7 Acts of Kindness for Valentine's Day

Photo by Clare Bloomfield

We love the idea of Valentines Day as a time to think about how much we love each other and a special day to bring joy to others.

If you are looking for ways to share love on Valentines Day – that do not focus on transient material goodies – you may like to consider some non-traditional ideas to enjoy this occasion.  It seems a day dedicated to love is a great opportunity for us to instill love for others into our children as well as ourselves.

Spending your physical resources on others outside your immediate circle does not mean your family and close friends have to miss out on the Valentines spirit though.  You can still celebrate Valentines Day by spending time together doing something you enjoy or creating a gift that does not cost anything such as writing a poem or a song.  The key is to show love without focusing on giving or receiving material representations of that love.

The following activities are great for adults, families with young children, or even classrooms to celebrate Valentines Day without becoming preoccupied with the consumerism that this holiday sometimes evokes.

7 Acts of Kindness for Valentines Day

• Collect coins leading up to Valentines Day in a jar decorated with hearts, and deliver them to a local charity on Valentines Day.

•  Make Valentines Day treats and hold a Bake Sale (or Lemonade/Hot Chocolate Stand), with proceeds going towards a favorite charity.

• Participate in an Act of Kindness for someone you do not know… like sending a note of appreciation to an author you admire or contributing a few dollars towards expenses after a sudden tragedy.

• Send Valentines to a family experiencing hardship.

• Create Valentines to deliver to a home for the elderly or a homeless shelter.

• Choose another family and find one way to show love to them – maybe by helping with gardening, babysitting for the evening, or taking over a meal.

•  Ask your Valentine what their favorite charity is, and donate the same amount of money that you would have spent on a gift or a fancy dinner. 

What if we all decided to use Valentines Day to spread love and kindness beyond our own homes? 

Imagine if we all spent a little *less* money on loved ones who already have enough, and gave a little *more* to those in need?  It can really be quite simple to make a positive difference on this day dedicated to sharing love, if we just look outwards versus focusing inwards. 

Wishing you all a happy Valentines Day full of love for the whole world. xx

(Noted: We originally posted the article from 'Moments a Day' blogpost. This is an updated version, Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day!

Spotlighting Giovani Zanolino on World Teacher Day

Giovani Zanolino

Giovani in class

In the month of June (2013) a Curaçao based mixed media artist, Giovani Zanolino, volunteered his time and talent during a visual arts project at the Van Houte School in Breivengat, Curaçao. He taught and guided the students in creating their own mixed media collages using photographs, magazines and acrylic paint. The results were not short of AMAZING!

We asked Giovani: Looking back at your volunteer teaching experience during the project, sharing your time and talent with the kids, how was it? And secondly, how would you describe a great teacher (in any field)?

Student Collage

Student collage

"I had a great time participating in this project. I was very impressed by the talent of the children we worked with. They had a clear intuition for color and form and I would do another project like this in a heartbeat. It was really fun and satisfying to see them surprise themselves. I enjoyed seeing the kids realise they have talents they didn't know of yet. I am  very happy too see Curaçao Cares stimulating our youth to express themselves in a positive way, and especially to see them giving these children more opportunities to believe in themselves. With time and nurturing we can help cultivate creativity, confidence and unity in our community. 

Student Collage

Student Collage

I think a good teacher must have the ability to communicate well, but especially to lead by example. All my best teachers were simply good genuine people. Through honesty and purity they connect to you on a higher, often subconscious level. So if you Love what you do, you will probably be a teacher to many. But for our schoolteachers I would suggest a good dose of patience and compassion as a big plus."

De Curaçao Clean Up 2013

Rond de 2000 (!!) vrijwilligers en bijna 500.000 (!!) kilo afval. Deze resultaten liegen er niet om, de Curaçao Clean Up 2013 was een groot succes. Vanwege mijn stage bij Curaçao Cares heb ik een klein deel van dit 3 maanden durende proces richting de Clean Up 2013 mogen meemaken.

Een groot punt is mij opgevallen: de toewijding. Aan alles merkte je het, deze dag moest slagen en de organisatie moest en zal op alles voorbereid zijn. Zo werd dan ook elk puntje uitgewerkt: draaiboeken, logistieke processen, promotionele activiteiten, zorg voor vrijwilligers, veiligheid en zo kan ik nog wel even doorgaan. Vergaderingen van langer dan 4 uur, avond- en nachtwerk zijn geen vreemde termen voor de organisatie. Alles voor hun “Dushi Kòrsou”.

De dag

21 September 2013, de Clean Up day is begonnen. Het kantoor van Curaçao Cares is omgedoopt tot “Headquarters” en vanaf hier worden de eventuele problemen verholpen en maakt de organisatie rondes over het eiland. Ook worden er direct updates met foto’s op Facebook gezet. Zelf reed ik een ronde mee naar verschillende locaties.

De eerste locatie was de onderbouw van de Albert Schweitzer school, waar mij gelijk de grote stapel vuilniszakken opviel. De eerste stop en gelijk zo’n top prestatie, dit beloofde nog wat voor de komende locaties. En inderdaad mijn voorspelling kwam uit, bij de volgende bezoeken aan koraal specht, scherpenheuvel en ronde klip waren de resultaten niet de minste. Wat een (opgeruimde) troep heb ik voorbij zien komen! Het fanatisme wat ik heb gezien en gehoord van de vrijwilligers zal ik niet snel vergeten.

Rond 12 uur komen wij terug aan bij “Headquarters” en gelukkig is de dag bijna geheel vlekkeloos verlopen. De opluchting is goed bij de organisatie te zien, maar naast dit is er ook het besef dat dit zonder alle vrijwilligers/sponsors en partners niet was gelukt. Iedereen is het eens, wat een geweldige inzet van alle partijen.

De resultaten

Met het ophalen van bijna een half miljoen kilo afval denk ik dat er een heel goed begin is gemaakt. Ik heb de organisatie en de vrijwilligers uit liefde voor hun eiland Curaçao zien werken en dat is heel bijzonder om mee te maken. Als dit fanatisme wordt vastgehouden en naar nog meer mensen wordt overgebracht dan gaat deze Curaçao Clean Up 2013 nog hele mooie gevolgen hebben.

Als laatste nogmaals mijn petje af voor de vrijwilligers, de organisatie, de meewerkende bedrijven/scholen/sponsors en iedereen die een bijdrage heeft gehad aan de Curaçao Clean Up 2013! Zonder jullie was dit geweldige begin aan een schoner Curaçao niet gemaakt.

From Passion to Project...

by Lysaye de Windt

Class Routine

Me: “Ok class, let’s see if you remember… When I photograph a subject from and very low angle, how will it appear... class: “Larger than usual”… Me: “And if I take the same photograph from an high angle, looking down at the subject, how will it look now? Class: “Much smaller!”

The Beginning...

About a year ago, Mrs. Dulcie Goedgedrag had mentioned that Mrs. Roline Sillé, principal at the Van Houte School, might need some help with photographing some pupils of her school. She suggested I get in touch with Mrs. Sille. Little did I know, this project would become such an amazing journey including photography, teaching, learning, sharing, volunteering and a main motivation for what is today, Curaçao Cares.

Mrs. Sillé shared that; “I’ve noticed that some of my students have a low self-esteem as they are continuously being teased about not being pretty enough etc. I would love for you to photograph them, so they can see their natural beauty, and build their self-confidence.”

I started thinking how much more of an impact it would have to not only photograph these kids, but to also teach them how to view their surroundings from a different perspective through a lens; teach them about photography. The mission: to teach circa 90 pupils of this special education school about visual art and to enable them to use photography as a medium for self-expression. In developing their social and creative skills the students would also have an opportunity to increase their self-assurance. Ultimately, the Van Houte School pupils would participate in a number of photography classes, photography excursions, photo review session, mixed-media classes and in the end an exhibit showcasing their talent.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do SO MUCH.”
Maduro & Curiel's Bank was looking for a project in the Brievengat nieghborhood in which their employees could participate as volunteers. When they found out about the visual arts project, they were excited to participate.

MCB volunteer in action - photo excursion in Fleur de Marie

The MCB volunteers joined the photography classes and shared their love for photography and left the students with useful advice in preparation for their photo excursions. They joined the students on several field trips to Fleur de Marie, Sint Annabaai harbor, Landhuis Bloemhof and Parke Tropikal, based on the school’s curriculum, ranging from topics like Punda, the harbor and nature. With each click of the shutter to capture their images, students were encouraged to answer two questions: First, 'what inspired you and why did you choose to capture it from that particular angle'?

Photograph by student @  Parke Tropikal
Curacao Zoo & Nature Reserve

We could see the students self-confidence grow as they saw their photograph projected during class. But as creativity is endless, the project did not end there. Giovani Zanolino gladly accepted the invitation to share his mixed-media skills with the students. The student’s favorite photograph was used as part of their collage masterpiece. As the MCB volunteers helped the students cut and glue their collage together, Giovanni guided them in bringing their collage to life. Last but not least a third element was added the work; the element of paint.

Giovani Zanolino volunteering
during the collage sessions @ van Houte School

The exhibit
After many hours of planning and organizing to crystalize this project, the best part is yet to come. On Saturday July 6th 2013, we invite everyone to 'Ban Topa den Punda' as Curaçao Cares together with MCB will host the van Houte School student art exhibit at Plaza JoJo Correa, revealing the students photographs and mixed media collages.

A very special Thank You goes to Saskia de Rijke from Connect Business Advisory for volunteering her consulting and writing skills and Maduro & Curiel's Bank for generously supporting to realize every single detail of this project. We could not have put this together without the commitment of MCB volunteers!

At Curaçao Cares, we believe change begins with you. So what are you waiting for? 

Turn that corner, find out how you can give back to your community today. 

Sign up and stay updated on www.curacaocares.org

It was all a dream...

That's how most things start in New York, don't they? Well that is certainly how our journey started, even though our dream ultimately had nothing to do with New York. For all the accusations of being an 'impersonal' place where all you do is get lost in a crowd of strangers, New York had taught us both one thing: that no matter how busy you are running from train to train, job to job, you can, and should always find time and ways to give back! 

Precisely that, giving back, was the topic of discussion one faithful afternoon in the summer of 2011 when I, Deva-Dee Siliee and friend and now co-founder of Curaçao Cares Lysayé de Windt were sitting around the coffee table in New York with family members that were visiting. Precisely how would we give back to Curaçao, and how can we encourage and inspire others to give back?  

We both had quite some experience getting hands-on in community service projects around the world. I had rolled up my sleeves to reinvigorate the city a few times, had spent weekend-days teaching and organizing seminars for underprivileged students in New York and had shared smiles and tears with juvenile detainees in Tanzania. Lysayé had traveled the world, visiting over 10 countries, volunteering almost everywhere she went with numerous local NGO's, even if it was just for a little while.

Why and how were we able to do all of that? The answer is simple: elsewhere volunteering was made accessible, flexible but still meaningful! But when we thought about Curaçao, we were left clueless as to where we could give our time, talent and skills, and we suspected that there might be more people looking for information on volunteer opportunities finding that this information is hard to come by. 

And so the dream was born to establish Curaçao Cares, a volunteer and project management foundation. Curaçao Cares is proud to join Nederland Cares and New York Cares as an affiliate of Handson network, the largest and most successful international network of more than 250 volunteer action centers in 20 countries. Our mission is aligned with that of the network: to put people at the center of change!

Since our official establishment on October 19th, 2012, we have been working day and night (with the help of many others!) to get the engine started and to ensure that we will be here to serve our community for a long time. 

We hope that you join us on this journey, simply because change....begins with you!

Keep Calm and Volunteer Often