The Seed Kindness Fund started by SKM has effectively helped students and teachers of Pei Tong Primary School, Springfield Secondary School and Woodgrove Secondary School promote and spread kindness in their school and community. These schools have been working closely with SKM over the last couple of months to test creative ideas that encourage kindness.

SKM hopes these ideas will push students to spread and take ownership of kindness in their campuses. With up to $1,000 funding, the Seed Kindness Fund is targeted to youths from various institutions. Youths aged 13-26 from registered education institutions are eligible to apply.

Meanwhile, the Enhanced Seed Kindness Fund is open to teachers from all primary and secondary schools in the hope of promoting a culture of kindness in their school. SKM will fund the school up to $3,000 for an approved kindness project.

Mrs Nusraat Begum Akbar Ali from Pei Tong Primary School has embarked on her project earlier this year. She started a mascot designing competition. Students voted for their favourite design and named it Mr ‘SKIPT’ (Spreading Kindness In Pei Tong). It has since become one of the school’s most effective way to empower kindness in its students.

The school also produced a Kindness ‘Passport’ which motivates students to collect kind acts as they are rewarded with prizes after completing a certain amount of acts.  “We try our best to promote kindness in many activities. These include essay writing and a blog submission which was open to all students and parents. At least 10 students visited the blog each day and even students from Primary 1 posted pictures and stories of kind acts,” said Mrs Nusraat.

For Springfield Secondary School, all secondary one students were given a doodle journal in which they are encouraged to express kind acts. “The journal is interesting and useful. It helps me manage my stress issues and reminds me to be kind to others,” said Jie Chong, a student of Springfield Secondary School.

The doodle journal was co-created between SKM and the school. Associate General Secretary (Education), SKM, Ms Sarah Lam explained, “I feel that secondary school students have problems expressing themselves and respecting others. Thus, this journal empowers them to express themselves in a controlled manner.”

After positive feedback from the students of Springfield Secondary School, the journal will be launched to other secondary schools next year.

Finally, Woodgrove Secondary School used the Enhanced Seed Kindness Fund to promote self-respect by creating powerpoint slides and putting together a skit and a musical. The musical was directed by students, Filiah and Muazzan, both 16, while being supervised by a teacher. The plot line and performances centred on the importance of life skills and self-respect.

SKM hopes to fund other such projects to empower students on the importance of kindness. More details can be found here: http://kindness.sg/skf

By Shaffina Khairul