Asafe’s Interview
Interviewer: How long have you been involved with FAD here in Brazil?
Asafe: My name is Asafe. You didn’t ask, but I’m the son of Christine, who runs the operation here. I’m 31, almost 32.
I’ve been connected to FAD since the beginning in a way, but for a short period, a year or two, I was also a teacher, an English teacher, probably the first English teacher here. But life took a different path, and I was never really connected to the day-to-day activities. I’m always connected, but now from afar, this is like helping how I can to promote FAD, giving ideas or doing the best I can for the business side.
Interviewer: You said you’ve been connected to FAD since the beginning. So how long is that?
Asafe: Twenty-one years.
Interviewer: Twenty-one years. So you’ve really seen FAD come a long way from its inception to today.
Asafe: Yeah. I was there when my mom started it, I’m not sure if it was day one, but let’s consider that “day one” was repeated many, many times. What happened was my mom would have some activities, paper activities for the kids to draw and paint, and she’d bring a bag full of sweet bread and a jar of juice.
So that was it. FAD was just a woman with some paper, some bread, and juice. She’d get the key for a small church in one of the communities here, ask the pastor for access, and the kids would do the activities, mostly drawing. At some point she started bringing a sound system, back when you’d put on a CD with Christian songs. That’s how it grew from there. I watched it, I was with her. I wasn’t really helping, I was probably just one of the other kids killing time. But that’s what I saw, and that’s pretty much where I started.
Interviewer: How has FAD made a difference in your life?
Asafe: The first answer that comes to mind is learning English. That’s pretty much what made a huge difference.
But if I go a bit further, I’d say that before learning English, I was already connected to the world through relating to North Americans. By the age of 10 or 11, I already had that kind of opportunity, which isn’t common at all for people from where I came from. I think many kids had that same opportunity, but for something inside of me, a big desire sparked to make that my day-to-day reality. I’ve met literally thousands of international people, and I love that. I simply love talking about language and cultural differences, and that was there since day one, when I first met the Americans who came.
Interviewer: Why is it so important for the children, and for you, to learn English?
Asafe: From my own experience, if you don’t have English, you’re pretty much stuck. If you dream big but don’t have the basics, it’s like when you and your husband are talking and you don’t complement each other’s language skill; it’s a basic thing you need. At some point I understood: if I didn’t have that basic ability to communicate with the world, I wouldn’t have been able to go further, become an entrepreneur, create projects, and do much bigger things. I always dreamed bigger than average.
Interviewer: So what I hear you saying is, by learning English and being connected to people in the United States, you saw bigger opportunities for yourself in your life.
Asafe: For sure. And I don’t even think that’s enough, because many other kids and teenagers here had the same opportunities, but they didn’t create the same path. I’m not saying everyone should do what I did, but I know what I had in my hands, the opportunity, and what I could do with it, to the max.
I think what FAD can help with nowadays is sending a clear message and giving tools, opening doors, so kids understand better what they can do with the English language and the experience. Because right now, they’ve got the language, but they’re still using it in a very limited space. It’s like a metaphor: if you have a golden retriever puppy inside a tiny house, and he keeps growing and growing, but the house never changes, the owner never gets a bigger one, eventually the house becomes too small for him. So what I think is, we need to give them a new structure around the abilities they already have. I don’t think they know how to use them properly yet.
There’s a quote I like to use a lot: don’t compare yourself to people who don’t have the same support system as you do.
Interviewer: What does that mean to you? What does support mean to you, in terms of how you grow, develop, and find opportunity?
Asafe: You got in my head with that one. I try not to compare myself with people who didn’t have the same base and system that I had. I know I am very fortunate and blessed. I don’t feel like I need to compare myself to them, or them to me. But I feel like I’ve already been to places and done things, and I can help uplift them.
Interviewer: Now that you’ve lived the life with the support you know it takes, in America we say it takes a village to raise a child, and you’ve got that. So now, how do you give that to others?
Asafe: My strength comes from my family too, my mom and dad. But even at home, I feel like I overachieved. My mom, in order to protect me, was trying not to let me go. “Don’t go there if you don’t have everything already in your hands, every tool, every piece of knowledge you need.” And I don’t believe that. I believe I need to take risks. I’m a big risk taker, and my mom and dad are not, not in the same way.
We had a really good conversation last year, me and my parents, and I tried to translate to them how I feel and how I see our faith. They are very faithful, and I feel like I’m also faithful in my own way, but I’m an action taker and they are waiters. They’re faithful people who wait for God to make things very clear before they act, and they wait until things come to them. And funny enough, things do come to them. I go to things.
That’s how it works for me. It doesn’t make sense, for my type of faith, to close the door, kneel, pray, and say that’s everything I’m going to do about it. I can kneel, I can pray, but right after, some idea will pop into my head right away. If you give me a problem, my mind will work on a solution in a second. And I’m not going to wait on anything. I like to believe that idea was given by God, so I’m going to act on it. It doesn’t mean it’s always going to work. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, and then I’ll change course. But that’s how it is.
Interviewer: So you’re a big dreamer, and it sounds like you’re also a doer, an activator. You’ve seen FAD at the beginning, in a little room of a church. Where do you see FAD going in the future?
Asafe: I’ve been given some insights about that. I was kind of worried about my parents, in a way, I don’t see them having a clear view of what they could do without FAD’s current funding model. During the pandemic, for example, it could have been the case that the funding just dried up, no more support coming in. I’m not saying I want that to happen, nobody does, but I told them: I think this project already has enough resources to potentially extend on its own. I don’t think that’s possible today, or this year, or even in two years. There’s a lot of training, studying, and working to be done. But what I’d like to see FAD do is first make a decision: at some point, we’re going to do stuff with our own resources. There are plenty of ways to do that.
I also think FAD could have franchises, kind of, this building could become the attraction that draws resources for new buildings. So with the people we have here, the structure, the size of everything, and the help that comes from the US, I see this growth reaching new places and new communities.
And also, what I focus on a bit more, because they are my parents, is that anyone can do this. When you’re trying to learn something, it might take you a year, and then you make a video on YouTube, and I watch that video, and it takes me 15 minutes. But when we talk about the 21-year experience they have, it can only be replicated by me with 21 years. They can give me some knowledge that gets absorbed by me in a smaller time. But the experience, they cannot transfer. They can teach me everything they know, but they cannot transfer to me everything they’ve experienced. Maybe what they thought can be transferred, but not what they lived.
Interviewer: So I heard you say your vision for FAD is for it to become part of other communities. Can you tell me why that’s so important, and the impact FAD has had on this community?
Asafe: Sure. From what I see, people have noticed the difference in their neighbors, seeing the kids from the other house doing better, improving, not being rebellious like they used to be. If we think about Maslow’s hierarchy, we were so low, we helped the community with the basics. I don’t think the people running FAD right now even realize how much we’ve improved. We have better problems now.
Interviewer: You’ve met the basic needs on Maslow’s hierarchy, and FAD is meeting that basic need for these kids.
Asafe: Exactly. Just yesterday we were having a meeting with Gary and Mike, and we were talking about dreams. Like, what dreams do you have? We were talking about having a pool with small balls, or a table with fancy cutlery. This isn’t a basic need, it’s something further along. We’re thankfully, after 20 years, meeting needs that aren’t as basic as in the beginning.
I didn’t fully answer your question, but I was contextualizing what I think the community’s view might be. Back in the day my mom would make visits, and the houses were falling down structurally. Right now, most of these people have better housing too, partly because at some point help was sent to refurbish and rebuild. Food, shelter, health issues, those are being met. So now I think we’re growing toward the next level. FAD is popular because people have a better perception of what they need, and that need isn’t felt in their stomach anymore. When your basic need is food, you don’t have time to think about anything else. But once that need is met, you’re comfortable, and now you’re thinking about a better school, English, art, music. Those are much higher on the pyramid. I think FAD has given this community a better position to plan their lives.
Interviewer: Because the basics have been met. I’m here speaking on behalf of the Americans, and one question we have is: why Brazil? Why us?
Why do you need our help and support? What difference does it make for you?
Asafe: To be really honest and straightforward, the money side is very clear. One US dollar is worth about five reais. So we need to understand that you guys are in a position of abundance, and people here are in a position of scarcity. Our $50 American dollars go a lot further than 50 reais would. You can’t do much with 50 reais, but with $50, it’s a big difference.
Interviewer: So one reason you need our support is monetary. What’s another reason?
Asafe: I’d say it goes further up the pyramid, because money meets the basic needs, or the not-so-basic-but-still-needs. What I got, and what Jessica got, came from the perspective of the world, the knowledge. Actually going to the US, or a new country, getting to know and absorb knowledge from people who’ve lived a different way and achieved greater things. It gets a bit more philosophical. The needs here are very palpable, things you can touch. The next step is helping with the abstract stuff, the perception of a bigger world with more opportunities. I think that’s what me and Jessica represent, examples of people who’ve touched those opportunities. I think that’s the next step for the staff here.
In 2014, my mom, dad, and some staff had the opportunity to go to Colorado, and it was amazing for them. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know exactly what they learned or how they applied it here. But from my own experience traveling, I see more clearly now that we’ve only been talking about the needs of the community. Now I want to bring up the needs of the team. Joanna, Nata, Wonderson, all of these guys, in my opinion, they lack ambition. That’s just my own opinion. They’re English fluent, and they’re using that skill in a space where it’s not fully useful. They have a tool that’s valuable anywhere, and they’re using it here, which helps the community, teaching the kids, but what if they got a scholarship to Colorado for training? What if they got a work opportunity in Europe or Asia? I think we can help them with that, opening the door. I think it starts with the decision, understanding that it’s time to help the guys who’ve grown as far as they can see right now. They’re the reference here, but there’s so much space to grow.
Interviewer: In closing, what would you like the United States to know about you and FAD?
Asafe: Let’s start with FAD. I’d like the Americans to know that a difference has been made, that’s literally the name of it. I was telling you at the hotel the first night: the first investors, the first volunteers, the first North Americans who invested, they’re like Moses. They didn’t get to see the promised land. You guys came here and you saw it. If you go back and tell Mary, Nancy, David, and everyone else about the experience, it’s completely different than experiencing it firsthand. They were meeting the basic needs. You get to come here for a much lighter, happier experience. You already see the structure in place. You see that the issue now is an air conditioner. Back in the day, the issue was food, the issue was shelter.
I think what I want them to know is that a difference has been made, and we’ve evolved into a different type of problem. I believe life isn’t about not having problems, it’s about having better problems to solve. They should be really proud of what they invested, the time, the energy, the prayer, everything. And the team here should be proud too, because I don’t think this conversation has ever really happened between Brazil and the US. I don’t think they know how to translate it, and I’m not even talking about Portuguese to English. I don’t think they’re able yet to understand these small details. Honestly, I didn’t even know I was capable of thinking this deeply about it until this conversation. I think we’ve faced so much growth, and that’s important for Colorado, for us, to know.
Interviewer: And now about you.
Asafe: It’s been hard for me to answer that one. What do you want the North Americans to know about me?
What I’d say is: I am who I am today because of FAD, that’s a fact. And I am who I am because of me too, somehow. It doesn’t sound right, but what I mean is, the tool was given to me, the skill was given to me, the blessing was given to me, and I did my part. The seed met fertile ground. I’m not bragging, I’m just saying it needs to happen both ways. The seeds need to find fertile ground. We have plenty of fertile ground here, but we need to meet them, understand who they are.
What I want people to know about me is that I’m the kind of person who takes advantage of every opportunity I possibly can. I try to make the most of it. I’m a doer, like you said. I don’t spend too much time overthinking what I’m going to do, I take one step right away, understanding as I go. But I do admire people who are different, I learned this from my parents, how did you build something this powerful, this impactful, starting from kneeling and praying? Of course it came with a lot of work too, but it just didn’t happen that way for me.
One thing that’s kind of funny to share: I waited for the Americans’ help for more than a decade, and it never came, because I was told someone would take me to the US one day, like, “Oh, you’re coming with us someday, we’ll bring you to Colorado.” And I took that to heart. I was always ready to go, or I should say, I was always ready to be taken. I was never actually ready to go myself. It took me more than ten years to become ready to go on my own. This started in 2006. I took my first international flight in 2015, and in 2017 I left the community here to go live my own life and build my own path.
At the time, I was waiting for someone to save me, and in a way, someone had already saved them from those basic needs. So maybe they’re waiting for someone to save them at the next level up too. What I try to help the staff with, when I get the chance to talk with them, is to uplift them, to help them build more ambition so they can save themselves. They’re already able to save money, or make more money, buy a ticket to Europe, apply for a visa, and we could help with information along the way. But how many people have actually told us they want to come to the US? I’d ask them directly: are you clearly telling us you want to come? Is that your decision? Are you going to do what it takes on your end? Because we can do everything on our side, but it’s a two-way street. I don’t think they’ve made that decision yet, because of what I’d call this whole sociological, philosophical thing I’m trying to describe.
So what I want them to know is that right now, I’m someone who understands self-responsibility. You can help me, but I’ll do my part. I’ll do what only I can do. I think that’s a powerful message to spread here.
