Help Kindness Bloom. That was exactly what a group of third year Republic Polytechnic (RP) students aimed to do within their school in early November 2010.

To raise awareness of World Kindness Day 2010 which falls on 13 Nov, the five students from the Diploma in Communication and Information Design course gave out cut-out daisy postcards to RP students on 3 Nov. This was to encourage students to fold their own daisies and write a kindness message on the cards, and then give them to someone they appreciated.

Passing on the kindness: 
Max distributing postcards to a group of RP students having lunch

This idea of spreading kindness was met with a variety of interesting reactions.

Danial, a second year student pursing a Diploma in Communication and Information Design confessed that he was not aware of World Kindness Day. But he agreed that there was a need to create greater awareness of kindness to youths: “The postcard is a very good idea! I’d probably give it to one of my closer friend because I think that in our day-to-day routines, we don’t really know how to ‘pass on’ kindness.”

“Singaporeans can do a bit more to be kinder. I’ve seen courteous Singaporeans, so I wouldn’t say that the level of kindness here is bad, but it can definitely be better!” he quipped.

For Fidrah, she said such an occasion reminded her to acknowledge her mother’s kindness. “Thank you mum for bringing me up and supporting me all this while. With you by my side, nobody else matters,” said the year-one student from Sports and Leisure Management.

When asked about the level of kindness in Singapore, Rachel, a final year student from Diploma in Business Computing, rated the country six out of ten.

“I’ve stayed in the US before, so I tend to compare Americans and Singaporeans. I noticed that Americans are more willing to extend a helping hand, but Singaporeans are more likely to just stand and watch,” she commented.

Group interview:
A group of boys sharing their experiences
about the level of graciousness in Singapore

Based on these responses, there is certainly more room for improvement here in Singapore. As writer Amanda Bradley said, “It only takes one smile to offer welcome and blessed be the person who will share it”. So while kindness cannot be nurtured and achieved in a single day, every small act of kindness matters.

By Maisarah Bte Hamdan