“My son’s first volunteering opportunity was when he was 6 months old. We went to a senior place dealing with dementia and memory loss. I shared my baby with them and they remembered their babies. It sparked these memories and was a beautiful moment. He doesn’t remember it, but it did contribute to our family culture of service and kicked started a lifetime of all of us volunteering.” Sarah Aadland, Program Director, Big Hearted Families, Doing Good Together spoke about creating a tradition of peacemaking in her family during the third session of the Global Peace Women 2021 Webinar Series entitled, “Practice Peacemaking: Strategies for Bringing Service and Kindness into Everyday Family Life.” Representatives from 35 countries attended the webinar that was also live casted on Facebook. The session fanned our innate desire to help one another and highlighting the power of doing so as families.
Special thanks goes to Doing Good Together, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization seeking to raise compassionate and engaged children. Global Peace Women has been working with DGT since 2019 to develop resources and initiatives to encourage families to spread the culture of service and peace through volunteering.
Doing Good Together founder and director Dr. Jenny Friedman has said, “If we value a more just and compassionate world, we need to put a greater focus on raising caring, kind children.” As part of the DGT team, Sarah has worked with families and organizations across the United States to develop a repository of tools, resources and ideas for families. Peacemaking, Sarah said, is as an everyday mindset cultivated through service, routines, reflection and education. When applied, peacemaking can raise individuals of stewardship, compassion, inquiry and respect who learn and think deeply about making a difference in their homes and expanding their circle of concern out to their neighbourhood, community, nation and world.
“If we value a more just and compassionate world, we need to put a greater focus on raising caring, kind children.”
Sarah shared research-based data of the benefits of families that serve together. People who serve tend to be healthier and happier. Research shows that service decreases stress, blood pressure and cortisol levels. Service also reinforces key values of a family, sparks important conversations, makes individuals more confident, breaks stereotypes and builds kind and caring individuals. Additionally, it cultivates intergenerational tradition of service. Children who volunteer with their parents are twice as likely to volunteer as adults and develop lifelong habits of giving.
Sarah gave practical tools, strategies, and examples of how to begin peacemaking. She said start by noticing needs, respecting others, practicing empathy and gratitude, educating and sharing inspiring news/stories and getting involved. She gave many simple ideas for families to try:
Ana Marie Mira, Chapter Coordinator of GPW Philippines, gave a powerful example of how kindness is contagious. “You can spread peace by showing peace, you can spread kindness by showing kindness and you can spread love by showing love. If you want others to do something, you have to show it first by yourself. Every time we show kindness, it emits a positive vibe and inspiration for others.” Job loss, mortality, and a slow in economic activity due to the COVID19 pandemic has caused a food crisis for many families in the Philippines. Ana’s family has been sharing rice with families since March 2020.
In April, the project became a Family Volunteers for Peace project. Her mother and children joined the project, from planning to implementation and reflection. So far they have reached 108 families. Serving together has strengthened her family’s bonds and is building a family culture of service. “I feel joy in my heart knowing that I can do good for others,” said Ana’s 11-year-old daughter Shin.
More recently, Ana’s family opened a food pantry in front of their house. The pantry is a part of a nation-wide initiative started by a woman in Maginhawa, Philippines who put out a small bamboo cart pantry with signage “Share what you can, Get what you need.” It created a wave of giving and sharing. There are now more than 500 community pantries all over the country. “The effect of kindness spreads like wildfire, inspiring others. They all want to make a difference”, said Ahna.
We hope that Session 3 encourages families to continue or start their tradition of serving as a family. To quote Sarah, “When we create room for service, routines, reflection and reading, we feel more purposeful and connected to one another and a community of changemakers…Some days will be messy, but if we practice, ultimately making peace in our homes will have a bold impact on our homes and the communities that we live in.”
If you need help getting started or you have a Family Volunteers for Peace story to tell, email family.volunteers@globalpeacewomen.org.
You can watch the full session here.