As the world faces an unprecedented challenge together, we can learn from small acts of service taking place around the world. We live in strange and uncertain times, but there are many ways to continue to care for one another, spreading our human compassion to uplift each other and know that we will pull through together.
In February, allegedly the worst natural disaster in the past decade for Indonesia hit the greater Jakarta area. Heavy rainfall resulted in dangerous floods that affected tens of thousands of people overnight. Seeking to be a light in the sudden calamity, volunteers with Global Peace Foundation Indonesia visited orphanages affected by the flood. Calling it the “Small Action, Big Impact” service project, volunteers spent nearly a week teaching the orphans how to prepare emergency disaster bags to protect important items while also finding time to simply play games with and mentor the children. Over the course of the week, volunteers also distributed over 850 boxes of food donated by food and beverage companies in the local community.
Across the world, people have silently and diligently carried out other acts of compassion to uplift their neighbors out of everyday fears and provide for their most basic needs.
GPF volunteers in India are helping orphans and seniors affected by the inequalities resulting from remnants of caste discrimination through seemingly small actions like cleaning their centers and distributing pens and notebooks for children to learn math and writing. They demonstrate simple acts of service that will make a huge impact and leave an enormous imprint on their hearts and minds in the years to follow.
Volunteers set up water pipes around the village in Malaysia
Small actions like this one show the essential role we all play in uplifting each other as brothers and sisters of the same human family. No action is too small. Whatever challenges we face, it is important to remember that one of the quickest ways to draw ourselves out of our own self-pity, anxiety, and fear is to think of the people most in need around us.
What can we do today to help others?
The original post appears on Global Peace Foundation. Global Peace Foundation is an international non-sectarian, non-partisan, nonprofit organization, which promotes an innovative, values-based approach to peacebuilding, guided by the vision of One Family under God. GPF engages and organizes a global network of public and private-sector partners who develop community, national, and regional peace building models as the foundation for ethical and cohesive societies. Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon is founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation.