The meaning of community is often misunderstood, understated or overlooked. The word ‘Community’ generally refers to sections of people who all have something in common and marked by a commonality such as geography and the ability to obey social norms and finding similarities among themselves which heighten their sense of belonging. Although communities can be divided by languages and cultures, the thing to remember is that they are all related to one another in some way and living in a world separated by languages, religious beliefs, culture and locations and there is a great deal of similarities that unite us than divide us which ultimately make the entire world one large community. The essence of community relies on trust, co-operation and communication in order to establish peace and harmony within society and in order to have understanding, we have to have the ability to foster harmony and peace which also allows us to feel a part of an establishment, a sense of togetherness and more importantly, the great sense of belonging, unity and friendship.

Togetherness is a feeling which lies in all of us. A feeling of togetherness shows how dependent we are to one another which is why from a very young age, growing up in a family setting, we’re taught to care for one another and as time progress, we learn to extend that sense of care and commitment to relatives, friends, neighbours and even strangers and this is what helps to build a stronger sense of togetherness that allows us to come together for those special occasions even with people we’ve never met before, for example our daily commute consists of taking the same train at the same time every day, we eventually notice the same person having the same routine. At one point we both acknowledge each other which lead to a smile or small talk; this is the sense of togetherness, it may not have occurred to you at that time but this small gesture could make the person feel valued and cared for, without this sense of togetherness, we’d be very lonely with little or no meaningful interactions.

The BLAC Awards