they uh they build a school um and then in order to 21:20 sustain the orphanage they um purchase farmland and that's where I came in with the irrigation side of things but the uh 21:28 whilst orphanages are are great and needed whilst um farming projects are great and needed uh education is what we 21:35 deem to be the most important aspect of of growing a a country and pulling that 21:42 country out of the hole that they're in is through education uh again that's and 21:48 our part in that is that we uh raise funds and awareness to build schools so 21:53 we're not part of the running of the schools um we're purely there as a hand up to um for the construction of these 21:59 schools and then from there they they can run these schools so the schools are a private school so they're fee paying 22:05 students that go to the school that's where the sustainability comes into it but essentially villages of life gives 22:11 them the hand up that need that they don't have as far as building infrastructure um our partnership then 22:17 is uh at that point we step away from that and then they step into running the schools and that's their their their 22:24 party in this and it is a partnership it's very it's a very key key word is 22:30 that word partnership um we're not very very careful not to be seen to be donors 22:36 there's a if you're a donor then it's almost like you continue to um put down somebody like here's my donation it's 22:42 like a uh a wealthy person actually saying to a poor person here's here's my money um that's not what we're about 22:49 even though we are bringing money to the table but we're very much um we're partnering with you obviously if we 22:55 build the school and there's no partnership to run the school um I go back every year um not to check in on 23:02 them but it's basically to celebrate that the school's still running and there's still children being educated um 23:08 and that's through that partnership that that's happening um and they um a few years back we just understood 23:14 the full meaning of that partnership because for many years they just been treated in this African communities that 23:19 we work in they've been treated as donors and it's just like it's another level of oppression and they lived their 23:24 whole life being oppressed um by one country or another one organization than 23:30 another so to someone to come along and say we actually want to basically put arm in arm and partner with each other 23:37 that empowers them they've got their part to play and even with our schools they come with a business plan where we 23:43 don't build a full school um I guess the areas that we work with um our name as it suggests is is villages of life so we 23:50 tend to work in the villages we don't normally work in the um in the cities so we go out to the outlying areas where 23:56 the poverty is probably at its highest and we partner with in country organizations but there's no point 24:02 putting a full school there because there's no uneducated past grade three anyway so we build the school up to 24:09 grade three so we include um pre prep and kinder and and then enough classroom 24:14 so that gets them to grade three so they can then grow into the school but it is up to them to put some of the tuition 24:20 money aside to into our building fund so that when they the kids progress through 24:26 and they need another classroom then they've got enough money to build their own classroom and they keep building their own school um so it enables us to 24:33 build more schools but also enables them to grow into their own school and that's their uh responsibility and that's our 24:40 partnership that goes with the business plan as to how they build their own school but they just need that initial 24:45 hand up is which is what we we provide yeah and now that's really good to hear it from that perspective because 24:51 sometimes yeah people don't want to create a dependency right that hand up versus um hand out right yeah and 24:58 handouts don't help anyone right no sometimes handouts are needed um but the 25:03 hand up is the is what is what we're about you know I mean it's um it's like that whole 25:10 scenario where you can uh you can catch a fish and give someone a fish or you can teach them to fish this is basically 25:17 um we provide ing infrastructure so that you can fish um you've got everything that you need that you can then teach 25:23 the children and then those children will become educated they will get good jobs um it will break that circle of 25:30 poverty uh and brings hope um I I was in 25:36 northern Rwanda um with a couple of other board members looking at a school site this was back in 2021 I think it 25:43 might have been and u we were just walking across the land and we had the plans there and mapping out where we're going to build this school and I w I 25:49 walked over to um over to the fence cuz this little boy was um was sitting there and he had a goat um he was looking 25:55 after a bit of string around the goat's leg and that was his that was his job for the day um probably for the year to 26:01 be honest um I walked over to that little boy just to basically inquire or say hello and you 26:09 know when you look into someone's eyes and you can see um well it tells you tells you a lot about someone's health I 26:14 suppose when you look into the eyes when I looked into this little boy's eyes um I just 26:19 saw emptiness there was soullessness almost like there was nothing there um 26:26 his light in life was to look after this goat and um and I guess he saw all the 26:32 other children a lot of the other children uh walking to school um getting educated he wasn't one of those children 26:38 that got that opportunity his lot in life was to look after this goat and I looked like I said when I looked into his eyes it's just there's an image that 26:44 still still sits with me right now and it's an image that keeps me going I suppose and um is that this boy who had 26:52 no hope and it's one of the saddest images you can see as a child who's four years old say uh with no hope and uh so 27:01 the next year we went back um that particular school was coming up out of the ground and all the kids uh were 27:07 sitting around the um the construction fence and we went over to the kids again and um and all the kids um were very 27:14 very different they um the kids we were asking what um what 27:20 do you want to do when you grow up um so the the narrative was when I grow up I want to be and it went from last year 27:28 from hopelessness despair to when I grow up I want to be and and then the 27:35 following year when we went back and the school was opened so that particular school opened last year in September in northern Rwanda um there was 85 kids in 27:44 that school now who have just started and they're on their journey of realizing that dream of when I grow up 27:49 you want to be so again that's the in a nutshell that's what education brings um it takes you from a a place of 27:56 hopelessness um like this little kid I mean I'm not sure if you've been to 28:02 Rwanda or not but Rwanda is just um it's known for um country of a thousand hills 28:08 there's no flat land in Rwanda it's just hills everywhere um this little boy wouldn't have known what was on the other side of the hill there's no world 28:14 view there's no I wonder what's they bought a Uganda like it's 28:20 only 30 km away he wouldn't know that you know I mean there's so much education that if you don't have it 28:26 there's no I mean opportunity to dream opportunity to see what's out there well that's not given to them because my 28:33 little world is looking after a goat on the end of that bit of rope and that's what I got to look after you know what I mean and when I grow up I might get to 28:40 ho a paddic or I might get to look after two goats or more goats you know I And that's their that's their lot in life 28:47 and um and I've had the privilege I suppose to travel quite a few countries and and that resto that story is 28:53 repeated in in many countries where um they just do what their mom or their 28:58 parents show them to do which is normally farming or laboring type work so that's their lot in life with 29:06 no understanding what's on the other side of that that hill and that's when you bring education then obviously 29:13 education will teach you a whole lot more than what's on the other side of the hill it will give you that opportunity to dream and to be something 29:19 that you never had the opportunity to do before yeah yeah that's amazing yeah i 29:24 never really thought like when you said that about looking in a kid's eyes and 29:29 literally have no hope it's like we don't actually know what it's like to not have hope because when we're born in 29:35 a western world Yeah we just we're always hoping for something right even if it's for um for some snacks that your 29:42 parents bring home to you right i hope she brought something nice or I hope I get a good present at Christmas or 29:48 there's always some hope for something because you know that life is full of good surprises but if if you're in um 29:55 Bundi or or Rwanda or countries like this and you don't have anything ever 30:01 like no this is the this is why I go back every year is just to get another fresh hit of perspective and that's what 30:10 it brings to you you um we quite often say like uh I didn't get a choice you 30:16 didn't get a choice where you were born and they didn't get a choice where they're born um but with where we born 30:22 we've being given certain privileges certain uh opportunities in life um the the question that we need to 30:29 answer ourselves and everyone needs to answer is what are we going to do with those opportunities um how do we make 30:35 the most of those opportunities but if you don't have perspective then your perspective is just around around you 30:40 again we are educated people but we're only educated in our own true in our own 30:45 lane i suppose if you take yourself out of that and you see um another person's 30:51 perspective then you realize okay I've been given an opportunity in life to to affect change um like we talked about we 30:58 can pull a lever and we can um and we can change some things so um and that's 31:03 where when you have perspective then uh and for me I need to keep it fresh 31:08 because it it does get dim and gets dim but going back and makes it very much 31:14 alive again and you come back you're energized you're ready to take on the world again so to speak and uh and u and 31:21 do what you can in your community to affect another community or another village yeah it it brings me back to if 31:30 I if I think about my own life probably one of the reasons why I've kind of not 31:36 that I've always wanted to do good i I think I just had that in me that I I kind of like was in this journey of 31:43 where can I eventually do some good in this world and probably came from the fact that when I was 8 years old I went 31:49 to the Philippines that's where my mom's from and I went with my grandma and you 31:54 know I used to see like the Philippines is still some parts are you know much better now but back then um there were 32:02 like poor kids all over the street begging it still is now but I mean where 32:07 I was staying like they were literally outside the house and you know they would be pooing in the canals and it was 32:14 just really smelly and and and then we went to like province which is kind of 32:19 like villages part and I remember I had to when when we showered we didn't have 32:25 a shower we actually had a bath with all the other kids in a in a big barrel 32:30 which was well water and uh it was cold obviously you just have to take the water as it is and 32:38 um yeah I don't know i think that probably stuck with me now that I think about it and I guess unless you have 32:46 that perspective I think this is why this podcast is really important because there's probably a lot of listeners out there where wherever you are that you 32:53 may not have experienced anything like that or you may not have seen it and hearing Grant share this story hopefully 33:00 will will open your eyes a little bit to look look a bit further and and explore that because you know we the world is is 33:08 is very divided in that um there's a select few that own and control most uh 33:14 of the wealth in the world um I I did some research into this and I have mentioned it to others in the past but 33:21 it's quite crazy to think about it we're talking about multi- trillions of dollars um in the hands uh of about 33:29 7,000 individuals that own and control more of that than the remaining 8 33:36 billion and whatnot combined wow and these countries in Africa have I'm 33:44 sure a lot of it has got to do with um you know past dictatorships and and whatnot um but a lot of it's got to do 33:50 with with debt enslavement these nations have got a lot of debt that they can never repay which is a significant 33:57 portion of their GDP and it comes from these this system of debt and you know 34:03 my my podcast's called debt to financial freedom and I guess the reason I bring that up 34:09 is because there's something that's happened recently um which uh you can 34:16 share I'm sure um Grant we we had a conversation like not even two weeks ago or it was about two weeks ago 34:22 that uh conga like 50,000 people are now displaced from Conga and you want to add 34:30 to that yeah that's right i mean um I was only made aware of it about a month ago um the um the location of our first 34:38 school uh in Burundi uh a village or province called Chipoki um like I 34:43 indicated before um Burundi is the second poorest country in the world to 34:48 give you that in perspective but um Chipoki is a province in Burundi 34:53 which is one of the poorest provinces in Burundi so you got the the second poorest country in the world and you're working in the province this probably 34:58 one of the the the poorest provinces in that poor country so um yeah and then 35:04 they've had an influx of u of an estimated 50,000 people it may well be a lot more than that now but at the weeks 35:10 ago it was 50,000 people had fled the Congo uh across their border which is a river um across the river and now uh are 35:18 occupying um that area so there's uh there already was a a lot of need um 35:25 to have additional 50,000 people all needing shelter health care and food um 35:32 is a a major impact on that area so yeah 35:37 I guess and that's an area that we're um I said we're going back in June with a team of seven of us um we'll visit the 35:44 countries that we're working in um Bundi is certainly one of those countries we endeavor to go back to um and the in 35:51 country organization that we partner with has said uh I'm glad you're coming but there is a real need here right at 35:59 our doorsteps right now um with all these people that are needing immediate 36:04 help immediate assistance so um and that's why I mentioned to you about this that um what can we do to help how do we 36:12 get involved with this so um I've been in contact with with a guy called 36:18 Jackson who's who runs one of our projects over there um he he wants to 36:23 feed um a thousand families um so when I say feed a thousand families he wants us 36:30 to um fund raise here um the money to to do that there's enough food in the 36:35 country that he can source or even outside the country but essentially um a package consists of um 15 kilos of of 36:43 maze or maze meal um consists of 10 kilos of beans um and then he wants to 36:50 which I thought was interesting he wants to provide them with a uh a 20 L water container as well so that they're able 36:56 to to cut water for themselves but um I guess the food is is a handout the food 37:03 will only last a period of time just to give you a bit of perspective on that as well like that that food package um 37:09 costs including the water container cost $25 Australian um so I guess yeah we 37:15 want to do a thousand of those but that's a thousand packages which represents five six seven eight people 37:22 in the home you know what I mean so there's probably 5 to 8,000 people that we will impact for at least 2 weeks with 37:29 that amount of food so it it is a reasonable amount of impact and reach that we're going to be having but the 37:35 water container is an ongoing thing it's not eaten it's once it's eaten it's gone um this is not the case with the water 37:41 container they can continue to bring water to themselves as a family but it's an opportunity for them too where they 37:46 can potentially um go to a creek and cut water for another family um or if 37:52 there's a construction going on they can cut water for the construction site and earn money with that water container so 37:58 it's an opportunity for them to get a hand out but also a hand up um which 38:04 again all in the same package but we're able to do that so um but yeah essentially um $25 um will feed a family 38:12 of let's say six to eight people for a couple of weeks uh and also provide them 38:17 with a an opportunity to to generate some income as well so 38:23 um I guess when you work in these these poor countries um and their inflation is 38:29 is horrific um but our dollar does go a long way and we can buy a lot of lot of 38:36 food um for the in these instances so we can make a a large impact i guess that's 38:41 what we're trying to do i mean it's it is a handout it will make a difference 38:47 for 2 weeks um obviously the need is still ongoing but um we're just one of 38:52 many organizations that can um can affect change and can do something in in this area so that's what we plan to do 39:00 um when we go over there in in June depending how much money we raise then 39:05 we'll send some money over hopefully before we go there so they can have an immediate impact uh and then when we when we arrive then we'll be able to 39:12 hand out um these food parcels and uh I guess we'll have a a a hand in making 39:19 those parcels uh available and but then the I guess we get to have the the joy 39:24 in in handing them out to um to these individuals and these families yeah yeah 39:30 that's Yeah wow i know you shared this with me before our podcast and then it just happened to be good timing because 39:36 I wanted to get you on anyway because of um I I registered for the podcastathon 39:43 so that um multiple podcasters around the world are able to um uh promote 39:49 their chosen charity and I chose to to get you one because of Villages of Life and it just so happened that in this 39:55 moment that that's going on so I thought no we need to be talking about this um 40:00 and just getting the word out because you don't even hear this on mainstream media um if like think about Tasmania 40:07 the size of Tasmania and and and the size of Bundi you said that Tazzy is a 40:13 little bit bigger or smaller yeah twice um Tasmania is twice as big as Bundi twice as big i mean our entire state has 40:20 about 600,000 people m if we had 50,000 come in in one hit that would cause a 40:26 lot of chaos right um it's already hard enough to get housing as it is so you 40:32 know these guys like I did a quick search before this episode before we started recording and the majority of 40:39 the um displaced people are actually women and children and they I guess 40:44 they're living in in shelters and they literally don't have food right now crazy no I guess the other side of 40:51 things is that again when we talk 50,000 they are people they are children and 40:57 and they've quite often have left fleeing for their lives um again not 41:02 knowing whether other family members have been able to escape or whether they've been caught up in the turmoil that's going on there they're quite 41:09 often they're um the place where they live has been burnt to the ground uh and again they're left running for their 41:15 life with what they can um so whilst there there's immediate needs 41:20 with their food and their um health shelter there's a whole lot of other 41:26 needs that's needs needs to be met as well um for sure um yeah I mean just the the 41:33 whole uncertainty of being uprooted from your family your home your surroundings 41:38 um fleeing for your life having to tro cross a river uh that has got crocodiles 41:44 and hippos in it you um yeah and then landing in another country where they 41:50 don't want you either because they're struggling to survive themselves and then having an an additional 50,000 when 41:56 I say 50,000 it could be a whole lot more a lot more than that it's um trying 42:02 to to guess the population in a country in those sort of areas where there's 42:07 such high density is difficult anyway but um yeah there's there's a lot of need immediate need that's required in 42:14 that in that area so one of the things I I asked you before the episode was how 42:19 do we make sure that if someone wants to donate like $25 to feed eight people for 42:25 2 weeks women and children who are displaced who can't who have lost their homes like what's 25 bucks like you know 42:34 a meal at Mac has cost $25 these days right yeah again that's exactly right um 42:39 Victor that's that's perspective isn't it like it's just saying um what can I do well how can I help and that's uh and 42:47 it's not a lot and and some people Yeah $25 is all that they can potentially 42:53 afford but there's a lot of people that can afford a lot more a lot more yeah that's right and and like you indicated 43:00 before with the amount of wealth that sits with 7,000 individuals or companies um there is enough money to go around it 43:06 just needs to be spread around and um and again whilst again the whole thing perspective 43:14 like we we sit in this nice office and we sit in this nice country and we have lots of things that we get to enjoy but 43:20 and you might think I'm not that mega wealthy like I don't have my my yacht or my island or my all my uh yeah you know 43:28 I mean we don't have all that but and we we put ourselves as not being wealthy but um when in like I said when we work in 43:36 Bundi and we pay laborers to come and dig footings for a uh a foundation for a school uh we pay $3 a day and that's 43:44 above the going rate that's for the good ones that's the ones who want to work and we pay $2 a day for the um for the 43:50 lazy ones if you want to put it that way um I'm not sure but when I looked at my 43:55 wages bill then we pay a whole lot more than $3 a day for um for our our labor but again as perspective we we have a an 44:03 opportunity to to do something and that's what this is whether it is $25 44:08 for a package or whether you think no I can do two packages or I can do a 100 packages whatever it might be then um I 44:15 guess I want everyone to hear that everything makes a difference yeah and whether it is a small amount or it's a large amount it's it's not about 44:22 judgment about oh you gave this much or you gave that much it's really thank you 44:27 for what you've been able to to give and and that will make a difference and I guess I'm here to say to you today that 44:34 I will personally make sure that that difference is handed out and I'll be able to show you and and you'll be able 44:41 to see that that difference um it's it's one of those things where I mean it 44:46 happens all the time like people are asking for money all the time and and people come a little bit blas with it or is yeah okay I'll give you the x amount 44:53 of dollars and there's a degree of skepticism saying oh that's paying for a corner office in Sydney somewhere or 44:58 that's paying for someone's wage to marketing and all the rest of that goes with that I guess [Music] 45:04 um I'm here to say that that um money that you give will will hit the 45:11 ground Um we we partner with an organization called World Relief Australia um they provide um compliance 45:18 for us um so I need to make this clear as a compliance thing and also a trust thing as well that um and full 45:25 disclosure if you like put it that way as well that uh I've been in talks with them um they're hastily putting a 45:30 project proposal together which is ready to go now and um so people can donate to it but um those who want to donate and 45:38 want a tax deduction then that's available to them um those who don't care for the tax deduction that's fine 45:44 as well but all the money will go through world relief Australia um in order for us to have compliance with 45:49 Australian tax laws then they they charge a fee uh in this case it will be 10% but uh like we said before I'm as a 45:57 business as Grant Chug plumbing um I want to cover that fee um so so we can 46:02 sit here and I can fully disclose that 100% of your donation will hit the 46:10 will make a difference so um and again I just want to put that out there because some people do get hung up on how much 46:16 money do I give actually makes a difference um in this case yeah 100% of 46:22 what you give will make a difference and like I said you'll be able to see us you'll be able to see that that money 46:27 will be handed out and the packages that will be delivered and the joy on these people's faces will be able to be 46:32 realized um through through your donation and because you're going in June and you and the group are going to 46:39 be able to you know hand out a lot of these these packages i'm sure a lot of them they need them right now can't wait 46:45 till June but for the ones that you get to to help there'll be photos and and 46:50 videos and things like that where um you can potentially even share with those that actually donate so they can see 46:56 that go um yeah absolutely um yeah you can follow us on Facebook and uh and 47:02 again we will have a newsletter that goes out so um again part of making the 47:07 donation then if you enter in your details your email or then we can send you an email or um showing you the 47:14 difference that your donation has made yeah amazing no that's really generous of you to just cover the fees because 47:21 yeah you're right i think a lot of people do get sort of stuck on that it's like oh I donate to a charity but it's 47:27 paying for all the other costs and how do I know how much actually goes there yeah and I think that's another reason 47:32 why I wanted to to have you on because you know you've been going there every year for how long now 2017 so yeah it'll 47:40 be eight years this year right yeah miss one year of 2020 of course but other than that then yeah every year we've 47:45 been um been going back um like I said it's something that um I feel compelled 47:51 to do um maybe I'm selfish in in wanting to go back and to uh again get that 47:58 fresh hit of perspective but uh again even just taking um some other people that want to join us on the journey like 48:04 I enjoyed joined on a journey in 2017 with TED then I wanting to give other people that experience and uh I know 48:11 what that experience has done for me and my life um if it does that for other people um then I'm all for it yeah and 48:20 generally speaking you know Villages of Life you I know you participate every year and and set up a um a fundraising 48:26 uh event where a lot of people contribute um things that can be 48:31 basically auctioned off and all of the the proceeds go towards uh building schools and I did go to one of those 48:38 events and it was it was really great that was in uh in October last year but this is something different this is this 48:44 is actually you know like you said it's it's specific aid that is needed right 48:50 now this isn't um sort of for the future it's like literally yeah this is 48:55 something that's needed so I'm going to get this on all of my social media platforms i'll get it out uh to my 49:00 database um of customers of people that have dealt with me um so if you're 49:06 listening to this and you want to contribute um you know we'll make it really easy for you we'll put a link in 49:12 the show notes um you know it'll go a long way you heard what Gran said 100% 49:17 of it will reach the people that actually need it uh $25 will feed at least uh a family or household of eight 49:24 for 2 weeks so imagine you know even if you did you know $100 that's 816 what's 49:31 that uh 30 32 it's crazy you don't you don't because 49:36 of the inflation and obviously meaning that the the their currency is um not 49:42 worth much it means that our dollar goes a long way so we have an opportunity here to make a real impact without 49:48 needing to break the bank or put us in any financial strife um one thing I'll 49:53 also commit in that if anyone is not my client and listens to this and you come 50:00 in to my company called Lagos Financial if you have an existing mortgage and you want to refinance it or whether you're 50:06 buying anything um 80% of what I earn from that will go 50:15 straight to this wow yeah so 20% is just to cover costs pay for my staff but 80% 50:21 of everything I earn from that um I'm going to give away to this course so thank you very much very very very 50:28 generous offer of No that's uh and that could be ongoing as well so um yeah so 50:33 if you if you contact me and my team and you and you do it just make sure you mention that you heard this podcast and 50:39 that's why you're coming to me and yeah my wife was saying like let's just do 50% but like cuz I've got cost but like 50:46 no like this is we'll make do we'll make it work with the rest of you know 80% is 50:51 I think a really good amount and just to to give you some some numbers um on the upfront commission my company receives 50:58 is about uh about $6,000 for every million so imagine that what's 80% of 51:06 6,000 um I don't know approximately what's that 5,000 5,000 y so $5,000 if 51:12 you have a million dollar loan if you get a better interest rate you're 51:17 still better off you didn't actually lose anything you got better interest rate and you're able to contribute you 51:23 know indirectly to a cause and $6,000 that will be Yeah you know 3,000 that's 51:29 a lot of money that can go towards this cause right yeah 5,000 so yeah um yeah i 51:36 guess like I said from the top that the guy wants to do a,000 packages if we can do 2,000 or 51:43 3,000 more the better you know what I mean that's um I think a thousand we've done this 51:50 before um and we've think we fed about 600 packages before which was 51:55 significant uh obviously the need is even higher now but to do a thousand but 52:01 um how good would it be to go to him and say uh I know he wanted a thousand but 52:06 here's enough to do 3,000 you know I mean pee 3,000 packages then oh yeah you 52:11 know I mean yeah it's um a th000 is what we're aiming for but um yeah we can do a 52:18 whole lot more than that if the money comes in so well I mean like like you said it's not just the food for 2 weeks 52:24 it's also the their ability to actually keep um getting water for the family and even for others and you know bringing in 52:32 some money because they do it for others who don't have those um um water containers yeah absolutely so yeah and 52:38 it's really powerful and I'll definitely do my best uh to support this and anyone who's listening who's willing to um this 52:45 is the only time I you know really asked for anything from anyone but you know at the end of the day we're we're all trying to create financial freedom i 52:52 mean these guys don't even have basic freedom right now no no and that's right and then I guess the the bigger picture 52:59 is is education um that's where the real opportunity lies um again if if people 53:05 wanting to be involved in a more long-term sustainable giving then that will will be available as well again 53:13 like I said the links will be u to the website and what have you will be at the end of the show but um yeah if people 53:19 get touched and say I want to make a meaningful difference in education then um that's there either on a a one-off 53:25 basis or an ongoing basis then um if or if people want to reach out and know more then more than happy to um share 53:32 what we do and where we're going um you'll be able to see that on the on our website as to the projects that we 53:38 finished the ones that are underway and the ones that we're uh we're looking to fund so um our mission is to build 20 of 53:45 these schools uh in 10 years so by 2030 we want to build 20 of these schools um 53:50 we have five that are either finished or currently in in construction and fully funded so u we've got a bit ways to go 53:56 but uh it's amazing where uh the journey that we're on and where where we've been taken and um yeah no it's certainly it's 54:04 a privilege to be invited along privilege to be part of this journey and and to share the journey yeah yeah i 54:11 want I would have gone my wife and I are expecting our first uh baby in June so unfortunately I have to be here but not 54:18 in Africa but but um you've got how many people are coming along with you uh seven of us are going seven yeah awesome 54:25 yeah i mean I think if if people start to see what you're actually doing and 54:31 and they go to the website which is villagesoflife.org.org yep 54:36 um the opportunity to actually travel there and be part of that group comes 54:42 every every year every year yeah plus you you hold the uh what do you call that night it's just a fundraising event 54:49 um we run a a gala ball um every second year and then on the return you we run 54:55 an event um which is just a mix it up for different demographics I suppose but uh Awesome yeah it's again it's an 55:01 opportunity for us to share share vision share where we've been where we're going um and the community of Lanceston our 55:09 village if you want to call it that uh is very very generous towards us and supports us very heavily in what we do 55:15 um but again this is an opportunity to get that word out there to a global audience if you if you will uh and again 55:21 that's what's excites me about the opportunity to speak with you today Victor is that yeah we want to share the 55:26 message we want to get more people connected in and and um the vision is is quite large but um there's plenty of 55:33 people out there that that wanting to um participate and just wanting an opportunity to know where can I where 55:40 can I help and uh and we're just one of many I guess organizations that are doing a lot of good around the world um 55:46 but yeah we're very much a small organization grassroots but we are having a significant impact into the 55:52 areas that we're we're working yeah yeah it's such an interesting pair like LCS 55:57 being you know one of the smallest cities in the in the country in Australia and then dealing with uh Bundi 56:04 in Africa you wouldn't really I mean of course it started before you joined 56:10 Villages of Life do you know the story how that sort of Yeah um yeah like I indicated the guy who actually invited 56:15 me along Ted um Ted Bosel he's the one who's the founder of this organization so again um we get to stand on his 56:23 shoulders and and it's not lost on me what a founder does and and how they 56:29 have to start it's their vision their um calling um yeah it was his calling to go 56:36 there he actually went to Rwanda um with Hillsong um at the time when they were 56:42 building building schools there so he went there for a month um he was not long um remarried um so a separation and 56:50 remarried and a blended family um uh a massive deal to up and leave um to go 56:55 for a month into Rwanda um whilst in Rwanda he got a a phone call from a guy called Freddy who was in Bundi and uh 57:02 invited him to come to Burundi and um he was basically saying Rwanda gets all the 57:08 aid Rwanda gets all the attention um I guess I'm not sure if people are 57:14 aware but um Rwanda went into genocide um 25 years 57:20 ago um but both Burundi and Rwanda went into genocide at the same time um both 57:25 presidents were in the same plane they were coming into land in in Kgali the capital of Rwanda and they were shot 57:31 down so both presidents were killed at the same time and both countries went into genocide um at the same time what 57:39 happened in Rwanda is is been publicized and it was again atrocious they killed a 57:45 million of each other in a 100 days um and it was stopped in 5 days when when 57:51 the um the US and the western world decided to step in and do something 5 days it was all finished but um in 57:57 Burundi it continued it never didn't stop for years um and there was 58:03 estimated 300,000 people that were killed in that period of time so very very significant uh again but um Rwanda 58:12 is testament of good financial governance when you go to Rwanda Rwanda 58:17 is one of the safest countries you could visit and every time I go back there um I know there the city reasonably well 58:24 but every year I get lost because there's new buildings there's new banks there's new tourism it's just amazing 58:30 how much growth is happening in that city they're building a new 70 seat stadium 70,000 seat stadium It's just um 58:38 I mean it just gives you an idea of what's happening in that country and how they're going ahead um and then you step 58:43 across the border and both countries were at the same stage um uh went 58:48 through the same uh atrocities uh and Burundi is is the second poorest second 58:54 poorest country in the world it just hasn't recovered it hasn't had the the the governance it hasn't had the 59:00 structures um there there are issues with corruption um in that country and 59:06 um but yeah Rwanda was able to take that aid I suppose that international aid and 59:13 they were able to do good with that uh and then the good that they were were doing with it was recognized so more aid 59:18 came um not the case in Burundia they've stayed in that place of of being locked 59:23 into poverty and debt um obviously that's a huge factor that's hanging over 59:28 them at the moment um and has been for a while when someone comes into the country and offers opportunity where 59:34 we'll build you new roads and we will do this um they do that for a reason um and 59:40 um and the roads and the rail and what have you go straight to where the mines are and where the wealth is so that then 59:47 the the roads go straight out of the country to the wars and forts and and and those minerals are I guess this is 59:53 the whole thing africa is very wealthy country or continent um these countries are very wealthy congo is one of the 1:00:00 wealthiest um mineral wise uh in the world but um obviously other countries 1:00:06 recognize that as well and and want to um exploit it take what they 1:00:11 can yeah and and keep them in a place of poverty and and this whole um disruption 1:00:17 if you want to call it that this misplacement and and and all the things that are rising up and happening in the 1:00:22 Congo in the moment is um is all around governments playing their games and 1:00:29 doing what they want in order um to take what they need so and again obviously 1:00:34 there's people at stake with all of this so but again it's um with good 1:00:39 governance um yeah getting their debt reduced these 1:00:44 countries can can claw themselves out of the hole that they're in so it's certainly um yeah it's certainly 1:00:51 disturbing as to what's what goes on how it goes on and um but like I said the 1:00:58 potential is massive i mean they don't need to stay there they can actually move out of this place and Rwanda is a 1:01:04 country that has done that in in 25 years from going from absolutely despair um to where they are now um it was 1:01:13 interesting though when the um the new president replaced the one who just was 1:01:18 killed um the only way that they said that we're going to move forward from this is we have to 1:01:24 forgive um we have to forgive each other for what we've done to each other and 1:01:29 move forward if we don't forgive then we'll stay in this place of bitterness and hurt and we'll just continue to hurt and kill each other um and it's 1:01:38 and it is and um the guy who picked us up from the airport once was telling us a story where his um his dad would go 1:01:46 and play cards um with the neighbors two doors up every every Wednesday night his dad would go and play cards with him and 1:01:52 then um after this um the journey the genocide started then um his father went 1:01:58 to play cards with his mates and and they killed him and um these are his 1:02:04 mates you know what I mean these are the people and uh and there was other atrocities that he told us about which I 1:02:11 don't need to share with you essentially when it was all over the neighbors are still living 1:02:17 there and I've got a present that tells me I've got to forgive you know what I mean so it's easy to say but the reality 1:02:25 of trying to work through this and and actually do that but if they don't forgive then the other opport other 1:02:30 choice they have is to stay in this place of bitterness and hurt um and so again he's got a constant reminder of 1:02:38 going home to a to a household without a dad um and he's got neighbors living 1:02:45 next door to him who took his dad away from him um not easy to forgive no but 1:02:52 when you're faced with a choice of forgiveness or a choice of nonforgiveness and that obviously leads 1:02:57 to a whole lot of other things and bitterness is one of those things resentment um it takes your joy away as 1:03:04 well um so yeah so he's one of those who has stepped into that um path of 1:03:10 forgiveness as hard as it it is or would be um and I guess I'm sure it's a it's a 1:03:17 daily thing almost where you're still going to see your neighbor um it's not 1:03:22 going to take away the memory of of losing your father or your dad but it's certainly um you can't afford to stay in 1:03:28 that place of unforgiveness either so it's certainly um a harsh reminder as to 1:03:34 what each one has to to live with and um but they've moved forward they they 1:03:40 really have it's um a credit to them um a credit to the government and the governance in that country um they're a 1:03:48 shining shining example as to what can be can happen but uh yeah you step 1:03:53 across the border and then you step into um a country that certainly hasn't um 1:03:59 been able to move forward yeah i guess we talk about education and it's 1:04:04 like the future leaders of the country that are going to create the systems and 1:04:10 government governance that's going to um bring them forward into current times 1:04:17 right um and out of corruption is going to be those younger generations so education 1:04:22 is is that's why it's even more important because otherwise who else you going to leave to run it external people 1:04:28 coming in or other families of the corrupt right yeah and again it is 1:04:34 that's again they will keep people oppressed yeah I mean that whole thing with division and race and part he hide 1:04:43 all those sort of things they they need the majority to do the the work and the minority to run them and um and they 1:04:50 will just make up tribes um they'll quite peacefully 1:04:55 unaware if there was even differences between them until someone points these differences out and they point them out for a reason so that they can separate 1:05:02 them and say "Okay well you're the the uneducated ones we'll keep you in that position of uneducation and you will do 1:05:07 the labor um the minority will you're the privileged ones you're the ones that get to go to the better schools you have 1:05:13 the better transport you have the better opportunities um the educated people um 1:05:19 to keep the other people oppressed um that's just how it's been um and still 1:05:25 is to a large degree in some areas so uh again we're about making things bring 1:05:31 equality bring making things equal um especially for women as well um quite 1:05:36 often women are the ones that are even more marginalized um where we're about 1:05:42 equal opportunity for for both boys and girls and allowing them to both have that opportunity um it's interesting 1:05:49 that um we used to run a a sponsorship program for kids that couldn't afford to 1:05:56 go to school and um and I sponsor four of those kids 1:06:01 um those kids are the poorest of the poor i mean they can't afford to go to school but given the opportunity they 1:06:08 excel um the the ones who all had that scholarship they'll be all sitting in 1:06:14 the top 10% of them of the uh of the grades in that school um but they weren't given the opportunity so they 1:06:21 never got to excel given the opportunity they'd grab it with both hands and never let it go and they um are now some of 1:06:28 the the brightest students um in the school so it's really again amazing and 1:06:35 testament of of the potential that sits within a kid but the potential needs to be unlocked and and and in this case 1:06:42 money is what unlocks that so that they can then attend school um and with that opportunity they don't they don't let it 1:06:49 go they take the most of it and and now they're on a on a very different journey in in life again from hopeless and 1:06:57 having a goat on the end of a rope that's my lot in life to now having dreams and saying I want to be they can 1:07:03 fill in the blanks when I grow up I want to be they've got opportunity to to do 1:07:08 that where that wasn't given to them before it was just um my life my life my 1:07:14 day exists of looking after that goat yeah and you you you recorded a a 1:07:21 documentary last year and um I watched a little snippet of that you you showed 1:07:27 that a few weeks ago when you um talking about your travels this year 1:07:32 and something that stuck with me and I've I've told other people about this as well which is like the families they 1:07:39 might have like say three four kids or whatever but they can only afford for 1:07:45 one of those kids to go to school that while the others can't go and um they 1:07:50 have to pick the brightest one I guess which one they see the most potential and then that one kid doesn't mean okay 1:07:57 now you can go to Cool it's easy no he still has to walk sometimes 8 km one way 1:08:04 every day and um avoid being attacked by hyenas it's like how does that even 1:08:12 exist yeah no you're right it's not easy um 1:08:19 but like on the other end of that when that child becomes educated then the responsibility that sits in that child 1:08:24 for the rest of its life um to provide for the parents and his or her siblings 1:08:30 uh is massive so the um you're not you're not going to school just for an 1:08:36 education for yourself um the education is for your family and the future of your family and um yeah so it's a 1:08:45 massive weight that each child has to u to wear yeah and again that's why they value it so much and I think that's I 1:08:50 mean there's so many people who again in the Western world have education just given to them provided for them and they 1:08:57 don't um recognize how much or how important that education is they I don't 1:09:03 want to go to school or I don't I don't like it this today or it's or the teachers being nasty or someone's being 1:09:09 nasty to me so I won't go to school i know those things can be real but I mean education is just given to us 1:09:16 and um and we really got to get perspective on what's been given to us and afforded to us so and not just 1:09:23 waste those opportunities those opportunities are again for us in in our western world is just something that we 1:09:28 can take for granted and unfortunately it's not a privilege for many others absolutely 1:09:35 yeah and it's it's not just what they learn it's actually the fact that they um I guess participated in it and 1:09:43 therefore they're around the other people who have been educated and they have connections and they have I guess 1:09:50 acceptance of like okay you've you've studied so you you can get into the you 1:09:55 know inner circle of a unfortunately it is a hierarchical um society still um and doors open if if 1:10:03 you're in those circles m certainly yeah no absolutely it's um yeah it's it's I 1:10:11 guess these these schools that we we build bring change um and I guess um 1:10:17 villages life um is a Christian organization so uh each one of these 1:10:23 children get an opportunity to to uh hear the gospel again it's all uh equal 1:10:28 opportunity but essentially we we want people to um to grow up with an 1:10:34 understanding of of what hope looks like and what destiny looks like and uh and 1:10:39 um and certainly a privileged um position that I've um been put in and 1:10:45 that's not lost on me either that uh even have an opportunity to talk with you today Victor and and and others it's 1:10:51 something that I thoroughly enjoy um sharing a little bit of our journey of where we being the difference that we're 1:10:56 making um the connection as you will from one village to another village even 1:11:02 though probably are separated by the biggest distance you can probably get but essentially how this little village 1:11:08 in LCS has been called to uh affect some villages in central Africa at this stage 1:11:14 and uh looking to go further than potentially Africa we're open to that but essentially that's where we are at 1:11:19 the moment that's where we're working and that's where the opportunities lie and our connections are are very strong 1:11:24 um allows us to to um make make a 1:11:30 difference in in those little parts of the world so yeah and over these years you've built systems and you know like 1:11:36 you said partnerships where you can you basically know the ones that are going to succeed and what they need to succeed 1:11:42 and you can I guess do your due diligence and and partner with the right one organizations and I'm just going to take the money and then you know Oh 1:11:49 absolutely i mean as as a board then that's our one of our biggest responsibilities is is choosing the the 1:11:56 right partnerships uh like I mentioned it all comes with a business plan and they need to um tick a lot of boxes in 1:12:03 order for this to to happen and uh and it's not easy to run a a private school 1:12:09 um again where do they find the money where do they able to make this work but 1:12:14 it's got to be sustainable i mean we can't be propping them up all the time and and that's not our that's not our 1:12:21 calling our calling is just to build infrastructure and and they will then run their own schools so yeah um some of 1:12:28 these countries already have schools that they're running and we just build them much better quality schools and 1:12:34 again with the buildings and again with the with a build with a better learning structure around them and the kids will 1:12:40 excel rather than being in very overcrowded small cramped environments where they can have more space and 1:12:46 lighter rooms and um better teaching aids all those sort of things all allows that child to develop much better um and 1:12:54 and parents will recognize that as well you I mean if they've got a choice of sending them their child to one 1:13:00 um public school or a private school uh and that one private school is charging 1:13:06 a little bit more because it's providing much newer and better facilities and the and the parents will sacrifice even more 1:13:13 for that child to have that better education um and it is a sacrifice um obviously they've actually sacrificed in 1:13:20 a way saying that that one child or two children might be able to go to school you are the sorry you you're not able to 1:13:27 or um we'll send you for one year and then you might miss two or three years and then go back and do another year and 1:13:32 just um and that quite often happens as well where there's um kids of all ages 1:13:38 doing grade two for instance you know I mean yeah you might have an 8-year-old 9year-old and a a 5year-old doing um the 1:13:46 same year just because they haven't been able to afford that the next year's tuition so yeah wow um Yeah so it's 1:13:55 certainly it is hard um it's not saying it's not and what they're dealing with 1:14:00 is very harsh but they are doing what they can and they will sacrifice what they need to uh in order to get that 1:14:07 education that they believe will make the difference and and it will ultimately will but it's uh it is a bit 1:14:14 of a long burn like as an as you know to take a child all the way through education it's it can be 12 14 years uh 1:14:22 before that or even longer sometimes of getting a full education um I guess another thing that we're keen on doing 1:14:28 is building trades training schools um um majority of the board is made up of of tradies including myself so we have 1:14:35 got a real um leaning towards building trade schools so that kids that like the youth 1:14:42 that the 15 16 year olds um again without any education can be causing 1:14:49 trouble um so for us to give them a a basic training and that basic training 1:14:55 could be 3 months 6 months of training uh in um building furniture or auto 1:15:02 repairs um sewing um making jewelry all those sort of things and that's all 1:15:08 those sort of skills that they can very quickly turn into um an income an income 1:15:14 they can start their own business they can start selling making things and selling things so and they can start 1:15:19 with that in 6 months time and then they can come back in a year's time and then okay uh I've learned how to fix a 1:15:24 motorbike engine now I want to fix a diesel motor how can I learn some more and come back and do some more education 1:15:29 so that we can continue to progress them but we can do that obviously it's not a long burn that's a very quick 1:15:36 um way of doing that so um we have a trace training center that we're currently building in Burundi that we've 1:15:43 been wanting to finish there um we have another one in southern Rwanda that we want us to start in that area too so again if people are in trades and got 1:15:51 trade businesses and potentially want to do something with building a um a trade school um if that resonates with you as 1:15:58 well then more than happy to have a talk to you about that and how you can potentially partner with us to be um be 1:16:04 a bit more specific if you've got that interest in um in having your money go to a that particular project 1:16:11 will they be able to contribute some of their time and skills as well or is it more just the money that you need to 1:16:17 take them off the Yeah that's a very interesting question cuz most people like um in trades that want to go on 1:16:24 these trips saying "Hey what are we going to build what what what can I do?" You know what I mean and uh and I I let 1:16:30 them believe that to be honest i let them go along thinking that that's what's going to happen but I it doesn't 1:16:35 take long as in an hour or two of being on on site uh like indicated they 1:16:41 haven't gone through the industrial revolution yet so there's tools there's no there's no nail guns there's no power 1:16:46 saws there's I mean it's driving a three or 4 inch nail and I'm not sure how many tradies have done that for a while even 1:16:53 cutting a piece of timber then you do it with a handsaw and um the timber isn't um milled or perfectly straight all that 1:16:59 sort of stuff as well so um it's very much and again you'll have a team of 1:17:04 like a whole tribe of kids will be just hanging off you because you're a a new 1:17:09 person a white person and um and you're new to the area so that it won't be long 1:17:15 and interactions not so much with how do I build it's going to be how do I um 1:17:20 have a conversation where I can't speak their language to all these children or all these teenagers that are actually interested in me m um it's interesting 1:17:28 that um like I indicated I went over there and did that irrigation scheme uh in 1:17:33 um when I say irrigation scheme um it was the first irrigation um in Burundi 1:17:41 um but uh I got caught up with doing and uh there was a lady that was on that 1:17:46 trip with us and said that um reaction human beings not human doings and we can 1:17:53 get caught quite caught up with the doing side of things like as in trades I want to go over and do stuff then um 1:17:58 it's really about being and being a human being and u and in that then you u 1:18:04 quite often we have the mindset we'll go over there and we'll um we'll go over there then we'll show them things and 1:18:10 we'll take some things for them and um and quite often the thought when you return is that there's a whole level of 1:18:17 guilt that you've come back and you've actually taken a whole lot more back with you than what you took over there 1:18:22 and um and there's a saying that um we need Africa a whole lot more than Africa 1:18:28 needs us and um and that's uh that's very true you know i mean we think we're going over there to help Africa but uh 1:18:35 when we return we realize just how much we need Africa so um like I've traveled 1:18:40 the world a bit i've been to the Philippines i've seen what you described at the start um that certainly didn't 1:18:45 impact me poverty was real saw all that um the poverty is real in Africa but 1:18:51 there's just something special about for me anyway the connection that I have with where we are working in Africa and 1:18:56 the and the children and the areas that we're impacting u it certainly got hold of my life and has given me the purpose 1:19:03 and direction that I was looking for in in business in life um and opportunity to share that 1:19:09 yeah the tradies can come more than welcome um yeah encourage them to bring 1:19:15 a nail bag or a pair of boots or what have you that a hammer that you can potentially leave with them um they will 1:19:21 cherish that um forever but uh as a lasting legacy but I'm sure that again 1:19:28 you you'll bring home a whole lot more than what you what you go there to do but um essentially though like when when 1:19:35 a school goes into a um into a village or an area the um the impact that that 1:19:41 has u into that area like the the financial um benefit that each community 1:19:48 gets from that large cash injection into that community is is quite substantial so whilst building the school then 1:19:55 there's many many stories of families that have been provided for um through the money that of them providing their 1:20:02 skills so if we go over there and we we take the hammer or or the sword out of 1:20:07 their hand and say oh let me do that for you I'll I'll do that you don't need to do this then that was actually a day's 1:20:14 work that they were looking for to go and pay for food that they need to to feed their family and you've just taken 1:20:19 that inadvertently you've taken that away from them so um it's for us it's 1:20:25 very important to engage with the communities and get the communities to build the school and then the communities then own the school you know 1:20:32 I mean it's our own it's like our own um security system you know I mean if the if the community builds the school then 1:20:38 they will protect the school you know I mean rather than again this whole donor thing where we'll come we'll build you a 1:20:43 school and there you go look at what we've done for you um yeah they're appreciative of a new school but it's 1:20:49 it's really not ours like you've just flonked it there and given it to us where again this whole engagement of of 1:20:57 using uh incountry organizations in country labor um people own it when they 1:21:03 build it so again that's we're very careful that we um allow them to source 1:21:10 all the materials all the labor uh locally uh and they build their own local school um it's it's just another 1:21:18 level of impact that you have into the community through the money that goes into those communities to to build the 1:21:23 school obviously that's an impact um the education for tens of years and years afterwards 1:21:31 is another impact that will also be there as a legacy for what that school has um provided 1:21:38 and when you go back you you would have seen some of the kids that you dealt with you know eight years ago or 1:21:44 whatever and seeing them progress yeah that's right like I said I I sponsor some of those kids and then those photos 1:21:50 are on my wall in my office and every day I get to see them and and I've left the initially intentionally left the 1:21:55 photos of my first when I first um sponsor them as as little kids um I get 1:22:01 a photo uh every year uh and obviously they've grown up they're progressing in life and what have you but it's the 1:22:08 where they started is is probably the memory that I are most fond of um because you know where you've taken them 1:22:14 from and where they where they're where they've journeyed to uh to this current 1:22:19 stage so um but yeah no it's certainly um again rewarding as to how you can 1:22:26 help in in different ways and they're only small amounts like um but they're 1:22:32 making big differences yeah awesome look I just firstly want to just say um yeah 1:22:39 thank you for all the good work that you do i want to acknowledge you for that and the impact you're making to many 1:22:45 people's lives um even anyone who's listening and hearing this if you can 1:22:51 I'm sure you will touch people's uh hearts and emotions and and hopefully um 1:22:56 inspire them to do good um and contribute to to an immediate um cause that we have here or even the long-term 1:23:03 um great cause with Villages of Life and and building those schools um and just for spending the time with me today um I 1:23:10 know you're a busy man as well you're a businessman you got lots going on um so I just wanted to acknowledge you for 1:23:16 that too and for the listeners that would like to uh connect with you can 1:23:22 they find you on social media at all yeah that's right we're on Facebook Instagram probably the best place is 1:23:27 through our through our website and um all the information is there um again if you're wanting to reach out personally 1:23:34 more than happy to have a conversation with you but um there's a lot of information on there on updates on u 1:23:40 where we've been and where we're going and where we're at at the moment so um Awesome encourage you to do that and um 1:23:46 if you feel compelled or wanting to do more then there's opportunity to do that um there's stories to tell there's um 1:23:53 there's many many children's lives that that have a different story to tell if um if people want to engage with them 1:23:59 awesome yeah but again thank you Victor appreciate the opportunity and what you're doing and the difference that 1:24:05 you're making and u and even your your mantra in in business and life um that's 1:24:11 very cool as to what you're trying to do as well thank you yeah and um just thanks for being the inspiration you 1:24:16 know um I want to help good people become wealthy um so that then when 1:24:22 they're wealthy they can do more good however you've shown today that you don't need to be wealthy first to do 1:24:28 good you can do good now without needing to be wealthy so um yeah so that's 1:24:35 really good so anyone on who's who's listened I'm going to put all all the links in the show notes uh you'll see it 1:24:42 on the social media post so um click the link follow it um and please help where 1:24:47 you can yeah thank you thanks again mate cheers cheers 1:24:53 [Music]