HANOVA rallies for the Telethon

On Sunday 17 November in Barlin, we were delighted to take part in a walk in aid of the Telethon, to do our bit to support scientific research into rare diseases. We were a small group, determined to do our bit!

Do you know Denis Kormann’s legend of the hummingbird? We’d like to share it with you, because our little ‘gesture’ reminds us of this story.

The legend of the hummingbird is an Amerindian story:

All the animals lived happily in the forest. One day, during a violent storm, lightning struck and caused a huge fire. The flames began to ravage everything, destroying tree after tree! All the animals, petrified with fear, watched helplessly as the disaster unfolded.

All the animals… except one. And that was? A little hummingbird.

He was busy! One round trip after another, drop after drop, thanks to its beak usually designed to carry the nectar from flowers, it carried water which it threw on the fire to try to put out the blaze.

When the other animals saw this, they shouted at him: ‘Little hummingbird, you’re completely mad, you’re not going to put out the fire with just a few drops of water! At that moment, the little hummingbird turned around and said: “Yes, you’re right. But I’m doing my bit’.

Without further ado, he headed back towards the flames. The animals looked at each other in astonishment… Toucan was the first to say: ‘I’m going too. I’ve got a big beak and I can fly! Then Ara exclaimed: “Wait! I’m coming with you! Finally, taking a little water in their beaks, snouts and paws, all the animals dashed towards the fire. The story doesn’t say whether they succeeded, but since that day, something has changed, and the animals feel united by a new strength.

The moral of the story is that, rather than doing nothing in the face of problems because we feel powerless or think that the solution must come from others, each of us can, in our own way, take action.

The legend of the hummingbird teaches us that, even if changing our small habits may seem insignificant, it is thanks to the sum of all our small actions that things change.

And as Gandhi would say: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’.

So on Sunday 17 November, we did our bit to support scientific research into rare diseases, and we’re proud of it.