Photo of the Week #21: “Made for Each Other”
Photo and Text by Sudipto Das
“A little girl helps an elderly ill person cross a canal at a remote village in West Bengal, India.”
This image was submitted to our 2017 Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
#NiceWork VOW! VOW Transportation doesn’t just help its passengers get where they need to go, it gives them the opportunity to achieve more. Vision of Winning (VOW) and its founder and CEO, Lorenzo Stewart Sr. of Washington D.C, knows a thing or two about how important these opportunities can be.
After spending years in and out of jail, Stewart was having trouble finding a job. “Nothing solid ever came through,” he explained in an interview with Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post. In addition to having a record, Stewart, struck by a stray bullet at 15 uses a wheelchair. With the support of a loving family, Stewart realized that in order to achieve success he needed to become his own boss. Fortunately, D.C. has started an incredible and kind program: Aspire to Entrepreneurship. This partnership between District agencies and Changing Perceptions provides ex-offenders with the necessary tools to start their own businesses. It believes in people to make a change for themselves. In December of 2016, Stewart got the loan he needed to make a difference (WUSA9).
Stewart didn’t take this opportunity lightly. He took the kindness that was shown to him by D.C.’s program and decided to create something amazing with it. VOW isn’t your average business. This organization helps people with disabilities, seniors, and students with their transportation needs, a mission inspired by Stewart’s own life. VOW even offers free services. Because Stewart knows firsthand the importance of family support, he provides rides to people who want to visit their family members in prisons. Demand is high, so he’s hoping expansion is in his future. As of June 2017, he operates three 15-seat vans.
“It’s true that when we give returning citizens the right set of skills and opportunities, they will flourish,” D.C. Deputy Mayor Courtney R. Snowden said. Inspired by this story? Push for your state to support entrepreneurship programs like the one that helped Stewart in D.C. There are surely more kind organizations and people to be discovered.
Cycling Without Age is an international non profit organization that provides the elderly with opportunities to remain active in their day to day lives. Volunteers use trishaws to take their elders on a bike ride that they may not have otherwise have been given the chance to take. Elderly citizens are given the chance to tell their story and relive some of the experiences they had earlier in life.
Christian, the young boy in the video shows us just what being selfless means. He understands that giving to others not only provides kindness to others, but a sense of social responsibility within ourselves. As stated on the Cycling Without Age website, “We are all heading on the same path that our grandparents were on. It is an inevitable journey of life.”
“Without age is the principle of how life does not end at a given age, but instead we can embrace what each generation has to offer through something as simple as cycling.”
Video Credit: Mariana Abdalla has a passion in visual arts and her aim is to engage in digital and visual strategic communications.
Kindness can be about just spending time with someone. In this image, Kassow and Inger Marie talk about time, memory and family. That day, he read to Inger a letter from a distant niece from Wisconsin, where part of her family from Denmark moved many years ago. This was the first time Inger had contact with that part of the family since they left!