Graduates Development Program 2018 Update #1 • Getting Ready for Africa!

This summer a group of 15 students will travel abroad again to volunteer in a local community for the Graduates Development Program 2018. This year they will head off to Hout Bay, South-Africa to contribute to the long-term growth of local businesses.

Traveling with such a big group to South-Africa is a lot of fun, but in preparation of the project a lot of things have to be done. Starting with an acquisition phase where a lot of nice and sometimes a bit less nice phone calls have to be made in the run-up to a big Benefit Gala. Furthermore, the team participated in a run, sold old junk at the IJ-hallen and there will be additional activities like contributing in getting people drunk on Kingsday. When the acquisition phase is over, the research phase will start. The key goal will be to make sure that the team has the right knowledge to start a project in a country that is in many ways different from our Dutch environment.

The Safari Trip during the GDP journey

We started our safari as sales tigers by making the first acquisition calls. We saw the animal come out in every team member. Where some people call like lions: selecting their victim carefully by cunningly stalking the companies website before calling, picking up the phone and the start of a smooth sales-talk talking. Just when the poor prey is comfortable and doesn’t see it coming… The lion attacks and they are 500 euro worth of products lighter. We advise the duped to hang up the phone and hope that their CEO won’t notice. Of course all is for a good cause.

Next we headed out to the savannah of the far lands of the North of Amsterdam. The GDP team and some extra friends sacrificed their muscles for the Urban Trail Run. During the 10KM Urban Trail the team separated in antilopes; show-offs who run alone and want to be first even when nobody gives a damn, hyena’s; who cut the road, monkeys; who will dance at every obstacle, and even thought it was a lot of fun and last but not least the sloths who finish at their own pace. The running wasn’t for nothing since the team raised over two grand for their charity project.

Yes, as you see there is an animal hidden inside of all of us. This was proven once again during the drink we organized a few weeks ago to collect money for our trip and the Benefit Auction we hosted just last week during which we raised over €10.000 extra to help us support the local communities in Hout Bay!

We are now almost ready to fly out, but to make our journey complete we are organizing one last great fundraising event: the ING x GDP 5-a-side Football Tournament! Attend the Facebook event here & enroll your team here for a day full of soccer and a nice BBQ for only €40 per team.