A Small Act

Recently, I had the pleasure of watching the documentary “A Small Act” by filmmaker Jennifer Arnold  (http://asmallact.com).

One of the main characters in the film is an 85 year old woman, named Hilden Back. Hilden Back is a German Jew who was sent to Sweden as a child and the rest of her family was killed in the Holocaust.  Hilden never married and was a school teacher. In the 1960s and 70s, Hilden participated in a charity that sponsored Kenyan school children. Donating the equivalent of around $15 dollars a month, she sent the money in every month and never thought much more about it.

The recipient of the funds was a boy named Chris Mburu, who as a small boy living in a mud house in a Kenyan village. The money that Hilden sent every month paid for his primary and secondary education. Although they never met, he knew her name.

It turns out that Chris ended up going to the University of Nairobi, graduating from Harvard Law School, and is today a United Nations Human Rights Commissioner. In the film, Chris decides to find the stranger that changed his life. Inspired by her generosity, he starts a scholarship program of his own and names it for his former benefactor (The Hilden Back Education Fund). Chris now runs this program that sends top students from certain villages in Kenya, that otherwise would have to drop out because they can’t afford the fees, to secondary schools. Hilden has visited Kenya on several occasions and she and Chris are now very close friends (above is a picture of Hilden Back and Chris Mburu from the film).

A Small Act bears witness to the ripple effect a single action can create.

It reminds me that MAYBE we can make a big difference in the world one small act at a time.