“If you want to go far, go together” – a unified message from ‘Celebrated Synergists’ to the world on the International Day for Synergy.
Category: Press release | Date: November 1, 2019 | By: Centre for Big Synergy, London. UK.
“I like the African saying – if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together“, said Maryam Bibi, a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and founder of Khwendo Kor, an NGO that focuses on the development of women, children, and strong families in the remotest parts of Pakistan. “Please accept my deep gratitude for this honour, I am humbled”, said Maryam, receiving the esteemed 2019 Honorary Fellowship from the Centre for Big Synergy (CBS), London, a not-for-profit global consortium of changemakers.
Last week, on 25th October, CBS celebrated the first International Day for Synergy and recognised the accomplishments of outstanding ‘synergists’ from across the world with Honorary Fellowships. These Fellows are exceptional ‘synergists’ who have harnessed the power of synergy in their communities or even across nations, and are inspiring millions to bring the United Nations 2030 Agenda to fruition.
Honorary Fellow Spès Nihangaza, the ‘Mother of 50,000 children’ and founder of FVS-amadeburundi, has been caring for orphans in Burundi for decades. She thanked the “Segal Family Foundation, Amade and Care International” for the fruitful collaborations that has helped her improve thousands of lives.
“Synergy is a vital part of my work ethic”, said another Honorary Fellow, Professor Ian Griffiths of University of Oxford. He believes that “the unification of theoretical and experimental scientists, industries, policymakers and governmental agencies is a key component to make a difference to the lives of the many.” He and his collaborators from India have developed a smart arsenic filtering technology that can improve the lives of over 200 million people in 70 countries where arsenic contamination is a major menace.
Similarly, Honorary Fellow Laurindo Garcia, founder and Chief Executive of Be Inclusive, Singapore, a champion for greater inclusion of traditionally marginalised groups in Asia, indicated that his remarkable accomplishments “would have been impossible” without the contributions of his “amazing team and community-led organisations such as Disabled People’s Association, Association of Women for Action and Research, Pink Fest and Action for AIDS.”
As the Co-Founder and Director of Global Programmes and Impact, CBS, Dr. Ragini G Roy remarked, “we all are changemakers in disguise who can work together to create a global superpower of positive change”. She explained, “we can all start by finding out what the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) mean for us. Unless we are able to relate the UNSDGs to our lives and understand the circular impact of those for us and our loved ones, we cannot truly participate to address issues like climate change, pollution, poverty, gender inequality or hunger. It is not just up to the governments and other organisations to act. Everyone can act in their own small or big ways in their communities and inspire others along the way. Even doing the simplest of things like recycling more, avoiding single-use plastics and walking or cycling to work or school can eventually create an exponential impact. It is still not too late to start!”
According to experts, there is just another 10 years to protect the planet and its 9 billion people to ensure a thriving and sustainable future for us and generations to come. “We live in the most transformative times”, said Raphael Fellmer, founder and CEO of SirPlus, a food saviour market in Germany. The 2019 Honorary Fellow added, “now we can seek collaboration and unity from all over the world in order to solve some of our biggest challenges like never before.” Hence, it is up to us, ‘we the peoples’, as is famously quoted in the opening charter of the United Nations, to act on the UNSDGs to make change happen.
Magic won’t get things done, but by working together locally or globally, through synergy, we can succeed.
##END##
For media enquiries please contact the Centre for Big Synergy via this link.
