Is there a shortcut to happiness?

Well, I don’t know. Maybe there is.

Is it money?

Maybe money can help you to get rid of some of the stress and worries in life. Unless you have to stress yourself to make that money in the first place and worry to accumulate and guard it later on. In which case money would turn from being your (good) servant to being your (bad) master, as Michel de Montaigne would say.

But what I can tell you is who are the most happy people I’ve met in my life.

The most happy people I have met in my life were not those with the most money, but those who simply and genuinely enjoyed their relationships.

And the most happy of all were the kids, for whom relationships are everything. Those I meet since almost 20 years of teaching in my classrooms, those I met during my volunteering work and, when I was lucky enough, the kid that I met inside myself.

Kids are superior beings. Superior, but also particularly fragile and sometimes at the mercy of unfavorable conditions they carry no responsibility for.

But luckily there are some, who made it their mission to take care of exactly those kids. I’ve met a few of them in my life, and one of them is Saveth from KNGO*.

Now, I am no longer able to travel nearly as much as I did in the past. Life got me. I have a family, jobs and responsibilities that simply don’t give me the freedom to continue that type of life (but they give me many other joys). And I guess many of you are also, like me, busy to make sure we get our own stuff sorted out day by day.

But there is still something we can do for people like Saveth and the kids they take care of: make a small donation.

Because money can’t buy happiness. But it can buy school books, pencils, pay teachers, build classrooms and more. Because what’s just a few bucks for us, can make a whole of difference to them.

This is why, if you haven’t done yet any donation this year so far, I can warmly recommend you to donate to our friends at KNGO.

• KNGO donation page (select between sponsorships or one-time general donation)
• KNGO donation page for Europeans (via KNGO Germany)

Here is an indication on what can be done with your money.

• 20 Euro – one student is provided with a one-year supply of school books, folders, and pencils
• 50 Euro covers all costs for one student for 6 months
• 100 Euro gives a one-year scholarship to one student (the option I picked also this year myself)

Thanks to anyone of you, who decides to make a small donation to KNGO.

*How do I know KNGO?
I was in Cambodia to make fair trade T-shirts made by the amazing guys at Tonle. During my travel I stumbled on KNGO and I loved their work so much that I decided right there to donate all profits from the T-shirt sales to them. We ended up raising $5,000 for them.

Note: in the video below I silence the moment when I say “Italia”, because it was a time when I still did not want people (aka Fujifilm ;)) to know where I am located. The kids were at the Los Quinchos project in Nicaragua.