World Caring Day
- April Dykes
- 6月7日
- 読了時間: 6分
Like Giving Tuesday, World Caring Day serves as a catalyst for inspiring acts of kindness and highlighting the various ways people show kindness. While it isn’t regulated to a single day, some people need a nudge to recognize how they are caring. Some kind souls don’t see helping others as a caring act, but rather as something that is just a part of their character or daily routine.
Others could use a reminder now and again that we are all human. There will come a time when we all need to be on the receiving end of a helping hand, a friendly gesture, or a random act of kindness. In a world where the news is overflowing with tragedy, tensions, and unjust actions, let’s take a moment to focus on the good. Today we celebrate World Caring Day.
“Caring” is a word that is used so often that sometimes the true meaning of the word can become lost. We are flooded with so much information on a daily basis that some form of apathy or numbness to that word can occur. So, let’s start with the textbook definition of caring. According to Merriam-Webster, caring is “feeling or showing concern for or kindness to others”. An archaic definition of caring is affection. Affection is a feeling that can inspire you to treat someone well or go above and beyond for them. It can be romantic or familial.
Let’s dig a little more. What is kindness? Kindness is “the quality of being generous, helpful, and caring about other people, or an act showing this quality” (Cambridge Dictionary). Regardless of which definition we use, the heart of these concepts is the same: it’s a feeling. A feeling that moves you to help someone else.
While World Caring Day is a day to celebrate kindness, its origins are bittersweet. In 1997, Sona Mehring’s actions became the catalyst for this holiday. Her college friends gave birth to a sweet little girl named Brighid. She was born early at 24 weeks on June 7, 1997, to Darrin Swanson and JoAnn Hardegger. With the chaos of supporting his family and trying to answer phone calls and relaying information about Brighid and JoAnn, Sona decided to step in and help take the burden off the family.
As a computer programmer, she felt inspired to create a website that provided family and friends with updates on Brighid. That website became the glue that kept everyone who cared about baby Brighid and JoAnn connected. After losing Brighid, the website remained, and the sense of caring that inspired its creation didn’t fade away.
“All these years later, the single website Sona built for Brighid has become hundreds of thousands of websites, connecting millions of people, at a time when support is truly needed. But there is more to the story. CaringBridge helped heal our family. We were pretty much broken after Brighid died. We had lost another Baby, Gabriel, who was stillborn, just nine months before. You never get over losing a child, but as we watched Sona pour her heart and soul into growing CaringBridge, our sorrow transformed. She took our grief and built something out of it. We realized that through CaringBridge, Baby Brighid accomplished more in her short time on Earth than many do in a lifetime. Our daughter is not a forgotten child; CaringBridge is her legacy” (CaringBridge).
Brighid’s story inspired a day of caring, and in 2022, it became an official holiday. While the origin of World Caring Day is sad, it doesn’t take away from the beauty of caring for others. Your desire to help or take care of someone can create many wonderful opportunities that positively affect the world around you. This positivity and desire to express care for others can be seen in CaringBridge, By Food, and the Gold Ribbon Network.
Created by the founder of Caring Day, CaringBridge is “a no-cost, 501(c)(3) nonprofit health platform that surrounds family caregivers with support while they care for a loved one on a health journey” (CaringBridge). This donor-supported NPO provides families with tools to help make the caregiving process a little easier. Sickness is a difficult thing to encounter personally and to watch a loved one go through.
Moments like these are when having a community becomes even more important. This NPO recognizes that caregivers play a crucial role in the recovery of their loved ones. Their mental health can take a toll, and they can feel lonely. “We make it easy to share updates with everyone all at the same time and organize and activate a support network. We believe healing happens when we're surrounded by loved ones” (CaringBridge).
CaringBridge makes this possible by creating bridges that support caregivers as they care for their loved ones battling illness. You can create a bridge by setting up a profile that family and friends can view to stay up-to-date on the patient's progress and to offer support in whatever way they need. Through bridges, CaringBridge hopes to cultivate 4 things:
Communicate
With the help of a bridge, caregivers can post updates in a safe and private space. This helps to take off the pressure of contacting everyone individually about important updates.
Capture
CaringBridge believes that “The very act of capturing a loved one’s health journey improves emotional health and social support” (CaringBridge).
Coordinate
A bridge makes it easier to ask for help, as it encourages asking for help. Being a caregiver can potentially feel a little isolating, and asking for help can be one of the most difficult things to do.
Community
A bridge helps you create your own community that will support you, and it can connect you with people who have gone through or are going through something similar with a loved one.
From food experiences that range from food tours to cooking classes, byFood is the ideal one-stop shop for foodies in Japan, and now, most recently, all over the world. “ByFood makes Japan's food scene accessible to everyone, dissolving the language barrier and providing everything travelers need to have a fulfilling (and filling) trip to Japan. And if you don't find what you're looking for on the platform, our VIP Gourmet Concierge will create the perfect food experience that's tailor-made for you” (byFood). With their Food for Happiness campaign, they create an opportunity for your vacation plans to benefit those who suffer from food insecurity.
byFood and Tablecross Inc. have been working together since 2017 to raise funds to help children in developing countries. They achieve this goal by supporting NPOs that provide healthy, nutritious food and educational support. “When you book a food experience or place a paid restaurant reservation on the platform, byFood will donate 10 school lunch meals to children in need. Donations will also be made for every order placed on byFood's e-commerce platform. A nutritious meal is the foundation of everything else–from education to poverty alleviation–and can truly be life-changing for a child in need” (byFood). Their current project is the School Meal Donation Program with Seibo in Malawi.
byFood reminds us that we can all help spread happiness by:
Donate directly to reputable charities
Join a volunteer group or start your own
Place a booking or reservation through byFood
This nonprofit organization supports children who have cancer and their families who care for them. “We aim to create a society where children with cancer are able to live their lives with comfort and security” (Gold Ribbon Network). Through the Gold Ribbon Network (GRN), you can learn about childhood cancer and see the ways they combat it through their eight activities. In addition to their activities, they provide money for research grants and constantly raise awareness about their cause.
Supporting Hospital Visits
The GRN covers expenses for travel of 100 kilometers or more, as well as providing accommodation for family members up to ¥500,000 per year per patient. The amount is dependent on the family’s household income.
Supporting Single-Parent Households
Single-parent households are provided with a hospitalization allowance to reduce the financial burdens
Scholarships
Cancer survivors are granted an annual scholarship of ¥480,000 that can be used for university, college, or vocational schools.
Medical Beanie Gift
Children suffering from hair loss are gifted beanies made with cotton.
Funding Support Camps
These support camps, funded by GRN, provide children and their families with outdoor activities. These camps have primary care physicians or nurses present, so in addition to being able to interact with other families, the families can speak with the physicians and nurses on site.
Assisting Survivors Suffering Late Effects with Employment
GRN provides opportunities for workplace experiences to help them secure jobs.
Setting up Study Rooms
GRN helps hospitals set up study rooms equipped with oxygen masks and emergency communication devices.
Survivors Network
This is an information service for people who survived childhood cancer. This service provides registrants with information on free admissions and invitations for concerts, baseball games, and more. These events provide families connect and enjoy fun activities together.
Showing generosity and being caring can change someone’s life in unthinkable ways. I think we could all use a little kindness. If any of these causes move you, please consider supporting them through volunteering, spreading the word about the organizations, or supporting them monetarily.
What will you do for World Caring Day? Let us know in the comments below or @ us on social media! @givingtuesdayjapan #givingtuesdayjapan
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