Hi, it's Veronika here. Guess who I met during this year's Christmas shopping?

Ready...?

Oh, before you read further, please read my Honest Language Disclaimer (no, it's not about profanity)

...ok - it was a group of people with the real Christmas spirit - I met Anonymous for the Voiceless.

You know, I do very little Christmas shopping in the town, but my partner does, so I support him through the difficult task of finding gifts our beloved ones would love and find useful. I prefer to avoid crowds, especially during busy festive seasons and especially when it comes to Christmas, well-known for the time of the year everyone should be kind, yet somehow most of the people forget being kind to animals - because dead animal used for meat, skin and more didn't really find a lot of kindness in this world, right? And meeting all the meaty street food and other non-vegan festivities just makes me especially sad during the Christmas period - btw, that's why I designed the Vegan Christmas Is Merry For Everyone T-shirts =) To point out about the fact.

Back to the story - how I met the only group in the busy Christmas streets that made my heart happy.

While walking through the crowds of seasonal sellers, (mainly non-vegan) food stalls, and charity workers asking for donations for all possible causes (because it goes with the Christmas spirit of being kind, doesn't it - there are more charity volunteers than ever in the streets during Christmas)...

...I spotted a person.

I spotted a person standing still in the moving mass of people rushing to tick off all the Christmas to do's - like a gathering enormous amount of gifts and probably stock on loads of ham and turkey (probably not even considering the fact that we can be kind to pigs and turkeys too and have some of the many amazing cruelty-free plant-based alternatives on our festive table instead of keeping outdated traditions and breed for that purpose malfunctional overweight animals just to slaughter them before they even reach adulthood).

I spotted a person with a white mask on his face.

I spotted a person holding a portable screen showing recordings from a factory farm.

I spotted someone, who's kind to every kind. I was thrilled.

And I was shy, so it took me a good time to come back (after getting several presents with my partner) to come back and ask about their work.

He was still there, standing still.

There were more of these amazing volunteers, some with masks (I knew a bit about it to recognise, that these people belong to the animal rights activist group called Anonymous for the Voiceless), some without, and to my biggest surprise, people were stopping by and talking to them. People are curious, maybe some of them vegans already like my partner and I, people care. Or try to get educated and understand. The whole group was fairly busy with people stopping by and everyone seemed to be friendly - both members of AV and the public.

I didn't want to take a lot of their precious time by a long chatting, but I asked just a bit about their mission there one of the Anonymous (I'm so sorry I forgot your name, I'm not a name-person, but it was a pleasure to meet you, bearded young man =) and got a few tips about how to get involved, which is my new year's resolution - to balance my work a bit better to be able to join more actively into things like these to make even more impact on people around me.

I thank them for doing a great job to educate people on the animal rights matter, wished them good luck and expressed my support for their mission.

So here's my tiny bit in the pot of goodness, just spreading the word about a group that actively makes the difference. And that made my Christmas spirit light up - that is, unfortunately, a year from the year a harder task.

So thank you, guys (and ladies!) from AV, for doing this. Keep on.

Are you interested in the work that the Anonymous for the Voiceless do?

Have a look at the list of places where you can find out more:

Anonymous for The Voiceless website (previously Cube of Truth)

You can find them on Facebook and Instagram too and if you're interested into going vegan and need support, there's a group that helps, for free, to guide you through your first 22 days: Challenge22.com (previously Vegan22)
A little insight about the Challenge22 - I was about to become a volunteer mentor (unfortunately cannot proceed to ongoing support because of my workload), so I have seen insights from the group and I must say it is a very supportive, well-balanced way of going into veganism for completely new people. Professional support from a medical team is also included so you may not need to be worried about making this lifestyle change while not knowing enough about your nutrient needs. I simply recommend this - especially if you feel like Veganuary would be too difficult to do by yourself (yet, as far as I know, there is a lot of support for taking the Veganuary pledge as well).

Or just look at the card I got from them for all the extra and useful information you can educate yourself and people around you about:

There's just no more excuse to not to go vegan. All it takes is to open your mind and go for it. Try to go vegan for January. But keep in mind - you may not be able to stop and you may become vegan for life. But that's fine, only billions of animals would thank you for that =)

I wish you all merry and kind holiday time and I will speak to you soon in the new year - let it be the year of upcoming worldwide of kindness for everyone.

Honestly yours, Veronika