Ten-year-olds Maya and Liberty Persaud join me to share not one, but two stories of kindness.

Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it also brings on the challenge of making friends. Maya and Liberty Persaud have a lot of experience with this. When the girls were four years old, they moved from Canada to South Korea, and then at the age of eight, they moved to Brazil. Each move meant a new school, new friends, and a new language.

Familiar with being the ‘new kid’ at school and how that can often make someone feel left out, Maya and Liberty created a Buddy Bench.

This wonderful bench is there for any child who is feeling lonely. The child sits on the bench to signal they need someone to play with. Once other children see that student at the bench, they can invite him or her to be a part of their game and feel included. How lovely!

The girls’ acts of kindness didn’t end with the Buddy Bench. They also share their involvement with Nyaka Orphanage, an organization that supports the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in rural southwestern Uganda.

As a thank you for sharing their story of kindness, I donated to the Nyaka Orphanage on behalf of Maya and Liberty.

For more information about the Nyaka Orphange, please check out their website: https://nyakaglobal.org/

This episode was produced by Stephen Hurley of VoicEd Radio.