The Spirit of Giving

8d198c11ef3455d0684ccca9a4bf6f7cIt’s a wonderful time of the year, filled with family, friends and holiday cheer. All of us are busy running around shopping for gifts for our loved ones. We love to see the excitement on our children’s faces as they open up their gifts. It’s also a great time to teach them to give to others. I always speak to my daughter about how fortunate she is whenever she complains about something frivolous. Being an Afghan-American, I constantly speak to her about the children of Afghanistan and how much they are suffering. They would give anything to live in a comfortable house, have something to eat every day and be loved and taken care of.1917471_102814043077603_6419137_n

 

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Recently I told her about my friend David Mason and how he lives every day of his life giving to the children of Afghanistan. I met David almost twelve years ago when I took a trip to Afghanistan. He had left his career as a dancer in Denmark just a year before I met him and began the Afghan Educational Circus for children. Thirteen years later he is still living there. His circus, performs live shows for millions of children all over the war torn country. His performers get a sense of accomplishment and at the same time help put smiles on the faces of children that have grown used to death, destruction and poverty. His theatre pieces range from teaching good hygiene to landmine awareness to peace education.

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The MMCC (Mobile Mini Circus for Children) are trying to organize a winter program for over 500 underprivileged children this January and February in Kabul and Bamyan.

1917471_102069309818743_5494221_nFor those two months, the children will be safe from the cold and bitterness of the winter. They’ll learn English, computers and different artistic, social and life skills. That’s something that they then can take back to their families and communities.

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If everyone who reads this blog makes a small donation toward the winter program we can make a significant impact to over 500 children in Afghanistan. Every year many children freeze to death in the country.

Internally displaced Afghan children pose for a photo as they stand in the snow outside their shelter at a refugee camp in Kabul

Log on to this website and give what you can to raise money for this very worthy cause. Not many of us can be like my friend David. He is a very special kind of human being. Every single one of us can make a difference.

Get into the giving spirit and help a child in need. Just log onto www.igg.me/at/Afghanistan and give what you can.

https://www.indiegogo.com/project/cheerful-snowman/embedded

For more information on David Mason’s Mobile Mini Circus for Children, just log onto www.AfghanMMCC.org

Your children will learn to be compassionate and giving human beings by following your lead. They mirror us in every way.

Happy Holidays to us all. I’ll use a quote from Wayne Dyer, a man I admire and am lucky enough to have met several times. “We need to see that we are a collective, thinking of ourselves as separate from others, we lose the power of our Source and diminish the whole of humanity.”

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