A project for women from around the world
Contribution by Saija Toth, Sweden
An environment of respect and care... - For more than two years a very successful
project involving refugee and immigrant women has been developing in the south
of Sweden. Together with a group of women from Feminenza in Denmark and Sweden,
Saija Toth has been developing workshops into areas such as confidence, self-leadership,
stress-relief and other highly important issues that face these women in their
struggle to integrate with an entirely new culture in a foreign country.
These workshop-gatherings provide an ecology where the women can come closer
to themselves and find a new starting place towards being in charge of their
own life. Most of the women originally come from Arabic or African countries
and are invited to participate in the workshops by the local communes and the
Regional Council of South of Sweden.
The Human Template
Every human being on earth is born from exactly the same template. And that
template that we are, includes a body, a mind, an instinct, an emotion, a soul
and a spirit, with the highest faculty of any living thing on earth, which is
the faculty of human consciousness. It is awesome, and when you think of what
a human life can do in its sheer scope of versatility, skills, arts, feelings
and the unlimited capacity to know and understand, it is clear that we already
live inside an extraordinary world of the most beautiful designs. And these
natural designs and the ways they work are the natural ‘roadmap’
of life. Through the live research and discovery of the natural design and ways
of our human template, we can begin to understand what we are, how we are meant
to work and go on, and why we are given life in the first place.
Read more in Topaz 4, The Human Template,
Mark Ballabon, UK
Integration of all ages
Contribution: Otto Bignell, The Netherlands
There is a template of life that expresses itself through different stages,
each having their own reason, fulfilment and produce. The work of the Ring of
Wisdom (a group of elderly people in the Template Network) is to find the deeper
motives for the latter phases of life and to give them expression. They work
closely together with the Stichting Springlevend.
The Stichting Springlevend was founded in 2001 by members of the Template Network,
as they were deeply moved by the needs of the elderly - not by what younger
people might assume the elderly need, but from a genuine wish to search and
find out from the elderly themselves, the people who would know best, what they
need.
There are many examples of elderly people who want to continue to work after
retirement, or offer advice from their life experience and areas of expertise,
or who write poetry, all of which are both useful and fulfilling. We need to
re-establish a humanity between us, the fact that we are one tribe, all ages
together, we are all useful and have something to offer, otherwise we lose the
integration and integrity of the human tribe, and will waste the valuable life
experience that is generated by the people who wear the crown of life, the people
of the Golden Years - perhaps a better term and accreditation for the elderly.
Care of the elderly as we know it is likely to disappear in the future simply
because there will not be enough people available to work in healthcare. What
could happen in its place are circles of care naturally arising around people
of the Golden Years, to help them with the needs of getting older without the
fear of not being able to fend for themselves. This would leave them free to
concentrate upon fulfilling the last stage of their journey on Earth. Any facility
would then be built to support these last stages of life on Earth and would
be dedicated to making use of all knowledge and resources available to support
the well-being of the elders of our human tribe.
So Springlevend promotes and runs projects that promote humanity and the feeling
of being proud to be members of the human tribe, projects that all help to fulfill
many needs. The ‘mystery parcel project’ is one example, charitably
donated gifts from around the world are wrapped in beautiful hand-made boxes.
These presents are then given to elderly people in retirement and nursing homes
and also to other elderly people who are in need of extra support. These mystery
parcels hope to carry the message to the recipient that they are important and
that they are not forgotten. As one can imagine, the biggest surprise for most
people is in simply receiving such an unexpected treat.
Other projects include theme days and feet washing for the elderly - a simple
humane service with profound implications for physical and mental well being.
Another exciting project is the creation of a tape library, available for both
individuals and institutions such as retirement and nursing homes. This tape
library is intended to help people feel a little less alone when they might
otherwise miss human-to-human contact. The content of the tapes includes conversations,
stories, music, travel reports and more - specifically recorded to bridge these
gaps of separation and any potential feelings of loneliness.
More information can be found on the website www.stichtingspringlevend.nl.
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