{"id":728880,"date":"2026-01-29T15:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728880\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:56:20","slug":"dear-stranger-the-letters-travelling-all-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728880\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Stranger: The letters travelling all around the world\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walking around London, you might stumble upon a letter. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s addressed to you, your neighbour, and to the people stepping around as you are reading it in the middle of the street, too. <\/p>\n

At its top, an intriguing opening: \u2018Dear Stranger\u2019, accompanied by two smiley faces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are carrying emotionally vulnerable messages, inviting anyone who stops to read them to reflect on mental health, belonging, and community. <\/p>\n

At the project\u2019s core is what can be described as the evil of the century: loneliness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling anxious these days and wish you knew why, I just want to let you know you\u2019re not alone, you\u2019re not weak, you\u2019re human. Some humans are better at hiding their anxiety than others.\u201d Excerpt from the letter.
Photo credit: Jay Ventress<\/p>\n

Everyone is the recipient. Who\u2019s the sender?<\/p>\n

Behind all the Dear Stranger letters is Jay Ventress, 29, originally from the East Riding countryside. <\/p>\n

We meet in a cafe in St Pancras International, as he gets off a Eurostar from Brussels. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s in London for a gig as a camera engineer, but will also use this time to meet as many people as possible in the city, because \u201ceveryone has got a story to tell\u201d.<\/p>\n

He begins telling me his own. <\/p>\n

The first Dear Stranger letter was posted in November 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI basically recycle emotions and turn them into little scraps of hope\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jay Ventress<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI started it because I was in a pretty bad place when the pandemic hit, I couldn\u2019t go home because there were no flights and I couldn\u2019t get work. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting quite depressed, so I would go out and just talk to people living on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing all this gutter philosophy, started making me feel really good. Things like when you\u2019re so far down on the concrete, the only angle you can look is up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I realised: Why don\u2019t I write a letter that I would want to find myself on the street? So I wrote Dear Stranger, posted the letter, walked away, and came back pretending it wasn\u2019t me. It made me feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Back on the crime scene: Jay Ventress posing in front of a Dear Stranger letter
Photo credit: Jay Ventress<\/p>\n

Dear Stranger letters around the world<\/p>\n

Dear Stranger letters have been posted in 14 countries for over five years. <\/p>\n

They have had resonance in all countries Jay visited, including Egypt, Morocco and Uzbekistan. <\/p>\n

The camera engineer says his bigger mission is to \u201cshow that no matter what culture, what country or religion, everyone feels human emotion. I want to show that we\u2019re all similar\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"From Newcastle to Samarkand, Uzbekistan: Dear Stranger letters have gone all over the world.
Photo credit: Jay Ventress<\/p>\n

The 29 year old did experience a \u201cwake up call\u201d in some places he visited: \u201cThe western idea of struggle is different to a country where people struggle just to eat a loaf of bread. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has taught me to keep this into consideration: who am I to come over and tell some of these people things are going to get better when I cannot even contextualise their idea of struggle?<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso in some of these countries, it\u2019s taboo to talk about mental health\u201d, he notes. \u201cMost of the people responding to me must be of a certain wealth class to even have a phone and to know English\u201d.<\/p>\n

The difference a letter can make: hearing from the strangers<\/p>\n

The moments Jay creates with his Dear Stranger letters resonate with people.<\/p>\n

He can receive up to 300 messages in just a few days when he does a letter run like he did in London, describing the impact a letter had.<\/p>\n

Listen to content strategist Sonia Taourghi, 44, who found a Dear Stranger letter on Waterloo place in London.<\/p>\n

Listen to tattoo artist Biko Dadzie, 45, on his experience with Dear Stranger letters.<\/p>\n

It sometimes can be challenging to receive so many messages. <\/p>\n

Jay said: \u201cWhen you\u2019re receiving this much, you kind of\u2026 It f*cks your brain. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had all kinds of messages. Some are harder than others\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of them are very light-hearted, very beautiful, but I\u2019ve had at least six or seven people who were going to kill themselves and then saw the letter as something telling them not to do it. That gets a little heavy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The moment behind the letter<\/p>\n

Jay estimates he has written over 120 different letters since his first one. <\/p>\n

It is crucial to the 29 year old that each of them come from a place of truth: \u201cWhen I feel loneliness or anxiety or loss, I try and translate that into something hopeful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically recycle emotions and turn them into little scraps of hope, so a future me would read that and feel good or a stranger would read that and feel hopeful.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say plenty of people have. <\/p>\n

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\"\"Gallery credit: Jay Ventress<\/p>\n

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While more than a thousand prints of his letters were posted all over London this winter, it is unclear how many remain intact now. <\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t bother Jay the slightest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like the idea that they get destroyed,\u201d said the camera engineer. \u201cWhen you come to read the letter, you have a moment with it, you might really enjoy it, but you come back tomorrow and it might be gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea and poetry of the project is also to make people cherish the moment, and not rush it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having heard back from people of all ages and nationalities, Jay is convinced that \u201cthe common trait is loneliness\u201d. <\/p>\n

That is part of the reason why, going full circle, he now uses his platform <\/a>to meet as many people as possible, especially those who send him a letter of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit: Jay Ventress <\/p>\n