Heart to Heart

The ICHA Blog

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ICHA: Coming of Age by Nikka Rapkin on September 10, 2009 | 0 comments

So much to write about these days, I'm not quite sure where to start. I'll begin with those issues most pressing.
 
Namely: ICHA has it's first big fundraiser this week -- on Friday. If you haven't heard about it -- and we very much hope you already have --it's at the Museum of the African Diaspora on Mission and Third. Our team has been doing everything a young nonprofit can to get the word out, but still, it's an uphill battle to cobble together the foundation of support necessary to make this organization what it could be. We hope you can join us -- it is absolutely essential that we have a good turnout, and filling a whole museum is a daunting task.

 
On the other hand, daunting tasks are what we do. We were featured in a local SF blog this week: http://iliveheresf.blogspot.com/2009/09/icha.html. Although the blog typically profiles individuals, Julie -- master photographer of i live here -- kindly agreed to profile ICHA as an organization. She took a gorgeous snapshot at our BBQ last weekend and, there we are (or some of us), along with our story.

 
The feedback on the story has been tremendous -- well beyond anything I was expecting. People are inspired, not just about us, but by us, which is still more affirmation, yet again, that there is an inherent value in what we are doing, that all of this hard work is translating into something positive, significant, and meaningful. The fact that ICHA has brought people together -- and not just any people, but the brilliant young people who will lead tomorrow's great global health movements, that ICHA has created community and galvanized interest and understanding of the developing world's cardiovascular health crisis in San Francisco at large, that ICHA has provided inspiration and a unique training ground for a group of individuals who, eventually, will disperse and move on to do amazing things in their own ways . . . . This is how we make the world a better place. And we haven't even left for Ghana yet.
 
ICHA has comprised one tremendous learning experience after another. We have made a lot of mistakes -- I have made a lot of mistakes -- but one aspect of this organization that is ever-present is our powerful reluctance to make the same mistake twice. Our learning curve is phenomenal. The result? We are on the cusp of possessing a concrete business plan for 2010-2013 -- something ambitious (daunting, yes), but fundamentally do-able. Something that will take us leaps and bounds closer to how we imagine ourselves. We have at our feet a myriad of other stepping stones as well, spanning barriers we are eager to cross. And, if we can pull off, with only a couple months notice and preparation, a massive fundraiser of the type typically promoted by organizations many times our size (and possessing paid staff to boot), if we can send a full team to Ghana, if we can have more introductions to health officials, government officers, community leaders, and leading researchers than we know what to do with, if we can continue to broker relationships with students, professionals, and nonprofits all across the country . . . all of this, we are doing, right now, every day, folks, we can do anything.
 
See you Friday!