Paulo Coelho’s Blog

When and where the duty of an writer finishes?
 
Nobody is an island, as John Donne said once. By understanding that I have to fight for my rights, I also understood that this includes fighting for social justice. Since I was young, I had the romantic idea of giving people around me a chance.
 
For a period of my life, I was too busy, fighting for my own chance. Then, for another period, I could see – In my case - the light of the end of the tunnel, but I did not have money to help the others to fight for their dreams. In 1995 I had enough money to start a project, so I choose to:
 
a] support the children, the future of my country, giving them the same opportunity that I had as for education and love
 
b] support people who does not have enough money to live, so they only survive.
 
Today I invest up to 300.000 USDollars a year in these two projects. I could invest more, but there is a problem of physical space: we work in a “favela” ( a shanty town ) close to my apt., in five different houses, taking care of 310 children. We need three more houses to take care of another 200, and, although I have money to expand the project, there are no places to rent or sell in this area, so we are waiting the first opportunity to do it. I also use, as much as I can, my “influence” to get things from the govt., like credits to new projects developed by these people, basic sanitary needs, etc.
 
However, I only contribute with money and some sporadic visits to the places. The anonymous heroes and heroines, who are there all day long, working hard, are the ones who deserve the honors. Without them, my money would be useless.