Sometimes joy can come as a mini message of affirmation. In South Sudan, we’re working to build women’s centers for women to build community, learn new skills, and find respite. As sanctuary spaces, we wanted to make sure they were joyful, too. These spaces seemed like the perfect places to leave nice notes of encouragement.
Communicating and support in these kinds of spaces are so important. The connections that women make with one another in these safe spaces can be life changing—just ask Grace, our Protection lead in Ulang, South Sudan. Though most of us can’t travel to support these connections and communities in South Sudan, we can certainly support from afar.
So, during Grace’s visit to Minneapolis, she convened a group of volunteers to write special messages of hope, solidarity, and belief for the women she works with in the center. She shared with us that just knowing someone cares, that someone is thinking of you or creating space for you, makes all the difference. That this little spark of joy can reverberate on a much deeper level. So that’s what we did! Each message was placed in a little bottle that will be installed in South Sudan. We hope that as women take these notes, they can write their own, too!
Our friends in Minneapolis got to writing quickly. Our youngest volunteer was moving especially fast, and as his mom told us, “he was so excited about sending joy to people in South Sudan. He did not want to stop writing!”
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