Verita Insights Magazine VIS magazine final | Page 26

EVENTS
What is the scientific basis of compassion and can
it be taught or does it bloom naturally?
This is how the idea to organize a Compassion in
Education Symposium came about and we were
honored to have partners such as the Romanian –
American University and Teach for Romania. It takes
responsible team work between parents, educators
and the community to raise a child. And being
responsible is sometimes just about bringing
compassion into your daily life. This event was
dedicated to offering practical tools to practice and
embody self-compassion and supporting anyone in
becoming a tangible model for their child. Because
the educational process starts at home, continues at
home and enriches at school with the help of trained
educators.In the time we have spent with Nipun,
we have learned about his insight on practicing
compassion in our everyday life and with our
students, we have had brainstorming sessions with
other educators and we have identifiednew practices
that can generate a new way of practicing education
with more compassion in our schools and
communities. Nipun has also shared a beautiful,
personal story: “When I was a teenager, I used to
volunteer at a hospice where terminally ill patients go.
It was an incredible series of experiences, of
meeting people on their deathbeds and
confronting my own fear of death. As I did that, I
actually found myself loving life. You don’t take
anything for granted. So, if I only had an hour to
live, what would I do? And then, the follow-up
question is: why am I not doing that right now?
For me, embracing death has awakened my
heart of service. If today was my last day, I would
want to go out doing small acts of kindness. And
embracing each day in that spirit, I have
organized my life around such values.Finding
security in permanence is a losing battle.
Embracing change, and embracing death, can
open us up to what really matters. In the end,
accumulation things will never matter; but
relationships will matter, inner transformation
will matter, compassion will matter.” We are
deeply grateful to have had Nipun with us in
Romania and we hope to have him back again as
kindness, compassion and education are
important topics we need to address now more
than ever.
Article by Lila Vasilescu
Verita Foundation
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KARMA
KITCHEN
Imagine a restaurant where there are no prices
on the menu and where the cheque reads 0 Lei
with only this footnote:
"Your meal was a gift from someone who came
before you. To keep the chain of generosity alive,
we invite you to gift-it-forward for those who dine
after you."
Karma Kitchen is a volunteer-driven experiment
in generosity as a pay-it-forward restaurant.
Entirely run by volunteers, our meals are cooked
and served with love, and offered as a genuine
gift, without a price tag. Guests are free, and
often inspired, to pay-it-forward by contributing
for the next guest after them.
As part of our school’s ethos to model and teach
our students what kindness, compassion and
serving others feels and looks like, we loved how
Karma Kitchen created the perfect environment
where students, parents & staff volunteer
together to cook and serve you a lunch with love.
Each of the Karma Kitchen events we have
organized so far was a charitable event where the
funds we raised were used to offer food and other
supplies to underprivileged children.
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