empathy day 🥰

"Are we missing the central piece of the reading jigsaw - developing a language to talk about feeling in stories that could lead to an empathy revolution?" - BookTrust

'Read stories. Build empathy. Make a better world.' is the concept behind Empathy Lab. Annually on June 10, it's a day where they spark a global conversation about, you guessed it, how we can get children to understand and be sensitive to the experiences, feelings and thoughts of others.

It's the first brand to focus on building a child's empathy, literacy and social activism through the use of literature. They've been doing their best, advocating for 8 years. They run school programmes across the country, gained support from authors and illustrators and their yearly Read for Empathy guide features books for 4-16 year olds.

In my case, I believe that the best things in the world only happen if you live with empathy and an open mind. So I identify with their mission in the biggest way.

The more I trained in schools and worked as a tutor it was hard not to try and advocate for the kids to learn empathy (and even the founder agrees, it can be learnt). I pushed my students to not just read their lit books superficially and to analyse techniques for the sake of grades, but process and feel what the characters feel. It was an extremely uphill battle. It's just lacking.

But I wasn't deterred. It also became the reason my first children's book I've been illustrating built on the theme (pardon such shameless self-promotion 😆)

There is a reason why authors choose the age group. I've seen incredible stories that I should compile really soon.

“The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another's pain as one's own, and to act to take that pain away. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.” said John Connolly.

In the midst of hardships, turmoil and pain, I firmly believe that if more people put stock into developing their social intelligence, it'd hurt a lot less. And we sincerely need an initiative like this here. We need to set the foundation, as adults and educators.

"The word empathy might seem quite soft, but to truly empathise with another person is transformative and fundamental to children's life chances.

"With society's big empathy gap showing in alarming levels of bullying, homophobia and religious intolerance, we need new empathy education strategies." said Miranda McKearney, founder of Empathy Lab UK.

"Empathy is a skill that all of us can learn, and stories are a powerful tool."