Spirituality For Kids Foundation and How We Can Change the World at the Seed

With all the talk of charity and the Great Ormond Street Hospital auction I will be putting on at the end of the year, it has prompted me to talk a lot of my history working with children's charities. 

There is one in particular, that I feel has stayed with me till now and is something when doing my children's art classes, I often am overwhelmed with beautiful memories of. 

I was first introduced to Spirituality For Kids Foundation when I was 18 and having been so immersed in the world of children's art and stories, I naturally fell head of heels in love with this.

The aim of the charity is to bring spiritual education to children. By spiritual education I mean that thing, that had most adults had some of at that age, the world would be an entirely different place today.

It's that very education, that teaches kids that famous quote from Mahatma Ghandi:  'Be the change you wish to see in the world'. 

It's that teaching that teaches kids, that no matter what religion, colour, preference or level of IQ, that we all have the same spark that every other person does and the only things in life that overrides everything you will achieve or believe to be important, is how you treat others with human dignity and respect. It teaches that we all have the good voice and the opponent. We have that voice of our soul that tells us to be good, to share, to care about our friends, brothers and sisters, to not say hurtful things to our peers, to be tolerant of other people's issues and differences. Whereas the opponent is there to challenge us with a voice inside us, that only tells us to be selfish, to steal from our friends, to shout at others, to ignore the teacher, to bully others and to be totally into ourselves. 

We have one gift and that is the ability and freedom to chose which voice we listen to. The rest is just an effect of our actions and voice that we chose to listen to.

Anyone who doesn't believe this is the way forward in such a society, at least in my opinion clearly doesn't understand the real root of the issues we see in the world today.

In the old days I was one of the first volunteers to dive in neck deep into this programme in it's day 1 in the UK amongst some other amazing people.

I remember we all packed the boxes with all the arts and crafts materials and squeezed in to the car driving to Stevenage where the school kindly opened up a weeky hour slot for us. 

 I remember being so nervous, I literally felt sick the whole journey.

What would be the reaction to such teachings? How would the kids relate to me, seeing as I was only few years older than them? What if the kids can't pronounce my name? Would it feel like being back at school for me? How would the teachers feel about the effects of this course, if ever there were any? 

Cut to an hour and a half later and some very happy kids, my nerves had well and truly gone. We taught the kids about 'The rules to the game of life', the fundemental teaching of S.F.K. Through wonderfully simple and powerful art projects and examples, the kids learnt about the power of sharing and caring . These are lessons and visuals, that so long as I live, I will never forget and remind me every day to be a good person, to make effort to share and care about other people and thus have a more fulfilling and abundant life. As the more you are busy outside of yourself the more actually comes to you. If you want more love in the world you have to give more love in the world and it applies to everything else. It's just beautiful. 

These teachings are even what got me through the fundraising bike ride from London to Amsterdam, they were that inspirational. 

I spend many years involved with S.F.K in schools around London. I watched as countless children became more happier, independent, confident, and more loving to their friends and families and most importantly gave more care to their communities, school life and education. The courses are now run independently rather than teams of volunteers needing to raise the money and going in, school by school. Which is great as it's more accessible now. But SFK is ever evolving and I look forward very much to see where it goes next. 

There are so many examples I wish to share about what we taught, however in time I will. Meanwhile, please watch this video below to see how SFK has now been approved to be taught nationally, for schools that wish to take it on. 

Love and Light

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