By Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri | Founder & Executive Director
Dear friends,
So many of you have reached out to us with concern for the ways that the residents have been treated by the neighbors. Beginning in May, our staff members and residents began to reach out to the neighbors, extending kindness and offering their open hearts. And as often happens when we are vulnerable in this way, some of the neighbors have responded with love and kindness in return.
After some initial efforts made on our side, a group of neighborhood children brought over a poster decorated for the residents. This group of children are coming over to play with the residents now. A few neighbors have even invited some residents to dinner in their homes. After the isolation of the past few years, this is transformative.
It does not escape me that these changes required openness on our part. They required the initiative and courage of our staff and residents. Even though our residents and staff were innocent, a change in them was also necessary. It can be tempting to wait for changes to come, when what is actually required is a willingness to try again, a willingness to be kind despite someone else’s unkindness, and a willingness to believe the best of people.
The work of Warm Hearth is definitely to care for people with disabilities but it is also to transform the community around us (both in Armenia and in other countries) beginning with ourselves. I recently sat around Janet and Araik Garibyan’s table with a group of shining people from Los Angeles who care for and support our work with abandon and passion. And I was reminded that this work also transforms communities a great distance from Armenia.
The work of Warm Hearth is one that asks us to be vulnerable, to reach out again and again, to find the common ground between ourselves and the residents and the neighbors who shunned them for a time. It asks us to believe that small (and sometimes large) changes can come about, but that these changes begin in ourselves.
To read the rest of our newsletter, see the downloadable attachment!
Sincerely Yours,
Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
