Mike Mate

“Let me introduce you to the captain”, John, the executive director of GP UK, ushered an elderly gentleman into the wheelhouse, “Mike, this is Gordon Roddick.”

In the summer of 1996 I helped care for children with special needs in Albania – locals called it the Mental Asylum, they were cruel. It was a dilapidated building at the top of the hill in the mountain village of Korce. Most of the window panes were broken and boarded up to keep out the cold mountain winds. That same summer I played pas-ko-pas and other ball games with hundreds of orphans in Halucesti, Romania. The children taught me how to referee and count in their language (in Romanesch). They taught me more, the most, that laughter has no foreign accent. Both these experiences touched my heart and awoke within me humanitarian compassion. I took Gordon’s hand in mine and held it, I was finally able to say thank you to the man behind that experience with ‘Children on the Edge’, and welcome him to the Rainbow Warrior.