K.I.N.D.S. over the last 6 months

 

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I’ve spoken to you all, but I come bearing good news! Today, on March 26^th, K.I.N.D.S. turns 6 months old and I am super excited about it! The past 6 months amidst the pandemic seem to have passed within the blink of an eye. Yet in these extremely difficult and uncertain months, I tried to do my bit by spreading kindness.

Through K.I.N.D.S., I tried to spread awareness about the importance and more so, the necessity of being kind. To spread awareness via social media and to impact a majority of the population, I prepared digital (visual and written) content that talked about kindness towards other human beings, towards ourselves, towards animals as well as the environment. Apart from kindness, the content also spread awareness on issues like body positivity, mental health as well as self-acceptance. I also organized weekly food drives for feeding up to 100 needy people at each drive, collected 25 mobile phones that were donated to the students of a government school in Delhi for regular attendance of online classes during the pandemic, and donated multiple old board games to the children at a local orphanage.

Spreading awareness online also involved making a short film to showcase the urgency and necessity of spreading kindness, especially in today’s time when the people of the entire world are struggling with the pandemic and coping with its after-effects. It also urged people to spread kindness online so as to help others overcome everyday challenges that they face on social media such as online hate, mean comments, and routinely trolling.

 I made another short film that summarized a sample survey I conducted to understand the importance of kindness and the circumstances in which people expect others to be kind to them. This survey was conducted with the help of 14 volunteers and it helped me conclude that at their lowest times, people expected their friends to offer a helping hand and to be supportive of them. They expected others to stand up for what is right and, in some cases, they simply needed someone to hear them out. At the same time, they believed that acts like forgiveness, self-acceptance, and focusing on what was truly important helped them change their perspective towards tackling difficult circumstances.

However, the highlight of these 6 months for me was the 2-month short-term volunteering program. Under this program, various random acts of kindness were performed each week by a selected cohort of 13 volunteers coming from the USA, UK, and multiple cities of India. Over 450 acts of kindness were performed by the volunteers in 2 months to spread kindness literally around the world while keeping in check the covid-19 healthcare guidelines. Some of these acts involved giving new year cards to strangers, writing thank-you mails to healthcare professionals, upcycling fresh pages from old notebooks, feeding stray animals, doing things that make us happy, making memes on kindness and being grateful for what we have, etc. These acts spread kindness towards the animals, the environment, other people as well as us and helped K.I.N.D.S. create a small difference in the world.

The past 6 months have been nothing less than absolutely eventful yet completely challenging for me. I would, therefore, like to thank all of you who have been a part of this journey with me, followed KINDS on Instagram, supported this initiative since its very start, liked and shared the content, and participated in it to act for change. I would also like to thank all the volunteers who participated in the volunteering program and performed various random acts of kindness without expecting anything in return.

Thank you for keeping the spirit of kindness alive in society and for supporting me in this journey of making the world a kinder place to live. I hope that you all continue to spread kindness and support KINDS with all your heart in the future as well.

Please follow this blog and the Instagram page for KINDS to support my little kindness movement and to enjoy refreshing content and exciting updates!!

Link to Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/_.kinds._/       

Email me at K.I.N.D.S. - kindsareus@gmail.com