At a time when the world needs happiness and hope, the ‘We Are One. Save lives from Covid-19’ movement has been launched and Guyana is among the over 200 countries and territories that have collaborated virtually to share inspirational messages.
A video posted to the movement’s website showed photos of 3,700 persons holding posters with positive messages for viewers. Guyanese makeup artist Susan Ibrahim was one of them.
In explaining why the campaign was started, the movement’s website (https://www.weareone.social/) states that while governments and medical personnel, among others, have fought earnestly in handling and preventing COVID-19, at the same time, the public is being “bombarded” by news about the various effects as a result of the pandemic. “Whether it be the number of deaths, the decline of the economy, the high unemployment rate, and a lot more. Whether or not the world is getting worse, the nature of negative news will make us believe that it is,” it states.
Hundreds of thousands of persons have died worldwide due to COVID-19.
Concerned about the negative impact on the public, Onggy Hianata of Indonesia, along with his friends, decided to create a platform where people can send encouraging messages to each other around the globe. Thus, the We Are One movement was formed. It’s slogan is: ‘We Are One. I Protect You, You Protect Me.’
Their mission is to create a positive mindset globally by sharing positive words and pictures to spread positive energy around the world. They shared also that research has proven that having a positive mindset affects the physical and mental wellbeing of people positively.
Ibrahim and four other Guyanese joined the initiative. They are: Stacy Dos Santos Rahaman, one of the founders of Visit Guyana; Rondha-Ann Lam, presidential candidate for The Citizenship Initiative; Phillip Williams, Station Manager of MEGA 102.1 FM and Anita Ramprasad, Chief Financial Officer and Human Resources Manager of MACORP Group of Companies and immediate past director of Toastmasters International for the Caribbean District.
“They [the We Are One team] reach out to me on Instagram and sent an email asking if I could write a positive message on a cardboard and send them a picture,” Ibrahim said. This photo was included in the We Are One video.
The campaign is ongoing and anyone from around the world can participate by writing a positive message relating to actions such as practicing healthy hygiene, eating healthy, telling someone to hang in there, taking a photo of it and posting it to the campaign’s website.
Williams and Ramprasad later made similar posts on their Instagram pages. Not many other Guyanese have posted but locals are being encouraged to do so. In fact, Ibrahim said that this was the first time many persons involved in the campaign heard of Guyana and they were quite intrigued about the country’s resources and the diverse culture that she shared. They were also surprised that Guyana does not have many confirmed cases of COVID-19 and mentioned that once the pandemic is over, they wished to visit Guyana.
Following the launch of the movement, persons from outside of Guyana have been commenting to Ibrahim and on the website about how positively it has impacted their lives through their simple inspirational messages. “The launch for me signified the will of the human race, the will to survive through forming communities of like-minded people. It also says that there are many people in this world who care and celebrate love and peace. This is an exciting sign of hope in these dark days,” Williams shared.
Meanwhile, Ramprasad said that the movement shares similar interests like that of Toastmasters. “For me the launch was confirmation that compassion, kindness, positivity and love will always unite us and that with our words we can speak life and heal. Now more than ever we need each other because despite our perceived differences, #weareone (we are one),” she said.
To be a part of this movement, persons can post their photos to the link Https://www.weareone.social
