We All have A CHOICE TO CHANGE

"The true meaning of Wealth is not how much we have but how much we can truly give"

When most of us enjoy our free time and days off doing our favorite hobbies like sports or going to the gym, catching up and spending time with our friends and family or going to parties or just staying at home to unwind, we sometimes tend to forget to give back to our community and share what we have to those who are less fortunate. We can easily get caught up with our own problems and be a little bit self centered and not see the bigger picture of what’s going on around us, outside our comfort zone and really see where we stand that we are very fortunate to be eating 3 times a day even sometimes more, have a roof above us and have a job that can sustain our lifestyle. But when I accidentally met these 3 inspiring people from Etihad who are cabin crew and one pilot my whole perspective of life changed for the better and inspired me in a way to help and share what I have.  Eva (ex-cabin crew who started Choice to Change), Mark Azzam (330 pilot) and Marius (cabin senior) started a charity for the poor people in Bangladesh. They saw how it was to live in the slums during one of their flights there and doesn’t want to just say poor them, but decided to take action and form a charitable trust called CHOICE TO CHANGE which they put up 2 schools one in LALMATI Bangladesh there 1^st ever school and in KHILKET Bangladesh which is there 2^nd school built by there thrust which educates children starting from Nursery to Grade One which both schools have the same number of children that provides free education. They also employed teachers for there school for all levels, which gets salary every month. 

(L-R) MARIUS, EVA (not shown in picture) and Mark Azzam 

Children that benefits from CHOICE TO CHANGE

So what makes EVA, MARK and MAURIUS inspiring? Besides putting up these 2 schools for these poor children, they shoulder all the expenses and have committed 10 percent of their salary from Etihad every month since the day they have started in 2010. Sometimes they do get milk donations from cabin crew and pilots every now and then and some clothes for the children but not regularly as themselves who are really committed with these 96 poor kids whom they are educating for free in their school. Talk about giving that became there own responsibility that makes them inspired whenever they are in there school.

Marius who request flights to Bangladesh every month to be with the children and Mark whenever he has 4 days off goes to Bangladesh to see over the operations of the school that they are managing. With the peoples donation for milk whenever Marius or Mark gets a flight to Bangladesh these kids were able to drink milk in the morning in school plus fruits as part of there daily diet so they end up not being malnourished.  Eva, Mark and Marius vision is to expand more their school and be able to hire more teachers for these poor kids and get education for free until they reach high school if more donations could come. Because otherwise these children wont be able to go to school because of poverty. They also plan to make Choice to Change as a Social Welfare Organization so they can approach big companies for funds.

It’s funny how researches have shown that investing income in others rather than oneself have measurable benefits for ones own greater happiness. Having the opportunity to meet and talk with Marius, Mark and Eva surely explain why they have more positive outlook in life.

If all of us even in our own little way could help our colleagues in Etihad contribute to there project Choice to Change, we can help more poor kids in Bangladesh the opportunity to go to school. It could be our opportunity to give back to our community.  For donations for Choice to Change pls call or email Mark Azzam 0505802223 or Marius Belciug 0502685009 or email them at Choicetochange@gmail.com. Visit there website at www.Thechoicetochange.org