Hands of Hope Project

You will meet our first three students, Brayah Davis, Layla Fleming, and John Grasso, in this special episode. They helped create the Hands of Hope Banner, which was given to Whoopy Matewere, National Coordinator of The Eye of a Child, when she visited RJEC. The students explain what it means to them to be involved in this project and offer messages of hope to the children of Malawi, Africa. Don't miss this special episode of children giving hope and inspiration to other children. You will also learn how this program will grow to include storytelling, music and dance, cooking traditional dishes, instrumental learning, and eventually connecting the children to meet virtually. 

Transcript

0:13

Welcome to this special edition of Project Rare Core Chronicles. Today we have some wonderful children here with our special project, Hands of Hope for Malawi, Africa. You're gonna meet children who are giving messages from the United States to children at the eye of the child from Malawi, Africa. We want to empower them by messages from the children. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Project Red Court. I'd like to introduce our first guest on this special episode of Project Rare Chronicles. Can you tell us your name? Yes. What's your name? Layla. Layla, that is a beautiful name. How old are you, Layla? Five. Five years old, wow. And what school do you go to? Celebration Army. That is wonderful. What do you do when you want to make someone that feels, say, I feel happy? Give them a toy. so you really like to share. Sharing is a good thing, that's wonderful. Yes, sharing is caring. It is caring. Now, what I want to know, Layla, is if you were a superhero, who would you be? Spider Girl. Spider Girl. That is amazing. And as Spider Girl, what would you do to save people? Um, get them from a car. Okay. So you would be doing good works as Spider Girl. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. I got a couple more questions. What is one of your favorite things to eat? Chicken and macaroni. Chicken and macaroni. That is awesome. I love it. Okay, and what is your favorite color? Um, pink, yellow, blue. That is wonderful. You have several favorite colors. Layla, how did it feel when you put your hands on that poster and wrote that message to the children in Africa? I feel excited that I can't stop being excited. That is wonderful. You felt excited and you're still excited about it. I'm sure the children that read your message are as excited as you were to write it, so thank you for that. How does it make you feel to be able to do something for children all over the world? Happy. It does? Yeah. Why does it make you feel happy? Because I like to take care of all of them. You do. So you're compassionate. That's called caring and being kind and compassionate, which is what this program is all about. So if there's one message that you could say to the children in Malawi, Africa today, what would you say to make them feel happy? Thank you all for letting us take care of your kids. I love you. That is beautiful. Do you know that love is such a powerful thing? And for you to spread that, that is wonderful. Well, I thank you, Layla, for joining us for this special episode. And I'm sure that all the children that will be listening will enjoy your messages of hope. Thank you. You're welcome. I'd like to introduce to you another wonderful guest in the studio today. Can you share with our audience what your name is? My name is Brea. Brea. What a beautiful name. And how old are you, Brea? I'm nine years old. Nine years old. Wow. And what school do you attend? I go to St. Jerome Catholic School. That is wonderful. You were a part of the Making the Hands of Hope project to go to Malawi. How did you feel being a part of this project? I felt amazing. You did? That is wonderful. Because it's amazing to offer hope to other children, right? Yep. I'm so glad. What do you do to make someone who feels sad feel happy? I comfort them and make sure everything's okay. That's wonderful. What if someone is different from you? How do you handle that I tell them that they don't have to worry about how different they are from me. Yes. And you just appreciate each other's differences, right? Mm hmm. And can you still encourage someone, different from you? Yep. Absolutely. We're so happy about that. If you were a superhero, who would you be? I would be Fire Girl. Fire Girl. Okay, tell me about Fire Girl. What does she do? Fire Girl. She has fire powers. She helps people. I like pink and purple. I like rice and, um, greens. Yes, I like cats and dogs. You do? Wow, that's really wonderful. Thank you for all your help in putting this banner together for the children of Malawi. Brea, how did it feel, when you created that banner we sent to Africa, where you put your handprints on there and you put a special message to the children there, how did that feel for you? It made me feel happy that I could help the Africa kids feel happy and love themselves even more. That's wonderful, because that's what this Project Hand of Hope is all about, is encouraging kids and making them feel loved and hearing from other children their age. Because there are children your age there in the shelter. We thank you for doing that. That was so important. Also, what does it feel like to be a part of something like this where you are helping children all over the world? It makes me feel happy and proud of myself that I'm helping people inside Africa. To be your age in the fourth grade That is so wonderful. I am sure your principal and all your teachers at St. Jerome School are very proud of you, as I am, that you are part of something like this. Because community service and giving back to others is what we're trying to do with this project One last question what message would you give, after looking at all the pictures we showed you about the work we're doing in Africa? You see the children, you see the things that they need. What message would you like to say to them today? I would like to say that I love you all and I hope you guys stay strong. And I hope you all pray and I will always pray for you. Always and always. I hope you are, wonderful, doing awesome. I hope you are, Living your best life That is beautiful. What a wonderful message. Wonderful. Thank you so much. And you have a great day. We thank you for joining us today. You too. Next, we have another special guest and we're so excited to introduce to you. Can you tell us your name? my name is John Grasso. Very nice, John. John Grasso has been a volunteer here at the Center for many years, working with our Project Rare Cord outreach, we're excited to have him as a part of this Hands of Hope project, Can you tell us your age and what school you attend? John. I am 14 and I attend Garfield Middle School. Wonderful. being a part of the Project Red Court Street Outreach, what are some of the main things you have learned about serving others? How privileged we are compared to others. One time when I was doing outreach, I saw some people get really excited over stuff that I use every day. You Like, deodorants and all that, and I got, like, really excited, and, like, new clothes. So, it gives you, like, a new perspective of other people in the world, Yes. That's a really good point for people to understand, sometimes if we have things, and we feel privilege, or we take it for granted, when someone, doesn't even have those basic care needs, how would you, encourage someone who may be feeling down, and, just try to get them involved, help them out, don't make them feel worse about themselves. You want to build them back up, not kick them while they're down. And then they can start helping other people too, along with themselves. Right, that's wonderful. We know the importance of this podcast is to show that young people can make a difference to other young people. So thank you. What message would you give to the children in Malawi? A message of encouragement. Always try your best. Think of the positive. Help each other grow. Don't push each other down. You need to work together as much as possible. And be the best version of yourself. That's wonderful. Being the best version of yourself is excellent. Well, John, thank you for joining us for this special episode of Project Redcord Chronicles. We appreciate you. We are so honored to have Whoopi, our guest from Malawi, from the Eye of the Child. She's the national coordinator there, we're so excited to have her here today she received the banner from the children they made to take back to Malawi to share the messages the kids had in the USA to the children in Malawi. I just wanted to find out, how did that make you feel? You didn't know we were gonna do this. Oh my God, this is so amazing. I didn't expect it. And, it's so amazing in a way that, I didn't expect that children from America can also take their time to think of, of other vulnerable children in Malawi, so this is really, really great and I can't wait to take this partner to Malawi and show the children of Malawi. That is wonderful. It's really, really amazing. We intend to do more things, we want to get to the point that we are able to communicate and set up something where the kids there can talk to the kids here. We're gonna figure that out, and make it happen, we were so excited, we just want our audience to know this is. A new project, we were happy to kick it off while you were here for your mentorship and training as part of the global initiative. We thank you for the work that you do with the children and all of the good work that's being done there by the eye of the child. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Project Rare Core Chronicles. Thank you so much Renee. We are thrilled to bring you additional podcasts about the hands of whole project. As this program grows, it will incorporate the following cultural exchange programs like storytelling, music and dance, preparing traditional dishes, instrumental learning, journaling, all done by children sharing with children in Malawi, Africa. Thank you for joining us for this edition of Project Rare Core Chronicles. We want you to remember our tagline, no human trafficking and care. Thank you.