An Invitation to Inhabit Earth's Garden | Reflections from a current PPA Participant

Irimekyen Salome SamueL, Nigeria

Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together. The minute we become an integrated whole, we look through the same eyes and we see a whole different world together. One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. 

The World is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden. 

Social justice issues, extreme poverty, wars, conflicts are not just an African issue or a South Asian issue or a South American issue. It is a global issue. Before flying overseas to help relieve poverty or to fight just causes, social justice issues, consider the homophobia, racism, wars in your backyard. 

Every country, on every continent has people impacted by social injustices- whether it is relative or absolute. 

Creating a World system that works for everyone will take more than trial and error, but more innovation and more communication. Most importantly, it will take more trust – the trust that people are aware of their problems and are creative enough to solve them when given the right resources. 

People need opportunities and education to learn more about life’s possibilities, not handouts, performative sympathy and empty promises. 

Helping strategies, if indeed they are to be ultimately helpful, demand careful examination of long-term implications. There is no guarantee that an unexamined charity will have a redemptive outcome simply because it ‘seems right’ or feels good to the giver. 

There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals. Working closely with recipients and understanding the needs of others requires a level of trust, credibility, closeness that community leaders are best positioned to develop. 

Community leaders can serve as mentors, communicators and friends who represent the values and priorities most important to the populations they support. 

I invite you all to make a commitment to serve the needs of the ‘least of these’ and give voice to the voiceless.