HHI Peace Heart filled out by one of the Sisters of the Road community members.

Sisters isn’t a restaurant, it’s a friend. I always feel better after I leave here – the whole rest of my day improves. It’s part of the reason I’m not doing drugs and alcohol, and why I’ve started back to school.
- A Sisters’ Customer

Established in 1979, Sisters of the Road Cafe is a safe haven and place of nurturing for the homeless and impoverished community of Portland. As with Hands to Hearts International, Sisters of the Road runs on love, compassion and its desire to nurture those who need it. I recently visited there to see how our new Peace Heart Project was used to raise peace awareness. You can read their goals below or visit their site to learn more:

* To be a safe, public place for everyone, especially women and children
* To offer nourishing meals at little cost or in exchange for labor
* To offer employment experience to local residents – individuals experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty in our community.

I was welcomed to the Sister’s of the Road Cafe by Monica Beemer, its Executive Director, who warmly and graciously informed me about the functions of the cafe. I learned that the cafe has been around for thirty years, serving food for $1.25 entry including vegetarian and vegan meals. People can barter through work trade to pay for their meals if they have no money. The cafe has hygiene items that people can purchase through barter credits only, diaper and formula support for children, a place to pick up mail if people need it, and they even offer one free meal a day to those who can’t work for barter credits in the cafe do to disabilities.

I was happy to hear Monica say that The Sisters of the Road model has been replicated all over the USA. I wish more people in homeless and impoverished situations could have this kind of support. The thing I noticed the most about my visit there was the feeling of love and understanding for its patrons.

Monica invited me to the morning meeting where I got to listen to all the employees check in and share their thoughts. I got to check in as well and shared information about HHI’s Peace Heart Project. I told them how people write their peace wishes on the elephant pooh paper hearts and how the paper itself is helping to bring peace between elephants and farmers in Sri Lanka because it’s giving the farmers an income and gives a new value to an animal that otherwise would destroys their crops. I also mentioned how the funds from the project go directly into HHI’s work with disadvantaged and orphaned children. Everyone was very welcoming and excited to hear this.

I was specifically there to see the HHI Peace Hearts being filled out and displayed. It was very significant that they participated in our Peace Heart Project. Monica said that there had been a recent bout of violence in the homeless community and, because Sisters of the Road only runs on peace and love, they made the tough decision to close their doors for several days in response. It made me sad to think that the negative actions of some could ruin it for a whole community. Violence is never needed, especially in a situation where so many are just struggling to get by. Monica said that the violence had decreased since they temporarily shut their doors and that everyone who came back after the reopening of the cafe wrote their peace commitments on the hearts. This was the perfect way for the community to return because it helped them to focus on individual commitments of peace that collectively make a world of difference.

When Sisters of the Road reopened, people signed the peace hearts with their peace commitments as they entered the cafe. Monica said that it was the perfect way to start anew and greatly appreciated what HHI is doing with this project. Monica also offered to send a representative to our upcoming peace event where the Peace Hearts will be officially unveiled: Baby Peace Day, a celebration of the International Day of Peace.