Two siblings are spreading kindness around Omaha to those struggling and living on the streets.
13 year-old Ilahi Pearson and his 10-year-old sister, Iman said they wanted to let the homeless people they encountered at stop signs and red lights know ‘they matter.’
Ilahi said he wanted to give them something useful and meaningful – something he could easily give them before the red light turned green.
“I remember whenever we saw a homeless person, we’d stop and my brother would be like, we have nothing to give them,” says Iman.
“They’d get so upset when we would see people in the median and we didn’t have much to give them except like a cheese stick or something small. And Ilahi said, ‘that’s not enough. We need to do more,’” says the kids’ mother, Ferial Pearson.
The siblings decided to make ‘kindness bags’ and fill them with toiletries and snacks.
The family had an election watch party with friends and family, so Ilahi asked everyone to bring items to include in the bags.
The siblings also included warm socks, a dollar bill and a list of phone numbers to organizations that could be of resources to the homeless, like Street Outreach, United Way, and Youth Emergency Services. They also added a hand-written note that said ‘You matter.’
“He cares a lot about kids and people living on the street – he’s generally a worrier, he worries a lot about people and animals so I wasn’t surprised when he had this idea, because homelessness is one of the issues he cares about the most,” said Ferial.
Ilahi says homeless people can’t always control their situation, so it’s important to him to show them a little compassion.
“I don’t think it matters that I’m 13 – I think it matters that I’m doing this. I would’ve done this if I were 30,” says Ilahi.
“They have big hearts,” says Ferial. “They’re always doing things for other people. Ilahi is always opening the doors for everybody and Iman like to put anonymous little notes in her friends’ cubbies.”
With so much negativity in the world, the Pearsons say they strive to show that kindness can go a long way.
“I think we model what kids see and so I’ve been very intentional about modeling kindness to them because I want them to be productive and compassionate people. We talk about kindness every day and about being intentional in everything that we do,” says Ferial.
The kids plan to distribute the bags to people they typically see along their everyday routes and hope their small deed can make a big difference in someone’s day.
