Meet Mariana…

Who are your heroes?

Everyone has a potential hero within… so I prefer not to name anyone specifically. It is all about working to make this world a better place for humanity to live, and fighting for peace and for shared values and shared dreams.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

An uncle once told me to be brave and courageous, no matter what I was going through. “You never know you are truly courageous until you have no other option than being it”, he used to say. I have that constantly in my mind.

Why do you do what you do for a living?

Fundraising is a really inspiring challenge: Money is necessary to achieve an organisation’s goals and hence promote change. And you have to inspire people and develop true, meaningful partnerships in order to have results and donations. Whenever I am thinking about it, I think “how incredible is that what I do for a living is to inspire people to make real change come true?” – and I love to have that thinking!

Describe yourself in three words.

Enthusiastic. Communicative. Persevering.

Describe your life in six words.

Tomorrow might be way too late.

Mariana Zayat Chammas is Head of Relationships at ISA – Instituto Socioambiental.