Rabi's Story (Family Volunteers for Peace Story 2021-1)
Helping others starts with caring about others. On the way to school or when going to a friend's house, pay attention. How are your neighbors doing? How are your friends in school doing? Do they have enough to eat? Do they seem sad? Everywhere you go, you can think of ways to help. Like Rabi, a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl.
Rabi lives with her family in Kaduna State, Nigeria. She embarked on a Family Volunteers for Peace project with her grandmother, mother, aunt and two younger sisters Rahima (12) and Raeesa (7). Nigeria has experienced ongoing outbreaks of identity-based conflicts and violence fueled by extremism. Many migrants and refugees, often victims of these conflicts, have moved to the city in search of work and new homes. Covid 19 has made it even more difficult for these families.
During a family meeting, Aisha, a leader in Global Peace Women, introduced the idea of family volunteering and the Family Volunteers for Peace initiative. Rabi get excited, and expressed that she would like to help migrant families living near their home. The idea came up to deliver food (rice, soybeans, millet, maize, etc) to three poor families to help provide full meals. Rabi’s grandmother and aunt offered to pay for the purchase of the food ingredients.
The three sisters came up with a lot of ideas about what food ingredients to get.
To take health and safety measures, they prepared masks and hand sanitizer. On April 4th, the family of six visited three families and shared food. The mother of a single-parent family shared how hard it has been resettling in the city with her son. They live in house with no windows and doors. Fortunately, she has beauty techniques, so she makes money as a beautician, but her income is meager and unstable. COVID19 has made it even harder to find stable work. Everyday she worried about providing enough food for her family. In a city with no relatives, she expressed her gratitude for getting help from neighbors.
“Seeing people who live in the same estate that I live, living in this kind of condition has really opened my eyes to the realities of life. I have learnt that people really struggle to get just one square meal a day. This makes me really appreciate what I have. As the saying goes “Sharing is caring. I would really be happy to be part of another project like this,” said Rabi. Raheema (12) expressed confidence that she could help someone, Raeesa(7) learned the joy of sharing, and grandmother and mother expressed the joy and reward of the recipients' gratitude and a sense of accomplishment that the family planned and volunteered together.
“Sharing is caring.” In the future, Rabi and her family hopes to encourage other families to also share and care. If 1 family helps 3 families, 10 families can help 30 families and 100 families can help 300 families. This is the first step toward creating a culture of service and peace. A big thank you to Rabi and her family for volunteering together. We are looking forward to more Family Volunteers for Peace stories and seeing the impact of families serving together in Nigeria.