The last few months have undoubtedly been one of the most stressful times of this generation. As Covid-19 continues to spread throughout the world, grief, fear, anger, anxiety, and uncertainty seems to be dominating everyone both offline and online. And this is very understandable. We lived in a world that we thought had nothing else missing. We are proud of how far technology and science have taken us. We can go from one country to another in a matter of hours, have access to brands and products from all over the world, and are free to roam around the streets until the break of dawn.
But in just a matter of days, all of those things have been taken away from us. And with the current situation we are in, we’re not even sure if we’ll ever have those back again. And who knew that all it would take for this to happen was a single strain of virus that until very recently, was unknown to most experts?
To say that the coronavirus pandemic is unfortunate is an understatement. More than just taking privileges away from people, it also stripped many of us of a source of income, and worst, took the lives of people who are dear to us.
But even in this ocean of hopelessness, there are still a lot of good things that happen every single day. They may not always make it to you, but they are there. And in the name of bringing hope to our readers, we’ve compiled 10 inspiring stories from around the world that happened in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.
These stories, more than anything, give us reason to hold on and are clear testaments that better days await us.
- In the U.K., volunteers decided to take their quarantine in the Scottish Highlights to take care of 100,000 young trees. This effort by Trees for Life is part of an initiative that aims to restore Scotland’s ancient Caledonian Forest.
- As of May 30, 2020, New Zealand has only 1 case of Covid-19 left. The country has not had any new cases of the virus for 18 days now.
- The youth of Hyderabad, India, organized their own efforts to help stranded daily wage earners, migrant workers and physically disabled individuals of the vibrant city. Through the Marpu Foundation, the youngsters were able to distribute 16,000 meals and 2,750 rations to families in need. They also distributed face masks and hand sanitizers to 5,000 individuals and trained residents from 12 major slums on how to prevent the spread of the virus.
- A newly founded non-profit organization, African Masks, is working to distribute cloth masks to citizens of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Senegal, Benin and Nigeria with the help of volunteers. So far, they have made—with the help of local tailors—and distributed close to 7,000 colorful masks made from African textiles. The masks are mainly given to motorbike taxi drivers, market traders and elderly people who are living and working in populated and Pakiimpoverished communities with confirmed cases of Covid-19.
- Deadpool actor, Ryan Reynolds, bought pizza for every graduate student of his former high school, Kistilano Secondary. He bought a total of 385 large pizzas from a local shop, Nat’s Pizzeria.
- The Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) Seniors Home transformed their facility to a Tim Hortons in an effort to provide a bit of relief to their residents who say they missed the beloved cafe’s coffee and treats.
- The Pakistani government is hiring thousands of virus-idled workers to plant trees. The project, called “10 Billion Tree Tsunami” was announced in 2018 but is only being brought to effect now. It aims to help fight climate change and bring more greenery to the forest poor country.
- Rob Kenney, a man who grew up with no father has created a “Dad, how do I?” YouTube channel to teach others, especially fatherless kids, how to perform life skills they would normally get from their dads, including unclogging the drain and changing your car’s oil. The channel has since gone viral and already has 2.1 million subscribers as of writing.
- In the Peruvian capital, Lima, people are organizing soup kitchens to help their neighbors cope with the effects of lockdown restrictions. With most of its residents working odd jobs and living on a daily income basis, the community has decided to bond together to help get food on everyone’s plate.
- In Japan, Twitter has saved a soba noodle house in Yonezawa, Yamagata from closing. Since more people have been eating out less due to the state of emergency that Japan is under, the said noodle shop Orisho, almost went bankrupt. As a last resort, the owner created a Twitter account where he shared the state of the establishment. In true Japanese fashion, people from the community all came together to share the tweets of the establishment and support the restaurant. Soon after, people started pouring.
