Is it naive to write about hope after a weekend in which voices that seek to spread hate and pull us apart have been loud and organised? I don’t think it is.
As the young people involved in the Urdd in Wales remind us 'hope is an action, to live in unison, to nourish the seeds of goodwill, in each and every heart.'
Hope is often found in the practical things people do when they refuse to let fear or inequality have the final word. It’s in the community groups keeping children safe. In the parents and carers supporting each other. In the volunteers who keep showing up. In the campaigners who keep pushing for change even when it takes years.
Hope is in the team behind the You, Me & Us group – set up by a group of women in Shirecliffe, Sheffield. They've recently set up their own food pantry, for their community. Save the Children has been collaborating with and supporting these families since 2018 as part of our Sheffield Early Learning Community.
Hope is the members of our Chichester branch which has been going for over 80 years – raising funds and awareness for children they will never meet. They celebrated that milestone with a service at Chichester Cathedral on Sunday.
Hope is the parents in Smallshaw Hurst who are coming together later this week to run a community celebration event – inviting everyone to contribute to their wall of hope about what gives them pride in their community.
Hope is the dads who 'shovel dirt' to build an outdoor garden at the Ehangu & Dad's Club in Ely, Cardiff when they identified a need for more safe, green spaces for children to play in.
Hope is the volunteers in our Nicolson Street shop in Edinburgh – many of them young people from across the world who’ve made a community.
When I look around, I’m reminded of the everyday acts of hope happening all around us. Hope is something I see across the work that Save the Children is doing in the UK and around the world.
Every day, millions of people across the UK show up for each other – not for recognition, but because it’s the right thing to do.
This week, as part of A Million Acts of Hope we’ve been celebrating those acts of kindness and connection across the UK, coming together with over 200 charities and local groups, celebrities, faith leaders and most importantly 100,000s of individuals up and down the UK. To prove that kindness is the quiet majority. And to show that despite what we see in the headlines, together we can make hope louder than hate.
I’m not naive. I know that the loud voices that are seeking to divide us, on social media, in marches and in many of our communities will continue to demand attention. They want hate and division to win.
But we can’t let them – to counter them we need to see hope as an action – something that each and every one can do in reaching out to a neighbour, a stranger, to build our communities.
