Four years ago I hosted a fundraising music event for Save the Children and their Christmas Jumper Day. I called it Reach! because it was all about reaching out to those in need, especially children. I don’t have kids nor was it ever my intention to have them but I love children! I love their spontaneity, their creativity, their imagination, their ability to play and create fantasy worlds even in the most unthinkable and dire situations. They are truly magical and preserving that magic and nurturing their dreams is vital! A child without dreams grows up to be an adult without hope.
So donating to an organisation that has their name as their mission statement is a no brainer for me: “let the experts do what they know best and focus on what you are good at” has always been my motto. But I wanted to do more than donating. I wanted to create awareness, bring people together and raise money for a cause greater than any one of us could tackle individually but that perhaps collectively we could do something about.
At the time the cause was for the children in Syria devastated by the war which is still ongoing by the way but has fallen off our radar as we had other wars to face in 2020 that were closer to home and touched the very core of who we are and how we operate. 2020 catapulted us into a new reality. It’s as if we unwillingly found ourselves going through a portal that led us to a new world. But this portal didn’t magically make all of the other issues disappear, if anything it accentuated them: wars are still being fought and children are still the ones paying the highest price for that.
If our privileged world has been shaken by the pandemic and its consequences, I cannot begin to imagine the drama and tragedy that the underprivileged communities with little or no infrastructure or resources in place must have gone through!
It is with this very personal reflection in mind that my heart continues to go out to organisations like Save the Children and the many others that do what they can with the means they have to make this world a more liveable place to be in for everyone, especially for children.
This reflection also led me to embrace once again the Jumper Day initiative! It will be different though: no live face to face, no chance of offering Christmas cookies and gluhwein but still an opportunity to connect on line, wear and compare Christmas Jumpers, play some songs campfire style and be grateful for what we have while contributing to those in need.
2020 has shown us that planning things ahead may not always work out but doing things that matter is always possible one way or another! And one of the things that matter is to take care of the children: the future is in their hands but their present is in ours!
