Seeing people walking around discouraged and with lost looks. The feeling of being surrounded by people who could not find a way back to reality, which often surpasses them, made a group of young women from the city of Córdoba think about how to contribute their grain of sand and give them, even if it is, a few minutes of smiles and giving them a positive message that would give them back, at least, a little hope.
It occurred to them to paint two paintings—one with a drawing and a phrase of encouragement, another with a hand that touches someone else’s heart—and the third canvas, one meter long like the others, was filled with colored paper. that had different positive phrases written in their own handwriting: “Don’t lose hope, it’s just about trusting”, “Look for that light that makes you strong in the fatigue and battle without end”, “When the world says no, hope whispers once more,” “Trust! If it has to be, it will be,” were some of the messages of encouragement they shared.
It all started as part of an activity of a youth group of university students. “We talked together about what we think society is missing and we said it was hope. Due to mental health problems, the use of networks, which makes people not stop, not contemplate, not see the essence of things but live in a hurry. So, we thought about how we could, even for a little while, go against that and reach them to transmit a little of that state of mind, but that it was not a message that was too religious —because we are part of a Catholic group—, because we know that sometimes people are scared when the message is closely linked to religion,” he says. Federica Marciszack (20), one of the leaders of the youth group, who together with her partner Constanza Correia (24), carried out the idea.
With that wish, On Saturday, June 15 and Monday, June 17, they went out to tour the Plaza España in the capital of Córdoba. to distribute messages and at the same time for these people to leave testimony about that intervention. Beyond what they themselves imagined, the result brought some tears and generated long conversations with those who, after all, just needed to sit down and be listened to.
“Paint your face the color of hope / tempt the future with your heart,” says part of the song Hope colorwhich was popularized by the singer Diego Torres, and which became a kind of anthem among those who do the impossible to overcome those situations that they keep deep inside, and which represents the desire for resilience.
Although they did not sing it, they did take the desire to extend a hand and reach out to other young people, adults and as many people as they wanted to share with them under the proposal: “Take out a piece of paper.”
“We wanted to use art, because that helps to slow down, to contemplate, to internalize; but not make something static but interactive that transmits that message of hope, calm, tranquility. So, the girls thought of leaving those positive texts for people to choose one and discover. Now that it is so fashionable to think that the Universe leaves us messages, it seemed good to go that way,” she says.
With the paintings ready, 16 girls from the group (made up of 25 young people) began to walk the streets and the square a little nervously. They approached some groups and suggested they join the initiative. The return was all with smiles. “I love that they can give hope to other people”said one of the young women who was part of the experience while sharing some mate with a friend. “When you’re going through a bad time, it’s good to know that something nice is going to happen,” another said while she, excited, thanked them. A man appreciated that in times of so much virtuality, girls went out to interact with strangers in that way.
“Maybe there are those who suffer from mental health problems, others who live far from their families, because it is a university area and many come alone to study a career, but also in the Plaza España area, which is very busy, the different social classes come together, and there are people of all ages. As we did it during the afternoon, we were able to talk to older adults who went out for a walk because they have nothing else to do, because there is no space for them; we were also in Plaza Buen Pastor, an area of locals and of a more affluent class, where families joined because they were attracted by the proposal,” he reveals.
For them, the objective was more than met and that went beyond giving them a message written on a piece of paper: “We were able to talk with many older people, also with other young people, and I think that beyond the piece of paper, what was valued was the Human contact. I think that the people were very happy, because they laughed when talking to us, especially the older people, who came up excited. There were those who stayed for about an hour talking to us and that makes us realize that people need to be listened to, especially older adults.“, recognize.
“We are not going out to give a religious message. The idea was not to get people closer to the Church but to those who we thought could empathize with the proposal by age, first. It becomes easier to reach people our age, but the idea was to cover all age groups,” she says.
In that same context, he clarifies: “We as Catholics find hope in God, but those who do not have faith or do not believe, no; or not in this religion and yes in another. We are happy with the result of what we did because in addition to meeting our objective, human contact occurred, and I think that the majority of people valued it most,” he concludes.
