Since she was a young girl, Orly Wahba knew she wanted to change the world. A step towards that goal was to be a teacher so that's what she became. When she began to teach, Orly was recognized as no ordinary teacher with her main focus to make sure each and every one of her students knew their self worth. She wanted to maintain their self esteem at a time when it can be tested the most: middle school.

This was a kindness she kept close to her heart, and that would eventually shape her successful career today. With encouragement from her students, Orly started a non-for-profit organization called Life Vest Inside. This wonderful movement puts kindness and empowerment in the spotlight.

“I love people,” explained Wahba of her inspiration, “I just love people and my purpose is to show people how much they matter.”

It all started with a video called Kindness Boomerang, with the help of her degree in film and some of her students, Orly shot the film and posted it on YouTube. The film shows a boy falling off his skate board and someone helping him get up. As a result, that boy helps an elderly lady cross the street and then she helps another person and so on.

The video truly demonstrates how anyone can act with kindness and how it can be contagious. To Orly's surprise, Kindness Boomerang went viral. To date, the Youtube video has 26,767,489 views. With interest growing rapidly, Orly built a website and everything grew from there.

Kindness cards is something Orly used to do with her students and has now expanded tenfold to all of her ‘kindness ambassadors’ with daily emails. The idea is that you receive a card with an act of kindness on it. For example, the kindness card could include something small like calling your parents to tell them you love them, or holding the door open for someone. Once you perform the act, you pass the card on to someone else.

“Its great to be inspired, but inspiration fades,” said Orly. This is why she came up with the practical idea to remind people to look for places to do Hesed as much as possible.

Orly practices this in her own life every day. She was fortunate enough to do a TED talk recently and in her speech she told a story. Orly was leaving Penn Station one day and saw a homeless man sitting with a cup in his hand. What stood out to Orly was the man's eyes. She said his eyes were going back and forth looking at people's faces desperate to make a connection.

What Orly did when she saw this was a simple kindness to her, but to this man it was everything. She walked over to a hot dog stand, bought a hot dog and a water bottle, and brought it over to him. The man was in disbelief as he accepted the kind gesture. Orly was delighted by the result; she has made a meaningful connection.

Life Vest Inside has gone virtually global since its launch. Thousands of people around the world have signed up to be Kindness Ambassadors in their cities. A Kindness Ambassador is essentially an extension and representation of the organization who tries to implement Life Vest Inside's ideas into their own community.

Another amazing accomplishment of the organization is the Flash Mob Life Vest Inside organized each November to kick off Kindness Week. Last year thousands of people amongst a hundred and twenty different cities got together to dance. They all did the same dance to the same song in different public places in their home towns. These are a few of the countless ways Orly is living out her dream to make the world a better place.

To get involved and join the movement and to learn more, go to LiveVestInside.com.

Frieda Schweky

Frieda@sephardic.org

Frieda Schweky is Sephardic.Org's official community events reporter. For inquiries and to get involved with our site, please contact Frieda via email.