We are a small but hard working team of people who with our passion for triathlon support organizations and their projects to make global change.
Tobias is an age-group triathlete completing the Ironman distance since 2012. He has a Bachelor's degree in General Nursing Health Care and today works in an orthopedic acute unit north of Sweden. By his own words, he identifies himself as a philanthropist because he believes life is about exploring what it means to be human by caring, nourishing and developing vulnerable people. On the board of Tri For Charity, he is the one who organizes the meetings and projects.
tobias@triforcharity.se
Ellen is driven by many dreams and is currently working in the airline industry. In her younger years, she was Treasurer-in-Board of the youth section at the riding school she attended. Since finishing school, she's been traveling the globe and working in the service business. She believes laughter is the best solution in almost every situation. On the board of Tri For Charity, she contributes creatively, utilizing her skills as a writer to organize and compose all kinds of documents and files.
ellen@triforcharity.se
Sarah is an American ultramarathoner and freelance writer who believes in the power of people and their ability to make a global impact. A veteran of the US Coast Guard, she has been trained to protect and save lives, and has traveled the world familiarizing herself with other cultures. As a student prior to her military service, Sarah studied journalism, and was the youngest Editor-In-Chief of her school’s newspaper. Currently, Sarah is traveling worldwide to volunteer, write, and meet new people all across the globe.
Daniel is passionated by the new situations that occur in meeting with new people, places and cultures. Design and media production has always been very close at hand and he has spent lots of time over the years with various editing, and also owned a printing company. The last 7- 8 years he's been traveling the world and engaged himself in an orphanage in Tanzania. As a self learned designer, he believes design plays a significant role in in a projects success. Being able to combine helping people with design is a dream come true.
daniel@triforcharity.se
Katarina grew up in the region of Dalarna in Sweden and now lives with her husband and two children in Stockholm. She has worked all her professional life in the auditing and accounting industry and has for many years run a private accounting firm. She is passionate about helping people who dream of starting their own business. With Tri for Charity, she has now been given the tool to bridge the gap between thought and practice when it comes to helping people throughout the world. Her role in the Board is to take care of the financial aspects of the organization.
katarina@triforcharity.se
Fredrik is self-employed with many areas of expertise. A trained chef that has 13 years' experience in non-profit associations filling various roles, Fredrik been working as a project manager in the public sector with membership recruitment and has experience working internationally in Thailand, New Zealand and Norway. It's his philosophy that everyone can get involved so that people can be born, grow up, and develop in their own homeland. Fredrik believes in a world where we help each other by making efforts to build and develop the standard of living. His role in Tri For Charity is to inspire, drive and convert projects from ideas to reality.
fredrik@triforcharity.se
“MY MOTIVATION IS BEHIND THE FINISH LINE.”
In the end of 2006, I got a call from the Sergeant for whom I worked during my conscription. He wanted me to follow him to one of the most dangerous places on Earth to help vulnerable people. I was shaking, but lucky to get the opportunity to save lives; something I wanted to do for years.
I asked myself if I should risk my life for the sake of others. How would the completion of a mission like that impact my current life? Was it worth the risk of possibly getting injured in battle and never having the chance to exercise or compete in sports again? And more importantly, was it worth the risk of potentially never seeing my family again?
In January of 2007, I found myself in the desert of Afghanistan as a soldier, only 20 years old. The questions that raced through my mind beforehand were answered then by one feeling: if I didn’t take this chance now, I would live the rest of my life unhappy.
My platoon’s mission was to escort and protect military personnel and those working for non-governmental organizations so that they could do their jobs. We traveled many miles and I had the chance to see what the war had done to the Afghan people. It was devastating to experience firsthand how people didn’t have safe, drinking water or sanitation facilities, how women couldn’t do anything without permission from a man, how girls were not allowed to attend school (thus barring their future potential), and how the Afghan people were killed in the line between two parts of war.
Back home, I really came to realize how good my living conditions are. I was astonished during my time spent in Afghanistan by the situation the vulnerable Afghan people were facing, and I knew they were not the only ones in the world living under the same kind of conditions.
In 2009, after some years working in Sweden and Norway, I found myself on the African continent in Tanzania. I paid approximately $4,200 US dollars through a Swedish volunteer organization to help orphans with life's basic needs; things like cooking, reading, playing, and giving them the love they deserved.
During my two-month visit, I realized even more how large the gap is between people's opportunities to have their basic needs met around the planet. I felt that it is our responsibility to help vulnerable people and was sure I wanted to come back to do more. In 2013, I returned to Tanzania but this time as a nursing student doing my practice at an Intensive Care Unit for Children in the Ilembula district. Just as before, I could see how the people suffered from their basic survival needs not being met, but this time it was more tangible to me how those in need--especially children--suffered and died from diseases like diarrhea and typhoid, diseases which are easily prevented.
After years of journeying to developing countries and collecting countless new experiences, I wanted to create something where people like myself could come together with our shared interest in helping others and do just that; place where we could combine our passion for a greater global impact. Unfortunately, all I had was an idea. I didn’t have any tools to work with, just the enormous feeling to make something good for the world.
I held onto that spark until one memorable day in August 2013 when I completed my first triathlon race (Ironman Kalmar, Sweden). It was just after I passed the finish line I got it; a snap of mental clarity while standing in the finish area with my family and thousands of other cheering people. Why not use all the energy and passion I felt for triathlon as fuel for a better cause?
I had finally found a tool to help straighten out the world's many needs. It was just that the tool and the problems at hand didn’t know each other; they were in no way related at that point. I decided to connect these two things, and let the passion for triathlon meet the needs of vulnerable people. Because of this, I named my organization Tri For Charity.
As founder of the organization, my vision is to create an environment where every single triathlete gets inspired to grow creatively while also giving more purpose to racing, and putting their passion for triathlon to work for a better cause. What I hope the athletes will find is a new way of looking at their own athletic ability; that they realize how huge of an impact they can make in the world, by using their time and energy. I want them to see their own potential and the potential of those around them, regardless of whether they are beginners or professional athletes. It's all about commitment. I have made my commitment. I will do my best to fight for those who can’t. I will genuinely put people in need first.
Because triathlon is a game changer. I strongly believe that. I strongly believe that if we all use our athletic ability and passion for triathlon, we can change the world.
I’m inspired by all my fellow athletes to train hard, but my motivation is behind the finish line. That’s where my purpose to race get its significance.
/Tobias Remes, CEO & Founder - Summer 2013
Together with triathletes, their fans, and our passion for triathlon, we give our support to non-profit charities to make global change.
The first thing we do is to carefully look into which global problem we want to take action against. Our choice is based on reports from the data collected by authorities and world organizations but also on people we meet and situations we experience during our projects.
We investigate the organizations that are making an impact in fighting the chosen issue. We look at their transparency, how they give proof of fiscal responsibility back to their donors, how they care for the environment, and their ethics. Based on these factors, we choose an established organization that fulfills our demands and that we believe can make a difference to support in the end of the year.
We also look at the possibilities to implement projects of our own to make the impact as substantial as possible.
In this stage we put our focus on spreading the word about the global problem we've chosen to help solve, the organization we’ve selected and our upcoming projects to triathletes and their fans.
We want to provide the triathletes with an additional reason to do their best at their races and reach their goals. We encourage them to join the team of athletes, set their own fundraising goals and then spread the word about the cause further on to their supporters.
The fundraising period extends over the entire year, since there will always be a race somewhere in the world. The triathletes put that little extra effort into their training and remind their fans about their athlete campaigns and that they are racing for more than just a medal; they're racing to help make the world a better place.
At this stage, we make the donation to the organization we’ve chosen, and it’s also the time when we go through with projects of our own. The time it takes to finish a project is varied depending on the complexity of the goal we're trying to meet on our mission.
We care about being transparent in our work. Therefore, we make sure to prove everything we do and how we do it through social media and annual reports. It’s important that our triathletes, their fans and other donors get to know exactly where their donation went and what difference it made. As soon as we finish our projects, we compile reports of the overall result, as well as also producing reports during the ongoing projects.
