Jessica Newman – Jump for a Just World

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As we head into the last week before Christmas, perhaps I’m not the only one who begins to feel slightly uneasy with the mass, and often panic shopping that seems to grip us all in a fever, and the sheer quantity of food consumed, money spent, and unnecessary stress which often seems ridiculous even before January is upon us, and yet…every year! If you’re already anticipating the guilt and mulling over your New Year’s Resolutions, I have just the thing for you. 

Jessica Newman is doing extraordinary things with the help of horsemen and women all over the world.  She is making an enormous difference in the lives of people who really need our help, and as of yet, there are no eventers involved in her program, Just World International.
Jessica was originally a Grand Prix jumper.  In her early twenties, she wanted to share some of the wealth she saw all around her in the equestrian world with children growing up in impoverished communities in the developing world, so she learnt how to set up her now hugely successful organisation. 
“I haven’t ridden in twelve years! I miss, of course, the relationship with the horses, and that contact. I was very fortunate to have the support I needed and to get to where I wanted to as a competitor, and now it was my turn to give back, so once I made that decision I’ve never looked back.”
 Riders of all levels – professionals, amateurs, and juniors are encouraged to join Jump for a Just World, to learn how to help, and to raise awareness and funds. I was extremely grateful to Jessica for sparing me ten minutes of her time recently to talk about her hopes for Just World, and why she’d love to get some event riders involved. 
“I’m originally from the show-jumping world and so I’d grown up with a big network in it, but to get into eventing or dressage or any of the other disciplines, we need somebody that has that same kind of network and credibility.”
This sounds exactly like an Eventing Nation challenge to me! Just World operates with a very small staff; Jessica herself works completely pro bono and pays all her own expenses. The resources to expand into eventing and the other disciplines just don’t exist. Some of the professional jumper Just World Ambassadors include Laura Kraut, Kevin Staut, Eric Lamaze, Eric Navet and Herve Godignon. Unless their sponsorships prevent them, they all agree to wear the blue ‘JustWorld’ jacket and the logos when they compete, they donate a portion of their winnings to the charity, and a chunk of their time too. 
However, you do not have to be a professional to be an ambassador, and you do not have to donate large amounts of money. You can raise any amount by being creative, and raising awareness is just as important.
“It can be professionals, amateurs, anyone who wants to get involved. One or two people who really want to make a difference, can.  To look at a little bit of the history at how we developed in the show-jumping world, we started with high profile professionals which I think was good to get the word out but the people who do a lot of the groundwork, the fundraising and events are from the juniors and amateurs. People from every single walk of life – that’s Just World; some kids can give themselves, some can’t, that’s why there’s no minimum donation. Some of of our greatest ambassadors do major fundraisers and raise a lot of money, so it’s not at all what you can win, or what you have.”
It’s true, I first met Jessica at the Kentucky Horse Park where she was doing one of her incredibly popular ‘horseless horse shows’ – kids jumping the jumps on foot (a scaled-down grand prix course) and a couple of ambassadors were judging and commentating, the kids paid entry fees, won rosettes, and had a great time.  We had happened to be walking past and wondered what on earth was going on! A lucky coincidence!
If you are interested in being an ambassador, please contact Amber Warren for more details.  I want to believe that eventers have it in them to do this, and would love to see lots of blue jackets in stadium phases next year, I do believe we are among the most compassionate, generous horsemen out there!
Being a rider herself, knowing the lifestyle was an advantage that Jessica has been able to translate to make it easier for her ambassadors to represent JustWorld, 
“In most equestrians’ lives you don’t have a lot of time outside of what you’re dedicated to in the sport and the profession, so we can bring the fundraising and the awareness to the actual events, and not necessarily leave the environment. We open the door to anybody who wants to come and visit any of the projects; we do short trips and they are welcome to come and see where the money is going, who it’s helping, who the beneficiaries are, and really see what Just World is about, but there’s no obligation. We’ve had about 150 people over the years come and visit the different projects, and we’ve had some ambassadors who have then gone on to college and have then wanted to go and do an internship for several months at one of the projects, which is a possibility too, but the reality is most equestrians don’t have more than five or six days that they can come and visit a project for.”
Jessica, luckily, has utmost faith in the human spirit. She told me was convinced that Just World would work,
“I think I always truly believed that if people were given the opportunity, that they would do it, despite what a lot of people told me that they wouldn’t care. I don’t think that’s the case, I just think that people don’t know, and don’t know how, and I was no different. “
However, having created such a fantastic organisation, Jessica is by no means sitting back and relaxing,
“Our next step is to continue building and to become sustainable by building developing chapters in every country, so that Just World can sustain itself and it really becomes a solid, world-wide movement.  For example, Guatemala is the first country where we have both a project and an equestrian community that is supporting the project in that country, so it’s not just the foreign competitors that are helping support that project, but some of the funding is coming from within the country itself. The Brazilian Federation has signed on to support Just World wholeheartedly, 100%, so Brazil is going to be our next country where we already have a project and we’re looking into other, additional projects, and also getting the equestrian community involved and to start supporting and doing fundraising as well. In order to keep the administration of Just World International small, I think the only way to do that will be to have branches in each country.”
I asked Jessica what surprised her most since she had first started Just World?
“The enthusiasm of the the kids – the Junior Ambassadors that come on board, that always makes me so excited to see kids that are that young care so much, and just take such ownership of it. That’s always been my dream and my goal, that if I die tomorrow the Organisation will continue, and continue to grow, and people will have that ownership of it.”
This is Christmas after all; what would Jessica like in her stocking?
“To continue the growth of Just World, that the Organisation has a life of it’s own, that people will continue to do their part to help others. That it will continue to grow in the projects and continue to grow in it’s support from the equestrian community, and that it becomes something that grows across all disciplines in every single country, and horse people were supporting humanitarian projects in all the countries that need them.”
I would love for Eventing Nation to deliver some eventers to Just World, I have already promised to help try and co-ordinate in any way I can, let’s do this! Please take a look at the Just World website, you can also follow them on facebook and twitter, and there all sorts of great ways to be creative and raise money. Thank you so much to Jessica for her time in speaking to me, but also for everything that she does for Just World. Thank you for reading, and Go Eventing!
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