On the 8th and 9th of October a class of 12 students and a class of 14 students respectively, wrote or drew messages of joy for a person of their choice that they wanted to share some joy and positivity with. Whether for parents or grandparents, for siblings or cousins, for friends, for neighbours or for teachers, these messages were made from the heart to bring smiles and joy to others. Stephen Alff from PeaceJam Luxembourg, who organised these Acts of Peace shared the experience with us:
“As far back as I can remember, every year in November, my mam would take out her Christmas and New Year’s list and update it before starting the task of writing well over 100 cards that she would send out to family, friends and neighbours. She encouraged my siblings and me to do the same by making a list of friends and people we wanted to send cards to. Over the weeks that followed, we would get cards and letters and phone calls from people thanking us for the card they received.
What I didn’t necessarily think of when I was younger, was that some of the older people getting the cards didn’t necessarily have much family left and they were delighted that someone thought of them and as there was a picture of us with the card they got to see us grow up year after year.
What I really wanted to do with this act of Peace was to encourage the group taking part to write or draw messages of joy for a person of their choice that they wanted to share some joy and positivity with. Whether for parents or grandparents, for siblings or cousins, for friends or for classmates, for neighbours or for teachers, these messages were made from the heart to bring smiles and joy to others. They were each given a card and given complete freedom as to what to put on them and once they got started they wanted to send more to other people.
Something that I was delighted by, was that one of the teachers who was present said to the students that they could possibly do this again in future, as they showed a lot of enthusiasm in wanting to write more cards!
Sometimes all someone needs to feel that they belong is to know that there is someone there who cares about them and that they have a place in that person’s heart.”
Between now and the PeaceJam Pan-European Online Youth Conference in November we aim to get 100 #actsofpeace logged under our campaign on the #billionacts website! Helps us reach our goal of #100acts AND get your act of peace featured in the video reel during the conference! https://bit.ly/billionactseurope