“It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness,” Confucius said. These words best describe the whole meaning of our Goodacity space team’s work. This work ignites a spark of light, kindness, and mutual help every day!
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Vision and mood
Home is not just walls. It is a dense space filled with our lives, warmth, and memories, a place of love and care, a connection with the past, and dreams of a happy future.
Due to the Russian aggression, thousands of Ukrainians lost their homes; in some places, an unfinished cup of coffee was left on the table. In others, only a pile of debris remains where a building once stood. What can we do with “my home is my fortress” when war destroys homes and lives?
Ruined houses are like wounds on the body of the country. However, we will heal all our wounds and rebuild our home country! Because, in fact, our home is the people who give us a sense of home! Those people who come to help in a difficult moment, those people who love and care — they are our Home. They are our fortress.
Step 1. When life is in ruins
“Here is the whole life of my son and me; it is destroyed, tattered, and we don’t know how to put it back together.” Ms. Antonina cannot hold back her tears, showing her ruined apartment in Chernihiv, where she has been living with her disabled son.
Their life was not easy even before the war. Her son is seriously ill and, with a disability, has been unable to walk independently for eight years. He requires constant care and attention. And then, during the most terrible month of their lives this spring, when Chernihiv was brutally shelled, their home was destroyed.
“At first, I didn’t even think about the fact that we were left without a roof over our heads,” Ms. Antonina recalls with tears in her eyes. “At first, there was a shock: I realized my son and I were lucky to stay alive. Then, an airplane dropped six bombs on our house on Chornovola Street. We were in the basement at that time, so I went up to our apartment to get him something to eat. As soon as I went back downstairs, there was a terrible explosion. We survived by miracle; I don’t remember how I carried my 60-kilogram son on my shoulders after that. When the shock passed, the questions came: what should we do now? How do we go on?”
Step 2. The key to Victory is humanness!
“After the horror experienced, humanness touches the most.” The woman is grateful to Goodacity volunteers for their help. “My son and I were sheltered in the dormitory of the Chernihiv Pedagogical University. The volunteers did abandon us with our troubles; they started asking how they could help us. The war tests our humanity, and the Ukrainians proved to be real humans! Humanness is the key to our Victory!”
“Those who lost their homes and were left without sheltering walls need to feel the ground beneath their feet again. They need to know there is someone who cares about their problems. I want to thank the Goodacity space for helping with food, basic necessities, and vital medicines, and especially to their volunteer, Oksana, for her caring and sensitive heart! People who until recently were strangers become your relatives and friends, and a common world is reborn from their humanness.”
Finish
Time to sum it up
Home is a small world that we create around ourselves. The world we live in is not just cities and houses. It is the space between us, designed by our attitude toward other people, our mutual help and support, and a small light of our goodness, dispelling the darkness around us.
You can afford yourself the luxury of goodness!
Doing good is very simple!
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