Ever wonder how is to receive a hug from a stranger? But how is to offer it to somebody you cross with you on a street, someone who passes nearby for some seconds only?
Can we hug anybody?
You can not answer these questions if you never were the subject of a Free Hug, you may only guess…


One thing is sure, on Saturday, 19th April 2008, AVI-Moldova volunteers decided to spread free hugs again. So, our volunteers did it for the second time! Is our answer to all above questions!

How was it? …well, Free Hug is not equal to Free Hug, as Free Hugs is not equal to Free Hugs :) wondering what I mean?
Of course – every time is different; each hug is a particular one!
Generally, as previous time, there was an intense exchange of energy… we were surprised, people who accepted our free hugs, and there were many, were mainly looking for our positive energy, convinced by our good mood and smiling faces :D
There were people that knew what free hugging aims for! They asked for free hugs by themselves!
Before receiving a hug, some people need to be convinced this is inoffensive, that is just for promoting and spreading peace and tolerance. You know, there are people who need a reason, and others who don’t. But both were equally welcome to interact with us.

There were some people waiting for us, as we sticked posters and spread anouncements about this event. That was sooo nice :)

Some bizarre things happened this time too. The strangest thing was when we approached two old ladies who were sitting on a bench. They thought we wanted to make fun of them, especially because we had a digital camera with us, they asked Why would a group of youngsters want to offer them a hug? … After long explanations, they admitted that they might have misunderstood our intentions. They saw us hugging other people, but hesitated to accept us as good intentioned and well mannered group of young people. Another older couple also refused our free hugs, because, they said that this is not for them anymore and to look for people of our age, as if they were out of this world…that was pretty sad…is this about being or not being enough open-minded? Or is this so strange in our society, in our country?
No police officer this time approaching us, not even guardians of park’s administration. You’ll see on pictures that even the entry-man received our free hugs with an open heart :) we also gave him a poster. I think he then understood why there were so many smiling faces in the park. I must say, when you entry the park one must pay a small amount of coins :)
We felt that we did cheer up a lot of people. We’ve met sad, stressed, fast or slow walking people, young and old people, kids playing around.

People were very enthusiastic about our wish to make them these small gifts, small surprises in a well known beautiful park in Chisinau, where many people choose to go for long walks and to relax and get positive energy. We were asked to do the Free Hugging more often by some of our free hugs consumers :) which is great!