MAKING IMPACT IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS. NINA KNOWS WHY.

Most companies decide how to make social impact in the boardroom, without asking the people they want to support. Most of us do the same thing. Nina Schmid spent twelve years learning why that doesn't work and what does.

She founded Move Forward Foundation after walking away from a dance career, not because she had a plan, but because working with people in refugee camps felt more real than anything she had done on stage. What followed was twelve years of NGO work across five countries, thousands of young people, and exceptional encounters no study could have prepared her for. Including the day she had to address a large group of teenagers after a shooting in their neighbourhood, when the program she had planned suddenly became irrelevant and everything she said mattered more than ever.

In her talk, Nina shares what actually creates lasting impact, why good intentions often get in the way and what you can do differently starting tomorrow. She shares her own failures alongside the successes and challenges the audience to stop assuming they know what others need. Spoiler alert: Nina sends everyone home wanting to do something.

English, Dutch and Spanish speaking. Open to international bookings.

YOU DID’T CHOOSE WHERE YOU WERE BORN, BUT SOMEONE CHOSE TO SEE YOU.

When was the last time you really saw somebody?
Lesley Macaya grew up in the Spaarndammerbuurt in Amsterdam as a KOP-child. A child with a parent with mental health challenges. Every time his mother got better, things changed. Every time she relapsed, things changed again. New address. New school. New friends. For years his life moved like a yo-yo. There was no fixed place. No safety net. And the feeling that nobody really saw him.

He was shaped by small things. Things people did or said without realising it. And things he quietly taught himself. Not belonging anywhere turned out to be its own kind of fuel. He built his own home with Garage Noord and Cafe 40. Today he runs a Dutch NGO.

In his talk, Lesley asks the audience questions that will stay with them long after they leave the room. The kind that makes you think differently about every small thing you do, or don’t, for the people around you.

Dutch and Papiamento speaking. Open to international bookings. 

ARE YOU THE ONE HOLDING SOMEONE BACK?

Her teacher told her taekwondo wasn’t for her. Samira El Idrissi became a world champion. But that’s not the story that she tells on stage.

She grew up as the quiet girl who didn’t dare to raise her hand in class. Taekwondo changed that. It gave her confidence, an identity. At the 2013 World Championship, standing in the semi-finals as the first Dutch female athlete, her coach told her the result was already decided: bronze was guaranteed. She lost that fight. Three years later with a different coach in her corner who told her this is your moment to make a difference, she won the title.

Same athlete. Different words.

That is exactly what Samira talks about. Growing up in a Frisian – Moroccan family, Samira understands that language, in every sense, is how you reach people. She founded La Forsa to give young girls the mental resilience nobody handed her. Working with young people has taught her that real change doesn’t start with a budget or a policy. It starts with the right person saying the right thing at the right moment. In Amsterdam-West that moment once saved an entire family.

In her talk Samira challenges the audience to look around: who in your team is quietly waiting for someone to believe in them?

Dutch and English speaking. Open to international bookings. 

AFRICA DOESN’T NEED YOUR MONEY. IT NEEDS YOU TO SEE WHAT IS ALREADY THERE.

In 2008, post-election violence tore through Kenya and hundreds of people died. Mike Wamaya had a contract with a dance company in Europe waiting for him. He turned it down. Kenya needed him.

He started teaching dance to children in Kibera, one of the largest settlements in Africa. His intention was not to train professional dancers, but to build impact from the ground up. Using dance as a tool for dignity and self-worth, to teach children how to identify problems, resolve conflict and work as a team. Dance became a pathway to places nobody expected these kids to go. One of his students is about to become the first neuroscientist from Kibera.

For almost two decades Mike has watched well-funded NGOs implement projects that communities never asked for. A high-tech toilet that broke within a week. Next to the concrete one his community built and which is still working ten years later. His conclusion is uncomfortable: most organisations working in Africa are obstacles, not solutions.

In his talk, Mike shows what dance can actually do, not on stage, but in a community. He challenges audiences to rethink what giving means, because money is not the connection. People are. And once you understand that, everything changes.

English speaking. Open to international bookings.