The power of small
I’m pretty ordinary. No one is going to write (or want to read) a biography about me. I won’t be drawing hundreds or thousands to my funeral.
I’m a grandmother, wife and mom. I like to read, hike, garden, and ride my bicycle. I live in a suburban neighborhood. I am also the founder of From Strangers to Neighbors.
The decision that led me to become a founder of a nonprofit started back in 2015. I became increasingly distressed as I listened to, read, and saw expanding polarization all around me: in news, social gatherings, and social media. The craziness sent me on a personal journey. In a world that media portrayed as losing compassion, I wanted to better understand its roots and what makes it grow. I especially wanted to grow my own compassion – particularly for those I deemed different from me.
As part of my journey, I read a book called 12 steps to a More Compassionate Life. Each step in it challenged me, but Step 9 pushed me the farthest. That step, titled Concern for Everybody, challenged me to reach out to someone completely unlike myself. So, I became part of a sponsor team for a Syrian family.
In my team role, I started out as the family’s ESL tutor. Over time I became far more. I advocated for them when one ended up in the E.R. room. I stood in for the parents during a parent-teacher conference. I attended graduation ceremonies for three of them. I ate meals in their home, took them to see Indy sites, played board games, and baked cookies with them. I introduced them to my family.
We became friends.
In the midst of working with them - when the high-mileage van someone had originally donated to them died - I did something I’d never imagined doing. I gave them my car. Three of the adult children needed transportation to school and one needed transportation to a job that was helping to support the entire family. Without transportation, the family could not thrive.
That car created a “moment of lift” that helped the family move themselves forward on the road to economic stability. It helped the three adult children stay in school. It enabled the adult son to go to a job he juggled with school. The job provided cash that helped pay for rent and groceries. The car enabled the father to travel to weekend craft fairs, selling purses he made from hand and generating more income for the family.
Fast forward to now, and each adult child has a good job in the medical field, one as a nurse and two as medical assistants. The family owns a home and the youngest is thriving as a high school student after arriving 8 years ago speaking no English. The car donation was small to me. I was simply going to trade it in on a lease. But that small act, coupled with many other small acts done by other members of our co-sponsor team, generated enough lift for the Alhamwi family to go fully from need to succeed.
From Strangers to Neighbors is act of faith in the inherent compassion within all of us. My big dream is that many others in the Indy-area community will be inspired to join us as volunteers or donors, recognizing the power small acts of generosity and compassion have in creating critical moments of lift for families who most need it.