Today I met a wonderful man. His name is Ahmed Rahim and he is the co-founder of Numi Tea, one of the largest sellers of organic and fair-trade premium tea in the United States. He shared with me his vision of community, young people and education. He is planning to introduce a new curriculum for young people grades K - 3 that is centered around art and the environment. His vision is to launch this curriculum in the inner cities of America to begin with and later to establish free standing schools that will help many of America's children who are in underserved communities. Eventually he wants to serve young people in grades K - 12.
What made his vision so wonderful to listen to is that he is talking about offering a curriculum that is nourishment based. By building learning around artistic endeavor and being in relationship to nature, he believes a new young person can emerge from the inner city who is more grounded and filled with his or her own voice.
A portion of the sales of Numi Tea will help to create a perpetual income stream supplemented by grants and other donations. Beautiful.
His energy, his light, his passion are evident as he talks about his vision. He is committed, open, collaborative and pushing to learn as much as he can wherever he can about children and education. He also is a wonderful listener as he asked many questions about what we are about and how we intend to grow our vision.
Our lunch was a mutual exchange of ideas, energy and wonder as we shared our time together. We are going to get together again to discuss his ideas for curriculum and to see the work of those who have pariticipated in the Listening Sessions. Thanks Ahmed for an enlightening and engaging first of what I hope will be many visits.
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