Special project is building momentum

A special Dalai Lama Center project, facilitated by Connecting for Change, is building momentum after just three days, with a dozen LinkedIn members offering their suggestions on how to bring medical supplies to a hospital in Uganda.

In September 2009, the DLC hosted the Vancouver Peace Summit. One of the events of the Summit was a 3-day gathering of business and NGO leaders who came together for Connecting for Change. The purpose of Connecting for Change, a "by invitation" event, is to create opportunities for people, who would never otherwise meet, to come together in a safe "possibility" space to learn with and from each other about how to advance compassion in action (read the interview with Connecting for Change facilitator Charles Holmes).

Many collaborations emerged from this dialogue. One example is the collaboration between Janice Levine of Medwish and Dr Robert Kalyesubula of African Community Center for Social Sustainability (ACCESS). Janice and Robert discovered an opportunity to work together to support a hospital Robert had created in Uganda.

Janice, with assistance from many others who attended C4C, has secured donated medical equipment to help some of the 30 million people in Uganda that are badly in need of medical services.

Through “connecting”, Robert and Janice have been able to accomplish something amazing, but their work isn’t done. And in the spirit of “connecting”, the DLC is excited to invite you to take this project one step further.

Robert and Janice need help sending these medical supplies to Uganda and are using the connecting power of LinkedIn to bring this project to fruition.

If you'd also like to contribute, visit LinkedIn Answers to offer your response to these three questions:

1. Do you know of a shipping company that can help transport a cargo container of Humanitarian Aid Medical Supplies to Uganda?
2. Can you connect us with a Humanitarian Aid Organization that can sponsor our clinic and expedite the transport of supplies?
3. Do you have any advice for dealing with Customs and other red tape in Uganda?

It is our hope, that should this prove to be a beneficial approach to advancing compassion in action, through connections between people who might not otherwise meet, we will continue to create examples of collaboration - like this one - that we can share and engage others with.

We firmly believe that it is connections that can make the difference and are confident that amongst the 53 million people who receive the LinkedIn notice there will be  one or two with connections that will make the
difference in positively influencing the lives of thousands of families in Uganda. We hope you will take three minutes to make suggestions.