JUST ONE:
THE POWER OF COMPASSION
“A beautifully written book that deserves to be widely read. A tribute to empathy and compassion arising everyday within endless challenges.”
MARY EVELYN TUCKER, co-founder of the YALE FORUM ON RELIGION AND ECOLOGY
“Liz Cunningham has a gift for portraying the profundity of hope. She shows that genuine hope is neither escapist nor shallow. It’s a life-affirming response to moral outrage. We need this book in times like these.”
ALAN MITTLEMAN, author of HOPE IN A DEMOCRATIC AGE
Time after time, what turns the tide against pernicious oppression is the courage that compassion inspires and the truth it reveals about our kinship with each other. The power of compassion is at the heart of life. It can create hope where there is none.
– liz Cunningham
JUST ONE is a meditation on the power of compassion in a crisis-laden world. In order to witness firsthand the plight of refugees, Liz Cunningham travels with South Sudanese journalist Anthony Kamba to refugee settlements in the war-torn terrain of northern Uganda.
This intimate account chronicles the dignity of refugees and those serving them and how their actions push the boundaries of what is possible with startling force and beauty. The lessons of those experiences—of action, possibility and hope—extend powerfully to other circumstances, be it advocating for democracy, caring for the homeless, or protecting the earth from exploitation.
It starts with just one: a gesture of kindness, an affirmation of the truth, and the moments when compassion compels us to act.
THE JUST ONE BOOK PROJECT:
THE STORY OF JUST ONE IS A GIFT. We Want the BOOK TO BE A GIFT too.
Indigenous cultures know that true gifts need to stay in motion. They are at the heart of reciprocity, of our mutual flourishing. Our goal is to keep the gift of Just One moving through person-to-person exchanges and community networks.
HOW IT WORKS:
1. Thanks to a generous donor, every copy of Just One will be gifted to interested individuals, educators, independent bookstores and community organizations.
2. Recipients are asked to keep the gift in motion through fostering dialogue or fundraising for charitable causes.
3. Independent booksellers take what they need to support their enterprise and give remaining proceeds to a charity of their choice.
4. Because we want Just One to follow the threads of the gift economy, it is not available as an e-book or on major online bookselling platforms.
“Just One is a small book, mighty with truths that are both shaming and enlarging. Compassion, it turns out, is very alive—tough, creative, joyful and resourceful. The people we meet in Just One show us how it’s done.”
– SUSAN MURPHY, AUTHOR Of A FIRE RUNS THROUGH ALL THINGS: Zen koans for facing the Climate Crisis
“Cunningham’s vivid storytelling and honest reflections illustrate the power of even the humblest acts of compassion to face, transform, and alleviate the deepest of human suffering and sorrows.”
– SHaron Salzberg, Author of lovingkindness and real Life
“A gripping narrative which draws us into a vibrant force field of courage and compassion. The impossible possibilities Liz Cunningham reveals at work among refugees in Uganda resonate all too significantly with politics at home.”
– CATHERINE KELLER, Author of facing apocalypse: ecology, democracy and other last chances
2025 LIVING NOW BOOK AWARDS
Silver Winner in Social Justice/Charity
ABOUT LIZ CUNNINGHAM
Liz Cunningham’s mission is to inspire and empower others to advocate for social justice and protect the life of our planet. She is the author of the award-winning Ocean Country, with a foreword by Carl Safina, Talking Politics: Choosing the President in the Television Age and the co-founder of KurtHahn.org, the online archive for the founder of Outward Bound.
Her work has appeared in numerous publications such as AlterNet, Asian Geographic, Earth Island Journal, The Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Times of the Islands, Seven Seas Magazine and The San Francisco Chronicle.
“To read this book is a salutary lesson in weeping, tears that grow empathy for a mighty cause: the plight of the world’s many disposessed, refugees and children. This book doses the piercing pain of unfathomable suffering with the healing tonic of compassion.”
– jean-marie kauth, author OF environmental legacies of the copernican universe
“Liz Cunningham has given us a moving way to sense what it’s like to be in the harsh refugee camps. And to find love and dignity there.”