Back home - the traveller returns

After almost two months of travelling, 7 countries, four continents, ten major cities, 23 flights, endless taxis, the weary traveller returns to Aberdeen, Scotland.

It has been an exhausting journey full of enormous potential. A great deal has been learned, many new contacts made and new relationships begun. Dreamaid has not received a single negative comment in all the discussions held, from government departments, to large corporate sponsors; from artisan communes of the very poor to a very famous musician I met in an airport.

I have just fed myself on home cooking (beans on toast - pure luxury)! Hotel and restaurant food for two months is enough for a lifetime. My first cup of tea was a relish to savour but it has to be said that my mind is on the massive amount of work I have drummed up.

All in all it is the most taxing, exhilerating, thought provoking, enjoyable, emotional and fabulous business trip I have ever made.

Thank you to everyone at UKTI for ther wonderful dedication, talent and support throughout my journey. Thank you also to everyone I met from the companies and government departments around the world. Thank you to Tom and Eve (my son and daughter support team) for their wonderful companionship and good humour and to Cenira without whose understanding and talent so much less would have been achieved. To friends and family for tolerating me; but we absent minded Dreamers require the occasional state of contemplation :)

So now to the mountain of emails that have amassed to circa 700 whilst on the trail.

I was sure before I left on this Round the World trip that Dreamaid would be a success. I am much more sure of it now... but now I think it has the potential to be massive on a truly global scale.

But we need people to buy these wonderful handmade products and to show their loved ones that they care. We cannot help anyone unless the business is successfully growing and that needs people to buy the products.

I'm sure that the buyers will come in large volumes over time and as they do we will be able to expand our support to those that need it.

Finally thank you for reading this and for following our exploits and sharing our Dream,

Peter McAteer

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro - BP

In our last visit to Brazil we had identified a potential project with the photographers that BP has trained in the Associacao Nova Brasiia within the Favela Complexo do Alemao. The project is named Foco no Futuro (Focus on the Future).
BP Castrol has trained 85 photographers from the favela ranging in age from their late teens to mid fifties with the main group being in the late teens and early twenties.

The training project has recently finished and the focus of the project organiser (Altayr – a lecturer from a local University - UNISUAM) is now upon turning the Association’s students in to monitors so that they can train other photographers. Also they are looking in to ways that the students can become professionals and support themselves by making a living out of their new found skills.

Dreamaid offers these people a market place in which to sell their prints. We explained how Dreamaid works and also discussed whether or not further support would be required from the Dreamaid Charity (for PC purchases / cameras / internet access). The project coordinator from BP is planning to consider this offer but thanked us for what we are doing already.

Our meeting was held at the Association offices on the edge of the favela and we took the opportunity to get some pictures which will be shown on the site shortly. It was a wonderful experience to see how a little support can go a long way and BP is to be congratulated on this outstanding example of community support.

There is further work to be done on the legal aspects of the Association’s agreements with the artists and between themselves. We will also need to review how cash can be received and distributed appropriately but these are hopefully small steps that can be accomplished within the next couple of months. An interim measure was offered by Altayr which may see these prints on sale very soon…

Thank you to Cris, Samara, Uanderson, Ana Carolina and Altayr for your hospitality! We are looking forward to our first project in Brazil within a favela and bringing your amazing photographs to the wider public attention of the world.

Best regards,

Peter McAteer

Brazil – Sao Paulo Press Conference

An announcement was made on the UKTI website and published in the influential daily newspaper for Sao Paulo (the Brazilian main city for commerce) O Estado de São Paulo on the 7th of August within the section Caderno 2 column Direto Da Fonte (Direct from the Source).

A highly respected national television company TV Cultura were also planning to follow us in Embu Das Artes but unfortunately were unable to attend due to a strike on the day. We agreed to advise TV Cultura and O Globo when we are back in Brazil and working on projects for them to show nationwide on TV. (O Globo the main TV channel had also expressed an interest in following our progress).

The Press Conference was a little disappointing in some respects with only 3 of the 12 reporters attending that had confirmed. However, those that did attend covered the key areas of tourism, sustainability / environment and house and home. The reporters will be publishing articles in their respective publications, Jornal Tourismo, National Geographic and “Casa&” a supplement of a major newspaper for Sao Paulo and the whole nation of Brazil “O Estado de S. Paulo”.

Another reporter from “Vida Simples” magazine conducted an interview by email which we hope will be published in the near future. His questions got to the heart of the matter of both the business and Charity of Dreamaid and I look forward to seeing his report.

Working with the media is new to me and I have much to learn but would like to thank those that attended and have assisted us thus far. There is much to do but this is a good start.

Best regards,

Peter McAteer

Brazil – Sao Paulo Embu Das Artes

We spent Friday evening with a small group of artisans discussing their difficulties accessing the internet and using Dreamaid. We invited them to our Press Conference in Sao Paulo and set up a plan to discuss with an Association set up to help them. We also arranged to see if we could obtain further banking support to help them receive payments by credit card in the same way in which this had been given in Benedito Calixto.

A subsequent meeting with the Association revealed potential to work together to provide the resources necessary to assist the artists and artisans to access the internet and to get their products online. However, this may make take some time and could be quite complex as this level of support doesn’t fall under the objectives of the Dreamaid Charity (as the people are not sufficiently poor) and is a significant cost for the Dreamaid business. However, we would like to help if possible and will continue to explore ways to assist as best we can.

Best regards,
Peter McAteer

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro - Statoil

An encouraging meeting was held with the head of CSR in Brazil in which we outlined the objectives of Dreamaid. Most oil and gas companies only perform CSR projects when they have a budget which is linked to a license to produce or explore for oil. However, Statoil takes a more proactive approach and embarks upon such projects in advance of being awarded licenses. We agreed to keep in touch and to see if we could work together on any potential projects with Statoil and also to see if we could liase with the head office in Norway.

Best regards,

Peter McAteer

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro - El Paso

An introductory meeting was held with the person responsible for HR on the subject of consulting services for Allomax in which Dreamaid was also discussed. The response on Dreamaid was positive and we agreed to keep in contact for future potential projects.

Best regards,

Peter McAteer

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro - Total

A meeting was held with the head of Finance, HR and Administration in which Dreamaid was discussed. He was very impressed with the idea and agreed to mention Dreamaid in the Paris head office and to help us develop a relationship with this very impressive French oil company which has operations all over the world and much of Western Africa. However, he felt that Dreamaid was potentially applicable within Brazil and we would maintain contact.

Best regards,

Peter McAteer