Today we’d like to introduce you to Ric Juarez.
Hi Ric, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I am the founder and executive director of a nonprofit organization based out of Flower Mound, TX, with global reach. In 2021 I built an initial team of change-makers with the goal to establish a grassroots nonprofit organization with the responsibility to work with children in less privileged circumstances in the world.
Our research and inspiration lead us in the important work of addressing education inequalities in the global stage, and later finally arrived at our stated mission: “To Remove the Obstacles to Education and Health from Children Living in Extreme Poverty, in Extremely Remote Regions of the World.”
As an immigrant of Peru and an orphan, it became extremely obvious to us that a great place to start this mission would be in the Andes of Peru, in remote locations where poverty is paralyzing, and their distance from civilization precluded their ability to access basic materials of education; giving us the clear path to provide school materials, as a basis of our methodology.
We publicly launched in March of 2022 with 47 students, a plan to give materials, and a bank account reflecting a few dollars. Since then, in the course of the following year, we had served over 250 students in the country of Peru and added the country of Uganda with another 250 students.
As 2023 comes to an end, Dear Future is preparing to provide school materials to 700 students in both countries, and we have added a second program focused on providing girls in Uganda access to hygienic pads, a basic necessity that is inaccessible to the population we serve.
This social issue is called Period Poverty and has become one of our cornerstones and focus because it’s a real danger to the education of girls globally, including in our own country, but it also represents clearly the marks of inequality that are drawn in populations that live in remote and extremely poor regions of the world.
I am a 20-year veteran of the US Navy and believed my entire career that we are a beacon for equality and the right to be a global citizen. and I have made it my new mission to create change that is kind, powerful, impactful, and long-lasting in the lives of children that are living the life I could’ve had; but fortunately and providentially didn’t.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, as it is to be expected. Starting and sustaining a nonprofit is possibly one of the most challenging management tasks one can embark on. Fundraising is a difficult thing to do when you are raising a company from zero. At the turn of every mission accomplished, you are met by the next one, waiting to be funded, and when your goal in the nonprofit’s life is to not break the promises you’ve made to the children you have been helping, as managers, we take these tasks as living and breathing babies.
I quit my amazing job in August of 2021 to pursue a life commitment; with leaving behind a comfortable salary come the challenges of living in our systems. And though challenging, this mission hasn’t broken us yet.
Another challenge is an experiential one; living and breathing nonprofits are met with some of the saddest and most soul-crushing sights and experiences. When you truly dive in this work and personally meet the social issues that come with it, you are hit with many feelings that could make you lose hope stress, and depress the normal soul. One has to take enough time to process and compartmentalize the emotions in buckets of understanding. The difference is that after each and every experience, you have the opportunity to take action, and acted we have: in our short time, we have built a school in Uganda for children of extreme poverty within already existing poverty, taken a group of 20 child laborers out of a rock quarry mine, and provided over 2000 girls access to period pads.
To close this segment, one constant occurrence has been the fact that every time we confronted a challenge, a victorious solution always presented itself; with hard work and a dedication to doing good things, doors opened, and the right connections were made.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My current work is based squarely in nonprofit work, managing and executing the work we do to bring education and health to children living in extreme poverty and in extremely remote regions of the world. I believe that slowly I am becoming known for this work, and I’d like to think that people are seeing my committed desire to show my friends and family the path of kindness. My whole career was built in the world of operations, in military aerospace while flying combat missions for the US Navy, to manufacturing in SpaceX and other DOD supporting companies to delivering thousands of supplies to children in villages where the roads end.
I’m not sure I have met the moment I am most professionally proud of, but I feel it’s coming; I find pride in the fact that I am leaving a noble example for my children to draw inspiration from.
I am a believer that the road we walk is there for us to learn how to walk, and eventually to give meaning to our steps. I walk slower today, but I try to give more meaning to every step.
What matters most to you? Why?
I believe that developing ourselves should be the most important goal and what should matter more to all of us. The more we know ourselves, the more we recognize that we are all connected and that the language of growth is in love and kindness. Everything else branches off from there; the more I care for myself, the more I am able to care for others, and in turn, the easier it becomes for others to recognize the same in themselves.
What I do now is an expression of that; everything I love and care about is the most important to me, my family, my labor, and the lives of all the children we help and plan to help in the years to come.
Contact Info:
- Website: dear-future.org
- Instagram: instagram.com/dearfuturengo
- Facebook: facebook.com/dearfutureusa
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dear-future-inc/
- Twitter: twitter.com/dearfuturengo
Image Credits
@dez_uganda_art
Kevin Valdez
Dear Future Photographer
