This week Awesome Stories brings you last wishes, Mother’s love, active tolerance, Leaf love and creative housing.

Last Wishes

I love the mission of this organization. The Ambulance Wish Foundation, started by an ambulance driver named Kees Veldboer, offers dying patients the opportunity to have their last wish fulfilled. They provide the personnel, transportation and opportunity to help patients safely leave the hospital and go somewhere they wish for. Recently, they helped a patient see her beloved Rembrandt painting one last time at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. Starting from just Kees and his wife, they now have 230 volunteers, six ambulances and a holiday home, helping them to fulfill 7,000 wishes.

Mother Exchange

Here’s a fun idea from India. Mother’s do tend to worry and want to nurture their children. I fondly remember the phone calls, cards and care packages from my Mom during college. This group from India has set up a clever way for mothers to help nurture each others children. Watch the video to learn how.

Leaf Love

If I lived in Europe, I would buy a Nissan LEAF. Besides being a very good electric car with great range and reviews, they just upped the game in Europe by coordinating with the  French (SNCF) Auto/Train service to offer free one-way rides and 30% discount on all other rides! We need a lot more rail service in the US. From Nissan; “this partnership allows owners the ability to travel great distances at greatly reduced costs, offering limitless travel possibilities.” Plus, the new 2016 LEAF can travel 250 km or 150 miles on a single charge!

Active Tolerance

I love this reminder that passive acceptance isn’t enough, especially now with the escalation of terrorism, regional wars and other tensions. According to this article, there are more displaced people from their homelands than ever before. The world needs us to actively reach out in tolerance and compassion to people of different faiths, cultures and countries. According to Feisal Al Hussein, active tolerance is bringing people together across conflict, closing communication gaps and fostering new relationships founded on deeper understanding, acceptance, respect, and trust. I encourage you to read this article, let it touch your heart, then reach out to someone who is different. May we promote peace and understanding.

Creative Housing

Deventer- Netherlands. Photo: Juha ROININEN / EUP-IMAGES

The Netherlands are getting creative with their housing. Student housing is expensive and hard to come by, while nursing care facilities are having funding problems, so they decided to try merging the two groups! Students are given cheap housing in the nursing home in exchange for 30 hours of volunteer service each month. The exchange seems to be benefiting and enriching both generations. The students teach the elder residents things like social media, email, tech and even graffitti. The interactions not only help them learn new skills, but keep connected to the outside world as the students share about their daily lives. And the students are making friends, learning about people and ideas not typically experienced by young students. These multi-generational relationships add depth and meaning to both groups.

What’s new in your life? Maybe it’s time to reach out to new groups, whether multi-generational or multi-cultural. Let’s include everyone!  🙂