Photo of the Week #56: “Brothers”
“One sibling cheetah grooms another.”-V. Ricci
This image was submitted to Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
Photo of the Week #56: “Brothers”
Photo of the Week #42: “Family reflection”
Every day, with our daughter, we go for a walk with our beloved dog named Ray. When the sun went down over the horizon, I made such a self-portrait of our cheerful and friendly family. The photo was taken in Ukraine.
Photo of the Week #22: “Help Spread”
Photo of the Week #22: “Help Spread”
Photo and Text by Somenath Mukhopadhyay
“A little boy is helping his handicap father spread the clothes to dry beside a river on a summer day.”
This image was submitted to our 2017 Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
VOW Transportation Shows Us the Power of Opportunity and Understanding
#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.
Keep Our Neighbors Warm Event: We Are On This Earth to Help One Another
Keep Our Neighbors Warm, now in its 5th year, is an annual event put on by the Women with a Vision Ministries here in Connecticut. The most recent event took place on Saturday, December 10th at Capital Community College, where one of the members of the ministry, Marva Patterson, graduated.
Keep Our Neighbors Warm is a community event where donations of coats, footwear, hats, gloves, scarfs, sweaters, and blankets are accepted and then distributed to those in need. The winter drive begins in September of each year. Women with a Visions Ministries seeks donations from consignment stores, churches, and other local organizations. The items are then given out beginning in December. Last winter roughly 1500 individuals received warm clothing and accessories.
This annual program is one of many that is held each year by Women with a Vision Ministries. Around Mother’s Day the organization collects wallets, purses, and totes for the women at the Interval House and The Salvation Army Marshall House. Interval House provides services to break the cycle of domestic violence. Interval House is dedicated to providing services to prevent and break the cycle of family and intimate partner abuse. The Salvation Army House helps those in need in both Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Marva states, “I don’t take credit for what God has commissioned me to do as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. We are on this earth to help one another. The reason I sent the information to you was because there are people out there that can help us help others.”
If you are interested in taking part of one of Women with a Vision Ministries’ drives you can contact Marva at [email protected] or 860-484-1511.
Legacy
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!