SOLIDARITY has been a concept used quite often during this last period. It can be felt, read and heard everywhere on television, radio, newspaper, magazines and aloud. And it is in these critical and hard moments, when those social feelings surface, such as taking care and protecting each other, helping us to move on as a group –as one- in turn, I believe appears from a deeply natural instinct: survival.
But how is SOLIDARITY, day-to-day, when we are not in a moment of crisis? For me, this concept is always lived, even when we do not notice explicitly. I joined the Africa Dream tribe in 2018 as a General Secretary, and from the moment I left home to get to the office, the gestures of solidarity were always present. I saw acts so simple as the neighbor swiping the street that everyone uses, people holding the door so others could pass, people helping an elder person to get down from the public transportation, people holding the elevator so other people can use it… even when they are simple and daily acts, it does not mean they are less valuable and beautiful, because it makes you notice that SOLIDARITY is already something natural to us.
During this period, being in our Foundation has allowed me to know this concept in a much closer and special way. Through our volunteers and work team, and through the beautiful and sometimes hard stories that we get to know from our African brothers. I have learned that solidarity is never an option for many in Africa, but it is what forms the backbone of their lives and communities. Here in Chile, thousands of kilometers from the African continent, we can impregnate from that same spirit: to turn SOLIDARITY into an essential pillar of our lives, now more than ever.
SOLIDARITY is and it will continue to be something important to overcome any crisis.
LlongSu Yu Jiménez
