The LITTLE GARLIC COMPANION is a tool to explore the lessons in the book LITTLE GARLIC by Avideh Shahshaani. It includes questions for discussion, quotes to consider, meditations, art, and activities.

LITTLE GARLIC is a collection of timeless spiritual parables which provide a passageway to spiritual discovery for all ages, honoring a child's ability of knowing and engaging multiple levels of consciousness, the dream world, companionship, nature, and truth, while building a feeling of being at home in the universe with resilience from loss and suffering.

This book reflects Avideh Shashaani's unique international experience as a poet, writer, and lecturer, and her life's work as a passionate and unyielding advocate for children and supporter of youth projects for interreligious understanding, peace, and social justice.

Shashaani is the sixth annual recipient of the "Waging Peace" award instituted by former president Jimmy Carter.

She is the founder and president of the Fund for the Future of our Children (FFC), which for almost three decades has nurtured young people as tomorrow's leaders for peace and social justice. FFC has drawn attention to the plight of children in war-torn countries and developed curriculum on moral leadership called "Speaking Truth: Watershed Moments in Global Leadership."

Shashaani's poetry and writings on spirituality and advocacy for children have featured in a one-hour program in the Library of Congress radio series for National Public Radio stations. She is the author of three books of poetry. The most recent, Tell Me Where to Be Born, focuses on violence against children. Her poetry and writings have appeared in anthologies, books and journals including Spirituality in Clinical Practice of the American Psychological Association. She is the editor of Something Deeper Happened: Young Voices and the 2008 U.S. Election with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

She has served on various nonprofit boards involved with spirituality, including the Faith and Politics Institute that sponsors Congressional pilgrimages, Thomas Merton Institute for Contemplative Living, and the Collaborative for Spirituality in Education.

Shashaani has been a guest speaker at many prestigious institutions, ranging from the Parliament of World Religions, United Nations Conference on Human Rights, to Columbia University, Georgetown University, Washington Hebrew Congregation, the Goethe Institute, and the Cincinnati Museum of Art.

Her work has included bringing meditation and wellness programs to corporations, organizations and government agencies including the U.S. Senate, U.S. Capitol Police, World Bank, Pan American Health Organization, American Heart Association, MCI, and INTELSAT.

Early in her career, Shashaani was the first co-director of the International Institute for Rehabilitation in Developing Countries founded by the United Nations and was appointed by the UN Secretary General to the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the "Socio-Economic Implication of Investments in Rehabilitation of the Disabled."

Born in Tehran, Iran, Shashaani spent much of her childhood in Washington, D. C. where her father was a diplomat. Her academic training includes a B.A. in experimental psychology, an M.A. in educational planning and management, and a Ph.D. in Sufi Studies.