Putting Faith into Baskets; Good Times for a Good Cause

On November 22nd, 2009 at St.Basil’s parish, thirty religiously diverse people between the ages of 14 to 40 came together to live in the world as they believe it should be, to show it what can be. On that day this group of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Unitarians Universalists, Agnostics, Atheist and Sikhs came together to act locally and think globally at a Multifaith Day of Service event.

These people put their faith into action collecting simple household items from their communities, schools and congregations to bring them together that day to create “seasonal baskets” for low income families living in Multifaith Housing. For three weeks, the Ottawa community emptied their cupboard and opened their hearts to single mothers, women and children fleeing abusive relationships, people with disabilities and refugee families who are all struggling to make ends meet. 

These extraordinary people worked in interfaith pairs and personally made a basket according to the recipients’ family size, gender and age. Then, they decorated the baskets together and created a card for the families. On one of the cards made for two single men, a pair wrote: “Dearest gentlemen, we have put this basket for you. We hope it will help you with your life’s journey! Best of luck to the both of you.” Others drew pictures on the card such as the tree of life and some wrote t heir reasons for being at the Multifaith Day of Service event.

Our goal by the end of the night was to create 27 seasonal baskets for families but with everyone’s efforts and contributions, we ended up making close to forty baskets. Then we came together in a circle to reflect on how our event today relates to global issues around the world. When we asked people why they were there that day, Marinus , a 23 year old Unitarian Universalist said “it is a relief to finally do something to do something about poverty issues in the community rather than just talk about it” and around the room, people nodded in agreement to the comment. This Multifaith day of service gave people an opportunity to put their faith into action and help those in need.

Japman Bajaj, 23, who comes from the Sikh faith, said “I had a great time. I’ve never done an interfaith volunteer initiative, and I’ve never gotten involved during the Holiday season to help families in need. But at the end of the day, the event hit all my mental checks. I did something I enjoyed. I met people who also enjoyed what they were doing. And I connected with people on a more-than-superficial level.”

These baskets were made for local families but it was the first step in getting people involved in a bigger picture of global issues, The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and specifically goal number 6 which is to combat Malaria and other diseases. Since Malaria is a disease that is related and affects all the Millennium Development goals such as maternal health, child health, education and poverty, all the items in the seasonal baskets represented the MDGs. For example, the first aid kits in every basket represented child health, books in the baskets represented universal education, hygienic products represented maternal health, mugs and reusable shopping bags represented environmental sustainability, fair trade coffee in the baskets represented global partnerships and etc. Upon arriving at this event, only a few people had heard of the MDGs but by taking part at this event, people not only put our faiths into action in caring about local poverty issues but they also became aware about global needs as well.

Japman Bajaj also added " This event was a total collection of like minded people with their own purposes and ideologies, but lovingly congregating to put selfish motivations on the backburner. It was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. And hopefully, the lazy gene will become recessive, and I’ll stay involved throughout the next 8 months with the help of Elyse and Sara!"

***Hear Carleton Midweek Radio coverage, Nov 25th show @ 31 mins  (http://www.carleton.ca/midweek/audio/show20091125.ram)

Sara Eftekhar
Faiths Act Fellow

To read more about what Sara and Elyse are up to visit their page here