My Loneliness United 10,000 Strangers
Jo Fidgen finds out about the remarkable response to a man's message in Denmark asking to meet new friends.
When a young Danish man called Patrick Cakirli posted on an online message board he was shocked by the response he received. He said: "I am desperate to meet new friends. I'm lonely and going through the hardest period of my life. I'll sit on the stairs in front of the town hall from 2pm to 8pm". He couldn't have predicted what happened next.
Sergey Kosyak is a Protestant pastor who lived in Ukraine until the conflict there forced him to move. Even though he lives abroad, he helps at an orphanage in the east of the country. During the violence he found himself protecting the disabled children who live there.
A British woman called Christine Gallagher has set up a unique party-planning business in Los Angeles. The parties don't involve birthdays or weddings, but divorces. Christine believes the celebrations can help divorcees make a fresh start. In the last 14 years, she's thrown around 200 parties.
Image: Patrick Cakirli
Credit: Kelly Jensen
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- Mon 19 Mar 2018 12:06GMT±«Óãtv World Service except News Internet
- Mon 19 Mar 2018 16:06GMT±«Óãtv World Service Australasia
- Mon 19 Mar 2018 18:06GMT±«Óãtv World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Tue 20 Mar 2018 04:06GMT±«Óãtv World Service Online, Australasia & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Tue 20 Mar 2018 06:06GMT±«Óãtv World Service Americas and the Caribbean & South Asia only
- Tue 20 Mar 2018 07:06GMT±«Óãtv World Service East Asia
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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary
Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected