TED Community » Jamey Ponte

About Me

Full time with Child Wellness Fund- I live stateside about half the year and the other half in Kenya in the bush around Narok or Masai Mara but all around rural regions of Kenya and surrounding countries. My primary effort would be helping others realize and move their dream and growth forward. Almost all if not all have to do with “Quality of Life”- sometimes it is launching a program that is certainly helping a targeted audience but it just might be really helping the individual that is dreaming it up and running it as well. Nothing is all that simple in life and we have to be flexible and be ready to adapt to make our efforts and dreams not only alive but than have the tools to keep them alive. That is what I work at every day.
I love what I do. I am proud of what I do. I am so grateful I had the balls to jump out of the rat race and enjoy Life. Now I help others explore it too.

Standing up for the little guy. Not being afraid of the status quo or leadership. Not being afraid to sacrifice funding/support for being able to do the right thing. Not being afraid to attack something that simply might not be the right time to launch or very popular or certainly not in the funding pocket. But we find ways to make it work- I help the underdog. Making things out of nothing. Willing to just say lets try it and be responsible with what we move forward doing. Giving ideas the chance to grow and see if they can make a difference for someone's quality of life. Being responsible and finishing the task even if it is so much harder than you planned for. Giving people a second chance or even a third- yea that one usually causes me some
stress and pain. But it is who I am.

Being there for those I stand for. Not only helping them see their way but holding their hand if needed as they get through it.

I did the college thing- even taught college as an adjunct but really my achievements are teaching others in the field not the classroom. I teach others to not only help someone in need but to not be afraid to hold their hand as they go through the issue. I enjoy knowing that we
helped the best we could to move something along and to encourage others that we all have something to give. The laundry lists: launched the first child obesity summer camp in the Midwest, launched the largest and really the only real daycare addressing early intervention for typical, medically fragile and behavioral needs children, started and support at least a handful of Govt. Schools in rural Kenya, Founder and publisher to the first Arts magazine in the city of Cincinnati, helped secure funding for retailers to get their stores open as fast as possible after the racial riots in Cincinnati, launched Second Home a program that gives
nearly $200,000 annually worth of durable medical equipment back into the families that need the equipment now with a simple one page application form that helps 100’s of social workers through the HIIPA restrictions when trying to families.
The list goes on and on but it is not me that did all this alone. Actually I was nothing but the guy that helped someone else realize the dream. My nonprofit is like an incubator for others that have an idea no matter how small or large to make it come to life and explore if it makes the difference they imagine. Pretty cool stuff.