Sergio PonceMORE Project Brazil Director
“I thank those people who have never been to Rio de Janeiro but still love this city, this state, our beloved nation, Brazil that desperately seeks social justice.
May God bless each distributor. May MonaVie grow and succeed each day more and more. May the resources delivered to the MORE Project be so plentiful that we can live, love, do, and be much, much MORE.”
When Sergio Ponce was a young man growing up in Rio de Janeiro, he played soccer with the kids from the favelas. They were his friends. His father was a police officer, so Sergio knew of the crime and problems of the favelas. And Sergio knew what people said about the people who lived there…that they were criminals, or they were lazy and dirty. But he knew the kids he played with weren’t any different than he was, despite the fact that they slept on the floor instead of a bed and rarely had a nutritious meal. Throughout his life, Sergio was drawn to the people of the favelas. Despite the fact that his own life was fraught with turmoil, struggle and defeat, the people of the favelas were never far from Sergio’s mind.
Over the years, Sergio constantly found himself being drawn back to the favelas for one reason or another, where he struggled to find ways to make a difference. Finally, after some deeply moving personal experiences*, Sergio resolved to do whatever he could, no matter how small, to change things so that the people in the favelas wouldn’t have to suffer like they had for so long.
When the Heart Isn’t Enough, a Miracle Will Do
Sadly, Sergio learned that a willing heart does go a very long way, but sometimes it simply isn’t enough. Other factors —scarcity of funding and a lack of volunteers and other resources—were constantly threatening to end Sergio’s dreams of devoting his life to the people of the favelas. Like other times in the past, Sergio was reaching the point where he needed to find a more reliable source of funding to support his project or he would be forced to shut down permanently. But this time was different; he knew that this may be the last time he could try to keep his dream alive.
Sergio was in despair and in need of a well-timed miracle, for which he fervently prayed. Days later, his miracle happened, when he met Dallin Larsen, CEO of MonaVie. Little did Sergio know just how much better things were going to become for his project, and for the people he loved.
