Hope and Your Vote – What’s the Election Connection? – with Nathan Naidu [Ep. 41]

Linda J. Hansen:  Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101® Breakroom Economics Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen. Your host and the author of Prosperity 101® - Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck, and the creator of the Breakroom Economics online course. The book, the course, and the entire podcast library can be found on Prosperity101.com. I seek to connect boardroom to breakroom and policy to paycheck by empowering and encouraging employers to educate employees about the public policy issues that affect their jobs.

My goal is to help people understand the foundations of prosperity, the policies of prosperity, and how to protect their prosperity by becoming informed, involved, and impactful. I believe this will lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement, and retention and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. Listen each week to hear from exciting guests and be sure to visit Prosperity101.com.

As you know, technology does not always cooperate, especially as we all have to work remotely more often than not. Please forgive the few sound glitches you may hear in this episode, but I do believe you’ll truly enjoy the content. Thank you. 

Today, my guest is someone I’ve worked with for many years. He calls me mom, though I’m not his biological mom. We are a work family, shall I say. We are work family, but Nathan Naidu is with me today and I will let the interview progress as he shares a little bit more about himself. But as we look at the upcoming election and all elections, we need to stop and think about the effects of our vote. What does it mean for people here in the U.S., but what does it mean for people all over the world? And with that, I’ll let Nathan share his story and what he’s doing and why, how we vote in this election and every election matters. So, with that, Nathan, welcome.

Nathan Naidu:  Thanks, Mom. Happy to be here.

Linda J. Hansen:  [Laughs] And why do you call me mom? Can you tell the listeners?

Nathan Naidu:  Sure. So, you know, my bio starts a little bit before that but in 2011, we first met on the Herman Cain campaign, somewhere between April and May there of 2011 we met, and spent pretty much every day together between I think it was May 9th through December 9th. We spent pretty much every day together, saw pretty much every state in the union, and spend some great time with a great man, and learned a lot and had a lot of fun.

Linda J. Hansen:  Right. We sure did. Yeah, I think it was my – maybe even before May, who knows? But I just know that day in and day out, you were with us and, you know, part of our family, and we all mourn the loss of our dear friend and mentor, father-type figure to us, Herman Cain, but it sure brought together a great group of people and you were one of them.

Nathan Naidu:  Yeah.

Linda J. Hansen:  So, thankful to work with you on many things since. Prior to the Herman Cain campaign, tell our listeners a little bit about who you are, where you came from, what you did before that pivotal campaign.

Nathan Naidu:  Sure. So, I’m from Atlanta. Born and raised here. My mom is from Wisconsin. Which is funny as you’ll hear my bio, there’s a lot of Wisconsin as you know in there, and none of that had anything to do with my mom. Just, you know, a God thing, a kismet, the political Gods took me up there. But yeah, I just grew up in Atlanta. My dad’s from South Africa. He’s an immigrant and an ardent conservative Republican believer in the cause. He’s the American Dream story there, but as I said, born and raised in Atlanta and went to the University of Alabama to do undergrad. I was a film major and a history minor. The film major, I never used other than watching movies and a great dinner with Jon Voight, where we got to talk about movies.

But was – ended up interning on the Hill right after college first for my congressman John Linder, who wrote The FairTax, and then at the RNC right after college. So, worked at the RNC after college and then my first campaign right after that was Senator Ron Johnson. Then Ron Johnson in Wisconsin 2010. So, worked in Wisconsin there and we were part of that great way than 2010 and then I stayed up in Wisconsin through April of 2011, working on the Scott Walker recall and the Justice Prosser recall, so doing a lot of Wisconsin politics. And then the law office that we were working out of was general counsel to Herman Cain’s campaign. And the night before I was set to go back to Atlanta, he asked if I knew who Herman Cain was, and if I’d like to have breakfast with him. And we had breakfast with him and Mark the next day, and the rest is history as far as that goes. So, 2011 was on the Herman Cain campaign with you and the rest of the crew. 2012 was when I was with Newt and then I was with Romney, and also helped Mr. Cain with convention, then helped you with convention.

And after that, I’ve just done a little bit of here and there of campaigns, but I’ve been doing primarily non-profits and Christian based and humanitarian-based. And then I’ve done a little advance work and stuff for the Trump campaign and for the White House, and some of the other primaries, folks in 2016. But yep, now I’m back living in Atlanta and just working for a non-profit and dabbling in politics where I can both local and national.

Linda J. Hansen:  That’s great. And for our listeners who might not understand what it means to do advanced, advanced is going ahead of campaign’s candidates to prep and prepare for events. So, I know Nathan has worked with POTUS as we refer to him, the President of the United States, and has gone to advanced certain events and that was great. But I think that was the last rally –

Nathan Naidu:  Yeah.

Linda J. Hansen:  – pre-COVID rally. Yes, and – but the advanced people are so critical to successful events and successful campaigns. And Nathan, your work has always been great. So, I appreciate that.

Nathan Naidu:  Thank you. I mean, it’s an honor. You know, it’s cliché, but it’s an honor to  serve and it’s fun, and it’s – you get to really see the – how the sausage is made, but I use that analogy in a good way because, you know, you really get to see the levels of government and law enforcement, and local officials just working together to – you know, there’s a lot of back and forth in this country right now, as I’m sure we’re going to talk about, but it’s nice to just see people put their nose down and do their job and do their best and believe in what they’re doing, you know. That’s the crux of the whole thing.

Linda J. Hansen:  Exactly, exactly. And we’ve had a lot of fun. We’ve had a lot of fun, traveling together and really promoting the causes that we both believe in so deeply.

Nathan Naidu:  Right.

Linda J. Hansen:  So, when I introduced you at the beginning, I talked about the importance of philanthropy and I think that as we go into this election, one thing that often gets buried is the importance of having a system of government and the freedom to create wealth. And when we say that sometimes people go, “Oh, it’s just the billionaires who want to make money and get rich.” But that’s not really always the case. I know a wise friend to me – a wise friend once said to me early on, “The more you have, the more you can give away.” And most of the people I know who have means, any, you know, resources to share even those who have very little give and your organization – could you tell us about the organization you’re currently working with and what their mission is?

Nathan Naidu:  Sure. So, I’m currently the Director of Engagement for Heart for Africa. Heart for Africa is a non-profit 501(c)3 that’s set up. It’s – we have an – it’s a Christian-based, faith-based organization. We are headquartered here in Atlanta, but our primary focus is in the Kingdom of Eswatini, which is a tiny, little country that used to be called Swaziland that’s way down in the bottom of Africa, almost completely contained inside South Africa. So, it’s a crisp, 16-hour flight from Atlanta to South Africa and then on from there.

But we have a 2,500-acre facility that was bush when we took it over 10 years ago. Ten  years ago – actually, I guess 11 years ago, this past July, and on that 2,500 acres, we have an aquaponics greenhouse. We have 5,000 chickens and one very lucky rooster as we always say. We have a dairy with dozens of cows where we use that milk and we distribute it. Goats for meat. We have a school for – our oldest kid is a – well, our oldest kids are about 10 years old and so we have 272 orphans that we’ve rescued. Within the next three years, that number is going to triple to almost 800 kids. So, we aren’t – we get a new kid every 11 days.

So, anyway, our primary focus is on HOPE – hunger, orphans, poverty, and education. Hunger, we have all these crops that we grow and the animals that we have, and we distribute those to 150 partner churches in the area. Orphans is obvious. We rescue orphans from the community, some from horrific circumstances and it’s a country of an orphan rate above 57%. So, we do that. Poverty, obviously, we employ 330 people. I should caveat that obviously, with COVID, we’ve had to go to furlough and layoff, and that sort of thing. But, you know, the plan is that we will rehire all those people as soon as we can. They work in the field. They – we have artisans that create beaded, good solid jewelry that we sell. And then the E is education, which is obvious. Our kids are ours until they’re 18. We are in the current – we’re in the process of building the middle school and the high school, as well as more dorms. So, they are ours until they go through high school. And then we want them to go off to college and come back and be the next generation of leaders for Eswatini.

Linda J. Hansen:  That’s really a beautiful mission and sounds like a beautiful organization. Where does the bulk of your funding come from?

Nathan Naidu:  So, what a leading question you’re asking there. So, our primary donations are individuals, their families. We have a lot – we have several corporate partners. Some of those corporate partners do, you know, as you know and as probably a lot of your listeners know from campaigns, like in-kind donations, office space, you know, I could go on in that, but you understand that sort of thing. But most of it is through private individuals and philanthropy, and people’s tithing and stuff like that.

Linda J. Hansen:  That’s beautiful. So, it’s basically people who want to support this mission, even though they may never ever meet the children in that orphanage. Correct?

Nathan Naidu:  Absolutely. I mean, our biggest impediment I – to say is that our facility is, you know, that our kids are in Africa. And it’s, again, it’s a long trip, I mean, candidly. Our biggest encouragement to people is to go, right? Is to go down there. Once you go down there and you see it, Linda, I mean, you know how it is with this stuff. You see it in a whole another perspective. But I would say, you know, and this is just pulling it out of off the top of my head, 60% of our donors have never been there. And it’s probably – honestly, it’s probably higher than that. But yes, they found the organization through different means and have just come on board to support us, and be a part of what we’re doing.

Linda J. Hansen:  What country provides the largest amount of donors for you?

Nathan Naidu:  I mean, it’s definitely the United States. We – Canada helps out a good – we have a good – a very good donor following in Canada because our founders originally were from Canada, but then moved to America and founded the organization, and spent the bulk of their time here. But it’s the United States by a mile.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yeah. And we talked about this being something that could be impacted with the election. And when we look at economic policy that inhibits growth, whether it be corporate growth or individual income growth, which I would say they go hand in hand, but when we look at that, we can see, you know, the more people have, the more they can give. And for many people tithing, which you mentioned, which is like giving – most people think of a tie that is 10% that they share with, you know, someone more needy or maybe their church or whatever, but they give away 10%. And that’s a Christian value and it’s something that has helped to build churches, orphanages, museums, educational institutions, all across the world. When our income drops, our ability to give drops. And so, you know, you’ve had your foot in the non-profit world and you’ve had your foot in the political world. What would you say would be most harmful in terms of policies that would impact the ability of your organization to truly help those children?

Nathan Naidu:  When people are afraid to spend money because of losing that money through taxation or, you know – or whatever they’re going to hold on to it. You’re going to see hoarding of money, you’re going to see – you know, you’re not going to see reinvestment into companies. You’re going to see them holding on to those – to that revenue. And it won’t – to use a phrase that we love in GOP politics, and will trickle down. You know, the – Governor Romney was always chided when he said that corporations are people, too. And when you say that, obviously, it’s not a great way. But if you kind of focus in on what I think he was trying to say is that when companies do well, their employees do well. Their employees have disposable income to then go, you know, support that local economy. And in today’s society, supporting your local economy is more important than ever. But there’s a point where those bigger corporations that are built to take this and go through the longer term can then benefit those, as we just said, through pushing through that economy, so.

Linda J. Hansen:  Right. That’s so great. It does. I always say we like to connect the dots with Prosperity 101®, helping people understand these foundations of our prosperity, but then the policies of prosperity and how to protect our prosperity. When we can help people understand that and connect the dots for how all these matters to other segments of society, you know, it’s not just about people’s income. It’s about what we do with it. It’s about the quality of life and what – how we can help our fellow human beings through that. I’d like you to think about a story, someone from the orphanage who was truly impacted. I mean, I’m sure – as you’re talking about all these kids that you’ve worked with over the years, I’m sure some stories come to mind, and I’m putting you on the spot here.

Nathan Naidu:  Okay.

Linda J. Hansen:  Some stories that come to mind where it just makes you so thankful for what you do because these kids who may never have had a chance to succeed or to go on and impact society themselves, you know, are able to do so because of the capitalist system we have in the United States, which allows people to give and provide for those less fortunate.

Nathan Naidu:  Sure. Well, I’ll tell you two quick ones. I’ll tell you one that’s not about the kids but about the community, and then I’ll tell you what about the kids. So, from Project Canaan, which is our facilities name in Eswatini, it’s – we have a mountain – we have mountains and a well and the whole bit, but we have a – the guest house is up on one of the hills, right? Where we stay when we go there, and at night, you can see across the valley into – onto the other mountain that’s about five miles away. And it’s all electric lights and it’s well-lit and it looks, you know, active and safe, and whatnot. Six years ago, that was not electrified. It was all campfires and not lit. And because that community works at Project Canaan, they were able to get the money and we were able to put that money into the infrastructure and into the community, and now it’s all lit. And just one thing, the number of rapes and assaults in that community have plummeted just because of light. I mean, let there be light, you know? And, you know, that –whenever I take people down there, I make sure that one night you sit there and look at these lights because – and again, their little dark Edison bulb flickering, you know what I’m saying? Like they’re barely lights, but they make all the difference, right? I mean, and so I just – that story of community impact, residual community impact that’s not even part of our mission. Right? That’s not even – we’re not putting up grids in that but just the residual effect of that is one thing.

We have, as I said, 273 kids actually as of yesterday morning, and I can sit here and tell you 273 stories and some of them are terrifying, but just the one that I think of is we had a young girl –and because people always ask, well, don’t – because again our kids are all orphans or half-orphans – and people will say, “Well, don’t the parents or grandparents or anything ever come to try to claim or take the kids back?” Right? Because they are our wards there. They are signed over to us from the government. And out of 273 kids, we’ve only ever had one time that grandma found the kid and said, “I want to come– I’m coming to Project Canaan. I’m getting my grandchild.” Right? So, she gets sick Project Canaan. She sees the life that this child is leading and she said. “Forget it.” And left the child with us and went home.

Linda J. Hansen:  But does she still have a relationship with that child?

Nathan Naidu:  Yes, yes. So –

Linda J. Hansen:  Wonderful.

Nathan Naidu:  – so, you know, we have – obviously the country is overall Black. But there are affluent Whites in the country. A lot of them live in South Africa and have vacation homes there. And actually, there are some, I would say upper-middle-class White folks that live nearby, and they know that our school is the best school in the area. So, we actually have their kids in our school, too. Our school is public if we were – if kids want to come or not public, but it’s open, so to speak. But yeah, so we have folks in the community invested in that school.

Linda J. Hansen:  Well, that’s a great example, too, racial integration. And, you know, really working across all levels of society and making sure that the work that you do elevates everyone. You know, that’s a great opportunity for educating these kids in more than just academics, so.

Nathan Naidu:  Yeah. Rising tide lifts all boats, right?

Linda J. Hansen:  Absolutely. You know, as we think about what this means to that community, but to those children who become leaders in the future, this can truly transform countries, truly transform the world. You know, I often talk about with Prosperity 101®, when I’m encouraging employers or parents to educate their employees or children regarding, you know, the principles that made this country great and allowed for the freedom and prosperity, and flourishing of people in America, as well as to help the flourishing of people around the world. We never know who we might be educating, just like General Electric didn’t realize that they were educating the future leader of the Free World when they had Ronald Reagan read books in their book club. 

Nathan Naidu:  That’s right.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yeah.  You know, we never know and so, you don’t know if one of those 273 kids is going to be one of the greatest leaders for human rights or freedom that we’ve ever seen.

Nathan Naidu:  And that’s what – that’s exactly what our – what we say is we’re raising the next generation of leaders for Eswatini. I mean, you see, a lot of these countries, their best leave, right? Their best to go to Switzerland for school. They come here. They go to the – you know, to Japan. They go in – even in Africa, they go to South Africa, right? But while that’s fine and if they need to leave to go get educated, that’s great. But we want that plane ticket – that first plane ticket after college to be back, you know, to be home. We want them to – we want them to learn everything the world has to offer, and then bring it back home and make it –improve Eswatini just like here, you know. We want the best, so that we get the best results.

Linda J. Hansen:  Right. Well, that spreads, too. That continues to spread. So, as we look at this upcoming election and every election that we have, what would you encourage people to think about when they go to vote. And I say that in relation to your experiences on political campaigns, but also your experiences seeing poverty firsthand, close up. Seeing human trafficking, I’m sure we didn’t even mention that with your orphans, but I’m sure some of them have been suffering through the horrors of human trafficking. You’ve seen slavery. You’ve seen it all. You’ve seen hunger, everything. So – but in America, we have the privilege to go and vote. We can vote for people who support policies that can help or hurt these things. So, when you’re thinking about people going voting this November or any election, local, state or national, what would you encourage them to consider?

Nathan Naidu:  I mean, the word I always think is, “Be vigilant. Pay attention.” That – you know, people get so turned off by all the political ads and the minutia and the fakeness, and the attacks and the whatever, it’s like, do your deep dive and watch Fox News and watch MSNBC, and read Breitbart and, you know, take the – watch PBS, get the entire spectrum of the news. And even if you – you know, even if you can blatantly see through the agenda, just watch it, get that side of the story, get the other side of the story, and then take your own conclusions away.

People now are saying, “Don’t watch the news because of their agenda.” I say the opposite. I’m like, “Digest all you can and then you’ll understand those agendas and what you believe and what the good versus the bad and all that stuff.” You know, I – you and I both have been around dozens of political candidates and it is so difficult to tell if a candidate is genuine based on meeting them for five seconds in a rope line. But I would just – when Mr. Cain was so good, and I did an interview about him, which you were on, too, a few months ago, and they were asking you to compare him to President Trump. And I said, “Look, all due respect to the President, I don’t think anybody read a room better than Herman Cain.” And I know Linda will agree with me on that.

Linda J. Hansen:  I do.

Nathan Naidu:  And so, I throw that back. Go to a rally. Go to these events and read the room, and just listen to the questions that are being asked, and what the people in your community care about because you probably don’t even know some of the issues that people are worried about. People were – and nowadays, we’re kind of, you know, I’m not putting blame on it – we’re digging in our heels. We’re getting in our foxholes. We’re surrounding ourselves with like-mindeds, right? And we’re not doing that anymore.

So, again, it’s like what I say with the news, like just feed as much information as you can and see what’s important to those around you. And for me, it’s sort of a paraphrase of watch what a person does, not what they say, but try to listen to as many speeches or interviews, or whatever from your candidate that you’re interested in. And just see, is it the same pablum over and over? Is it the same answer? Is it the same whatever, whatever, you know? Or are they being genuine and are they being off the cuff? I mean, I think that’s why people love the president, because you ask him a question and you’re not going to get that canned, you know, soundbite. You’re going to get a soundbite but, you know what I’m saying? So, to me, it’s repetition of information.

Linda J. Hansen:  Exactly. No, you bring up a good point, that listening to the candidate, and I was hoping you were going to get to that. It is that, I think too often, people will listen to the news commentator or they’ll look at the small headline.

Nathan Naidu:  And the clip and the three-second clip.

Linda J. Hansen:  Right. But they won’t look at what was said or done in the context of the big picture.

Nathan Naidu:  Right.

Linda J. Hansen:  So, what was said in the entire speech or in every speech? What was done over 37 years or 47 months, as we’re hearing right now, right?

Nathan Naidu:  Oh, yeah. I haven’t heard that one. I mean, I get it but I haven’t heard that one yet.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yeah. Well, right now, that’s in the news. So, anybody listening to this, you know, years from now, it refers to the 47 years in politics for one candidate versus the 47 months in politics for our incumbent president, so – and what are the results? We have to look also what are the results, because anybody can say a good game, and they can do all of the talking points. And their staff can come up with the perfect press releases and they can promise the moon, but what have they done and what will they do?

And I would also say, “Look at the people around them.” Who are their supporters? Know who supports them, what types of things did they support and, you know – and then you can find your like-minded people. But those are really important things to think about. Too often we just look at the little soundbites, the headline snippets. If we even get the headlines, which we’re finding that a lot of things are censored in the news by big tech and, you know, so a lot of people don’t even get the full picture. 

Nathan Naidu:  Yeah.

Linda J. Hansen:  So, what you said about looking at all these different networks –

Nathan Naidu:  Go into the meetings and listen to your neighbors. Absolutely.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yes, yes. And follow – I mean, even if it’s somebody you don’t like.

Nathan Naidu:  Right.

Linda J. Hansen:  Maybe follow their feed.

Nathan Naidu:  Absolutely.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yeah.

Nathan Naidu:  That’s a great point. You know, my dad, again, they’re big conservatives and my stepmom, they’re big Republicans, and they don’t watch CNN. And I always tell them like, “You need to watch it. You need to know what the other side is saying.” I mean, I follow Joe Biden’s campaign on Twitter. I follow – I mean, when we were working for Mr. Cain, I followed the other 11, you know, primary or whatever. Yeah, I think it was 11 at the time. And remember when that seemed like the biggest field you’re ever going to see in primary politics, how innocent we were in 2012?

Linda J. Hansen:  Yes.

Nathan Naidu:  Anyway – but yeah.

Linda J. Hansen:   I will say though, like if we go back to that campaign with Mr. Cain, I mean, think about how groundbreaking that was. I’ve often said, and maybe not enough, but I – you know, I did a tribute to Mr. Cain on with one of my podcasts. And it was so fitting because, honestly, you know, we all were just so passionate about what Mr. Cain was going to be able to offer to America. Herman Cain was truly a trailblazer and –

Nathan Naidu:  No, I – in that interview that I mentioned earlier, I mean, the good and the bad, I always laugh at Mr. Cain was raked over the coals for saying he was going to electrify the wall and put alligators in it and whatever. And that, you know – and that sort of thing. And I’m just like, “That’s like Diet Coke compared to, you know, some of the stuff we’re hearing now.” And I don’t mean that, you know, whatever. But I said in that interview, I go, “I’m sorry, again, all due respect, but Mr. Cain was Trump before Trump was Trump. I mean, businessman, no political experience. No, you know, let Herman be Herman. Let Trump be Trump. I mean, you know what his little Hermanisms, you know, that dog don’t hunt, shucky Ducky. I mean, again, I’m with you. He was. He really was.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yes.

Nathan Naidu:  And again, that’s why I’m happy we’re doing this now, too, is because we get to kind of talk about him. And obviously, we’re still new with that but yeah. No, I agree. I mean, you and I got to see Mr. Cain in a way that other people didn’t. And it’s hard to get that if you’re at rallies and stuff, but that goes into my previous point of like, try to just gauge the genuine, you know, feeling behind that and like listen to the words and how they’re being delivered, and talk to your – talk to the people that don’t agree with you.

Linda J. Hansen:  One of the things when we were talking about Herman Cain being revolutionary, in a sense, and we were helping to break the mold and bring in a non-establishment, non-politician person to the White House, which I’m thrilled that we were able to do that and basically change the course of history, I believe. But I still hear him saying, when you talked about like the alligators with the moat, you know, you can just see his face. You can see the twinkle in his eyes and I can hear his laughter. And he says, “America needs to get a sense of humor.” You know, it’s like –

Nathan Naidu:  Needs to learn.

Linda J. Hansen:  The media pundits expect candidates to never make a joke or to not be real, but I think –

Nathan Naidu:  Right.

Linda J. Hansen:  – American people love the people who are real, that they talk to the people.

Nathan Naidu:  Ronald Reagan, you know, look at Reagan. I mean, yeah, hours of YouTube clips of Reagan, Reagan jokes, and Reaganisms. And there you go again. I mean, even the Bill Clinton, “I feel your pain,” you know, I mean, you can go both sides of the aisle. It’s just – I mean, again, we’re in the middle of a pandemic. But, you know, yeah, everybody’s so serious these days.

Linda J. Hansen:   Too polarized and they use every soundbite against something, so.

Nathan Naidu:  Against you. Yeah.

Linda J. Hansen:  Yeah. To the people listening, you know, you brought up some really good things about the candidates, like how they need to connect and when people listen to the candidates or watch things, look at the life behind, you know. And I would like to let people know, too. We have to look beyond personality. My podcast last week, that I posted last week was with one of my neighbors, and she was born and mostly raised in Soviet Russia. And then, of course, immigrated from Ukraine, is – so, Ukraine became independent in ‘91. And she says there’s no comparison even now. Even now, there’s no comparison between the two countries. And she gets tears in her eyes when she thinks about what Americans may be throwing away in this election. You know, she and her husband came over here, and she’s so cute. I cannot imitate her adorable accent. But it’s – you know, she said they had one suitcase. And they, you know, have built a life here from that. And she said, “You can’t do that everywhere else but Americans take that for granted. And Americans take it for granted that we can help that happen in other countries.”

So, without our freedom that we are working so hard to protect, we cannot help others. So, you know, philanthropy, spreading the word of God around the world, spreading medical and healthcare provisions around the world, education around the world. You know, Mercy Ships. The Mercy Ships that travel around and do surgeries and fix cleft palates and birth defects. You know, this happens because people give out of their abundance.

Nathan Naidu:  Right.

Linda J. Hansen:  This is amazing that, you know, most people in many countries cannot give like that. So, America really offers the world hope, because we have prosperity.

Nathan Naidu:  Well, let me tell you. So, you know, kind of our – so, we have – obviously, with COVID going on, we’ve actually been switching over to a new credit card system for our donors. So, I’ve been having a call of our donors and switched them over. And we – you know, thankfully, we’ve only had a few donors that have had to say, “Here’s why I can’t donate.” Right? And to a person, it is economic-related, revenue-related. So, it’s not even a job loss necessarily. It’s just a – the streams and the whatever are just not coming through. And so again – and again, we are more than understanding. By no means am I – you know, we totally understand normally much less during a pandemic. But the people that have had to have said, “Look, here’s my reasons behind it, and I’m back on board as soon as those revenue streams come back.”

So, it’s like you say you’re – and that’s – we’re one organization in a small little country in Africa, you know, and we play in the sandbox with hundreds of other non-profits in countries all over the world. And so, if we’re seeing that even that – even in a pandemic, people are continuing, but that economic impact and that uncertainty of what – I mean, we’ve had people that have said, I can’t make a decision till after the election. You know? I mean, sure, sure. 

Linda J. Hansen:  Right, right.

Nathan Naidu:  So yeah, as in any election, people are looking at – one thing back to your other question is what’s interesting about elections is, you know, all the money is sitting right now, right? With three weeks ago, it’s like nobody knows what to do with their money, because they don’t know what November 4th is going to look like.

Linda J. Hansen:  Right, right. Well, and with that though, I would encourage everyone that human need does not change. It does not ebb and fall with an election. Education needs to continue. Food needs to be distributed. We need to train young people and help them to be productive adults, no matter where they live and no matter what our resources. So, you know, I would encourage people to keep giving. So, Nathan, that’s a really good place to allow you to share information about the organization you represent. And could you tell them again the name of the organization, your website, and how they might designate their gifts?

Nathan Naidu:  Sure. So, it’s Heart for Africa. The website is www.HeartForAfrica.org. It’s just the word Heart, the word For, and the word Africa. There’s several different ways you can come on board or get involved. I mean, follow us on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube, social media. We go live. There’s always something to be seen down on Project Canaan, and we’re always building and working on that. So, check those social media out. And there are many avenues to donate, you can buy good solid artisan gifts. You can donate to the general fund. But our two primary programs are called Heroes and Angels. Angels are a monthly recurring donor. If you sponsor a child and your gift will represent a child that we have. We have over 40 kids that aren’t sponsored right now. So, we’re always looking for people to come on board and sponsor. 

You can sponsor a child at any level, $1, $1,000,000 a month. It’s every – you know, it’s cliche, but especially nowadays and in another country, every dollar is stretched really well right now. So, every dollar matters and counts. And then we also have our Heroes program, that’s essentially the same thing, monthly donations of however much you want, but they go toward the general fund for building projects and stuff like that. But yep, those are your options to come on board and take a trip with us. We’re already working on our trips for next year, God willing. You know, we’ll have COVID licked and borders will be open, and we’ll be heading down there. But I lead the trips down there three times a year. So, Linda can attest that I can be a great tour guide and a decent advanced man. You know?

Linda J. Hansen:  I was just going to say if you go on a trip like Nathan, you’ll never be the same, so.

Nathan Naidu:  [Laughs] That’s right. You will be changed on a trip with Heart For Africa. That’s as specific as we need to get on that comment.

Linda J. Hansen:  [Laughs] So, tell us again, you mentioned the word HOPE. Tell us again what those – the word HOPE.

Nathan Naidu:  HOPE is Hunger, Orphans, Poverty, Education. This year – and Linda, you’ll agree now more than ever, hope is so important. Real hope, right? Not that hokey political hope that we get sold sometimes but –

Linda J. Hansen:  Right.

Nathan Naidu:  Real, real hope for the future, so.

Linda J. Hansen:  Absolutely. Well, Nathan, I thank you so much for joining with us and to all the listeners, how can they contact you?

Nathan Naidu:  You can reach me at nathan@heartforafrica.org. You can find my info there on the website and reach out in any way. Facebook, Nathan Naidu or any – yeah, just find me. I’m out there.

Linda J. Hansen:  Out there and I just am really honored really, Nathan, that you took the time for this. So, we’ve had so much fun together and to our listeners, he does call me mom, which is – it always cracks me up. It’s just been a great relationship and continues to be. We’re working together on some other projects even as we speak. And I’m thankful for the opportunity to continue to work with you, so.

Nathan Naidu:  Oh, I appreciate it. Linda, thank you for what you’re doing. This is a great, great effort in the fight for freedom. And I know you’re a – I mean, I never use this word, but you are a patriot. I’ve never met somebody that loves this country more than you do, and that drives everything you do, and I appreciate that, so.

Linda J. Hansen:  Thank you so much. Before I do forget, I just wanted to bring up one more thing. You mentioned that you have corporations that can support you as well. But if corporations want to do something special with Heart of Africa, what do you recommend for them?

Nathan Naidu:  We have several options. One of the things that we do because we will – some of our corporations do a monthly where they round up – you know, you can round up your paycheck and that money goes toward or just monthly giving off of your paycheck. A lot of corporations will do that where they just – they set up a thing where their employees can have $10 or whatever skimmed off their paycheck every month. We have stocked on – and we get stocked donations sometimes from the year.

But I think another really important aspect would be for – if you have a group with your company or your Board or something like that’s interested in getting involved with something like this, take a trip down there with us. Come on a vision trip. See what it’s all about and it’s – you know, like I said it, once you see – the scope is the word I always use to describe Project Canaan. Twenty-five hundred acres is – you know, is an abstract memory, but you get down there and the role – I mean, it is a huge compound and it is just massive and all-encompassing. And so really, I would say take a trip down there when you can and come see it, but we have lots of options. And we – we’re always open to new ideas, too, for corporations or individuals who want to come on board in new ways.

Linda J. Hansen:  Well, I’m so glad I thought to ask that. Because as there may be employers listening right now, and you’re thinking about not only educating employees about, you know, the public policy issues that affect their jobs and how policy affects our paycheck, which I talk about all the time but again, if we connect the dots and what’s the ripple effect of that? The ripple effect is that when everybody is prosperous, we can help others prosper. So, it’s about giving back. It’s about –

Nathan Naidu:  People want to give back. I mean, people love to give. I mean, you see that everywhere. It’s a matter of what has the government taken from me before I can even get it to decide what I want to do with it. I mean, you know, that’s individual responsibility and freedom. Like, I mean, there – I don’t think any of us know anybody that wouldn’t give if they could. And like you said, I think in the beginning, we know a lot of people that do give when they probably shouldn’t be. I shouldn’t say shouldn’t be, but again, it’s because they believe in the cause or they just want to do good.

Linda J. Hansen:  Right. It’s like the widow’s mite in the Bible.

Nathan Naidu:  Exactly.

Linda J. Hansen:   Yes. Yes, exactly. Well, to everyone listening, please reach out to Nathan at HeartForAfrica.org. So, again, that e-mail address is nathan@heartforafrica.org. And you can find different ways to give to the organization, but also think through these things as you go to vote in this and any election because policy matters. Ideas have consequences. Leadership matters and policy matters. And so we can not only help these orphans in Africa to have a better life and to become leaders for their communities and the world, but when we all prosper, we can help people prosper all around the world. So, let’s help keep America strong and free and a land of abundance, and the American dream. So, thank you, Nathan.

Nathan Naidu:  Thank you.

Linda J. Hansen:  Thank you for what you do politically and thank you for what you do with his beautiful organization.

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