A Heart 2 Help Haiti - using institute experience to help the world

We asked for inspiring stories of SED initiatives and efforts to reach out and address the needs of the wider community. This is a beautiful and touching example of an endeavor that is supporting the relief work in response to the recent earthquake in Haiti. Called A Heart 2 Help Haiti (there is a link to its website in the description below), it describes simple ways in which the friends can, for example, make Valentine’s Day cards or decorated cookies, to raise funds to donate to reputable organizations such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.

This is not just a meritorious initiative in its own right, it is also a brilliant example of the friends using the skills they’ve gained through the institute process to begin programs in their community focused on the betterment of the world. It is a grassroots initiative, easily replicable in clusters across the country, particularly well-suited to children’s classes and junior youth groups (note how this believer connected it to the concepts learned in one of the children’s classes).

It's been extremely sad watching the devastating news from Haiti, a feeling most of us likely share. We were thinking that aside from a modest financial contribution our family could make, we wished there was more we could do to help. I was trying to think of an idea for a fundraising project that would be very simple to carry out and came up with the idea of A Heart 2 Help Haiti.

This project can be done by anyone in any venue. But I'd also like to offer that it is a project could easily be done with Neighborhood Children's Classes. It would go well with Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 3 dealing with the issues of compassion and justice. It might also be something that junior youth groups would be interested to participate in. It could also be a wonderful opportunity for a community to do charitable works in preparation for the upcoming Ayyam-i-Ha season.