When I was about 8 years old, my favorite book was called The Children of Many Lands. 
My twin sister, Marion, and I would
spend hours pouring over the pictures and reading about their lives. We loved the beautiful “costumes” that
children wore in Japan, Holland, Bolivia, and the Congo and delighted in seeing
how different their homes were in each country.
In Indonesia many of the children lived in houses built on
stilts, so that if their island flooded, their homes would be safe.
In many countries of Africa, the houses
were circular in shape – with thatch roofs. In Hong Kong, most of the children lived on boats and in
Brazil, the poor children lived in houses made of cardboard and tin.
The more I read about these children, the more I wanted to
travel the world to see all of this diversity for myself, and to meet these
children and learn a few words of their language.
My interest in people from other countries grew as I
grew. When I was in college,
I was really lucky and I was able to live in Florence, Italy
for six months with 80
other young men and women from my school. I studied the Italian language, made many
friends in this city, and learned a lot about the art and history of
Italy. 
I loved every minute of
this and was so fortunate to be able to travel all around Europe whenever we
had breaks from school. I went to
France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, England, Spain, and
Yugoslavia. The dream I had had
when I was eight had become a reality…. or at least the beginning of a
reality.
I learned from my time in Italy that although people may
look different, wear different kinds of clothes, and live in homes that didn’t
look like my house – we were actually more alike than we were different. We all wanted to be happy and to
feel loved. We wanted to feel safe
and be healthy. 
And we
wanted everyone else to have the same.
We were unhappy in knowing that there were many children who
were hungry and homeless, and we did not want to have war or violence anywhere
in the world.
Many years later, when I was married and had two children of
my own, my twin sister Marion and I co-founded an organization called Global
Family and it became my job and my joy to travel the world and to do something
for the children of many lands. 
In
South America I was able to teach families how to create peace in their
lives. I raised money to
feed hungry children in Russia. I
spent lots of time working with young people and teaching them how to be
leaders in their schools and their communities. I traveled to every continent
and visited people in more than 50 countries.
And today, I see how the interest that I had in The Children
of Many Lands as a child grew in my life and impacted my values and every
aspect of my future. I have
learned that although appearances may differ, in truth, we are all one big
family. And when we love and care
for one another, we create peace in our families, our communities, and in the
world.
I learned that it is
important to dream, because it is those dreams that can come true and can help
us build a better world for everyone.
GlobalFamily.net
Photographs by Althena, Milzero, Locket, ShapeShift, Carf, I.Spider, Nilsson
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