SagerFamily

Kibera, Kenya. Kibera is known as and most of its residents lack running water.

Los Angeles kids got together with soccer players to celebrate the Bobby’s book, Power of the Invisible Sun @ Fred Segal this past Thurs. When you buy a book we give an indestructible HOPE ball to kids in need. Thanks to all who came out!

Int’l musician and Sager Foundation friend, Rocky Dawuni @ the Hope is Happening event @ Fred Segal in Santa Monica.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area we’ll see you tonight, 6-9pm at Fred Segal in Santa Monica!

Elaine Sager visting with some of our grantees in Rwanda.

Video is on Facebook: Check it Out

Executive Director of the Sager Foundation, Ken Tsunoda, in Rwanda.

Kacha Gari Refugee Camp, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. This photo was taken by Bobby Sager about a month after 9/11/01.

We’ve all heard the familiar criticism–that despite our relative wealth and high standard of living, modern life has left many of us feeling lonely, disconnected, and spiritually bankrupt.

At a time when so many of us are working ourselves to death, struggling to support ourselves and our loved ones, and seeking balance in our personal and professional lives, it seems that there is no time to step outside of our immediate experience and ask ourselves the deeper questions about community, connection, and what it means to reach out and help another human being.

Given the break-neck pace of our own lives, at the end of the day there just doesn’t seem to be enough left of ourselves to give–emotionally or financially. (more…)

Originally posted at the London Evening Standard

Sting and Trudie Styler last night hosted a party at the Saatchi Gallery, for their friend, photographer and philanthropist Bobby Sager.

Support: Bobby Sager with Annie Lennox

Sager has written a book, The Power of the Invisible Sun, documenting his travels in war torn areas, the proceeds of which finance indestructible yellow footballs for needy children all over the world.

Special guests: Jemimia Khan with Bella Freud

“He wanted to go into the Amazon and I have contacts there,” said Sting of his pal. “I thought he’d never come out of there.” Guests included Jemima Khan, Val Kilmer, Alan Yentob and Mike Figgis.

NEW YORK — Sting is sitting in the lotus position on a plush white couch in his bright Central Park West apartment, talking about how a soccer ball might change a poor child’s life.

“Instant, instant joy!” says the singer and activist.

And so he has co-founded a nonprofit group that is sending soccer balls to children in some of the most troubled places on Earth. Indestructible soccer balls.

“These kids have got nothing,” Sting notes as a uniformed servant hovers in his doorway with a silver tray. Sting says that very poor children sometimes fashion their own soccer balls out of crumpled plastic bags tied together with twine.

The kids live in rough places — Rwanda, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories. They might end up kicking a soccer ball around garbage and glass. That’s where the indestructible part comes in.

Sting funded research and development to create a strong, long-lasting ball that had the “same weight and consistency and feel” as a soccer ball. It took a year. But here it is, about $8 to produce, to be replicated by the thousands, bright yellow and printed with the words: “HOPE Is a Game-Changer”

“Most soccer balls are inflated, they’re plastic, or traditionally leather, but they break, they get deflated, and they get punctured, and it’s useless,” Sting says. This ball is different. “It’s made of foam, it’s solid.”

“It kicks like a soccer ball,” he adds. “I’ve kicked it, I’ve headed it, but I haven’t scored a goal with it yet.”
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Sting played soccer as a child in northern England, and later with his own children, and he still roots for Newcastle United.

His partner in the project is traveling philanthropist Bobby Sager, who befriended Sting at a hotel bar on the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Sager assembled a book of photographs he took of refugee and war-impacted children, and is putting the proceeds toward the indestructible balls.

The pop star, who has supported various environmental causes, acknowledges that in the world's poorest places, children also need food and medicine.

But soccer balls matter, too, he said. The game can develop a sense of cooperation, leadership -- and fun.

"Play is important," he says. "As important as anything else, really."

Originally Posted at The Washington Post

Ten years ago I stopped working as an entrepreneur to devote myself to philanthropy full-time. It wasn’t about redemption. It was about fullness. I took my children Tess and Shane, then 10 and 7, out of school and along with my wife Elaine ventured out into some of the world’s most difficult places.

I met the children featured in the The Power of the Invisible Sun during those travels. I photographed them from just weeks after September 11, 2001 until 2009. They lived in alleyways, refugee camps, slums, and remote villages from Afghanistan to Rwanda to Nepal. They were refugees, orphans, child soldiers, and just plain kids dealing with war, conflict, natural disaster, abuse, and displacement. I came face-to-face with them because I was there to help, and that’s a big part of the connection you see in their eyes.

I chose to only use the images of children because it is through the strength and possibilities you see in their young eyes that the power of the invisible sun can become so compelling. I wanted you to see what I see. Feel what I feel. Have your hearts opened up in new ways.

More than anything this book is about hope. Giving someone hope can sound cliché, it can sound sweet, but hope is the most important thing that people need to move forward. It’s not cuddly. It’s strategic.

At the end of the book I ask the question NOW WHAT? It’s my hope that by the time you reach that point, you’ll be compelled to answer it. To do something. Anything. Because that’s the point. I don’t want you to feel sorry for them or want to give them a hug. Just the opposite. I want you to take strength from their strength, feel more thankful in your own life, and go find ways to help. To give hope. Not just by giving money, but by giving something of yourself.

I don’t have any special way to do this and I’m not saying my approach is the best. But I do know that this is not a spectator sport. I do know that everyone has to connect their own dots. I hope the experience of this book, in some small way, helps you to connect yours.

Originally posted at The Huffington Post