Let’s write letters of love

Posted on by Parul Thakur

There are those like most of us who feel for a cause, empathize with what’s happening, want to do something but then life takes a priority.

And then, there are people like Pooja Pradeep (a 23-year-old engineering graduate) who not just think or empathize but take action and are willing to lead from the front. They also take up the task of involving those who want to help. More than 50% of Syrian refugees are children. Orphaned, lost and alone. These children do not even know what is happening and why. These young hearts and minds need our love and support. Letters of Love is Pooja’s initiative and she has taken up a fabulous task of sending love from across many borders to these children. She wants these children to feel loved and she wants us to be a part of this initiative.

I got to know about this initiative from Roshan’s post and I also wanted to get involved.

What did I do? Simple! I sent a happy picture of mine along with a 20 words positive message for these Syrian children to encourage them and make them feel cared.

What will the team of Letters of Love do? The team will convert my picture into a post card and translate my words into Arabic (the native language of the children) and write it on the back of this picture postcard. The idea is to deliver all these post cards via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the children across various refugee camps by New Year 2016. Not a lot of time but enough to get you going.

What kind of pictures you can send? Anything positive, happy or one that makes you smile.

  • Your best smile
  • Blowing a kiss
  • You and your friends
  • You with your pets
  • You holding flowers
  • Words – cheery and feel good in tone, ideally, rather than taking on a sympathetic voice.

Things to keep in mind: Remember the intent and avoid the below:

  • Selfies (they may get cropped while converting into post card format)
  • Images with food or materialistic goods (it may hit a raw nerve for a child who has lost everything) and obscene gestures
  • Pictures with parents and family – they may have lost theirs so be very mindful of what you send.
  • Sympathetic tone
  • Long message (try to keep the message short, crisp and very positive. Not more than 20 words so that it is easy to translate and write)

How to send? Very simple – just send across as Facebook inbox message to Letters of Love. No tagging on timeline and no blowing trumpets. Pooja and her team will look after everything else including translation and mailing all these picture post cards by mid-December.

What else? Ask your friends, family, loved ones to get involved. The more the merrier.

Remember that you are sending a piece of heart through this mail. Your pictures and words will bring smiles on the faces of these innocent children. Your efforts will go a long way in shaping what these children think of the rest of the world and I believe all of us genuinely want to wish these children the best. So go ahead, write a letter of love and spread the message.

Picture that I sent
Picture that I sent

I asked Letters of Love to share these details with me so that I can share with all of you. I am supporting this campaign cos I feel I have a chance to make difference. Tagging this post as #FridayReflections for this week and to #1000Speak for Compassion. 

 

25 thoughts on “Let’s write letters of love”

  1. This is such an awesome initiative na. I wanted to be a part of it too and then forgot.

    Thanks for reminding me about it. Will do it as soon as I can.

    Those kids need hope in every form and let us strive to get them atleast that.

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  6. I’ve posted this on my Facebook wall in case any of my friends are interested in doing this. Personally, I would rather not do it with my personal name attached. One can never be too careful online in these times.

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