The Kindness Week
The Kindness Week pioneered by The Kindness Foundation, was launched with the purpose of shifting people’s notion of charity and doing good away from material objects, encourage them to start sharing more, and create more experiences filled with joy. This led to the birth of the first Kindness Week in 2018, an annual initiative which focuses on encouraging people to perform acts of kindness all week long.
Social change begins with kind acts towards yourself and thoughtful acts towards people, animals and the environment.
The Foundation partners with various organizations across the city to create magical experiences that weave thoughtfulness into daily life, and change the perception of kindness among people. It reaches out to a diverse group of people with a focus on senior citizens and destitute women, and children.
From a mere 6 partners creating joyful experiences for 450 children in 2018, the Foundation is now over 40 partners strong. In 2020, we cumulatively touched close to 3,000 lives! The Kindness Wave engulfed Hyderabad and Pune as well, as these two cities celebrated their first Kindness Week in February 2020.
Our lofty goal is to make Kindness Week an international celebration of week-long experience sharing by communities worldwide!
The Kind Campus
The Kind Campus program combines fun and learning, and extends the education and practice of kindness beyond the classroom walls, involving all stakeholders. The main idea is to help children understand that empathy is a must-have trait, and not just a nice-to-have skill in today’s world. The aim is to be able to influence school cultures for the better, making kindness, empathy, inclusion and acceptance an everyday thing.
The Kind Campus curriculum presents activities designed to build the attributes of empathy, gratitude perspective, honesty, self-compassion, self-acceptance, humility, collaboration, mindfulness, meditation, trust, affiliation and humour.
Kindness Vouchers
In October 2019, The Kindness Foundation launched ‘The Kindness Voucher’ in partnership with various vendors throughout the city - a simple and heart-warming way to bring joy to as many children as possible. 32 vendors readily came on board and opened their hearts and doors to the under-served communities!
These vouchers were available for purchase by anyone, to the gifted to children in need. The campaign hashtag #IFoundKindness aimed to inspire people to make giving a part of life.
The magic of these vouchers was envisioned to spread far and wide by being purchased in bulk and passed on to beneficiary charities, gifted to our own service staff or even as gifts to friends, who in turn could pass it on to those around them in need.
Fundraising Workshops
The Kindness Foundation runs interactive, enriching & memorable experiences with artists, thought-leaders and influencers across various fields. Through each workshop and interaction, we aim to promote empathy education and to provide individuals with tools to help infuse kindness into daily life.
Proceeds from these workshops are directed towards supporting our COVID-19 relief & rehabilitation efforts, and to fuel the work of the Foundation.
Training Programs
As a trained Child Abuse Awareness & Prevention expert, Mahima workshops aim to promote gender equality and empower women, adults and children to establish boundaries with confidence. With over 100 workshops conducted, the program aims to increase awareness and promote education of prevention of abuse in children and adults.
Research has shown us that 90% of the time, the abuser is a person known well to the child and family. The danger could be from anyone and it is important to teach skills to help children protect themselves and be vocal about the abuse. The workshops underline that unless we think and act as a community and look out for each other around us, our own children will never be safe.
The workshops cover topics like:
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Awareness & prevention of child abuse
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Risk and protective factors
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Language of support & empowerment
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Child maltreatment
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Domestic violence on children
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Coercive control
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Child sexual abuse
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Peer victimization (bullying)
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Alcohol and drug abuse
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Online safety
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Child trafficking
The Kindness Brigade
The Kindness Brigade is a Youth Internship program to give them a voice that creates impact and a kinder world. We identify, showcase & celebrate young change-makers who are using their passion & talent to do work targeted towards creating positive change around them.
Kindness Speaks
In honour of World Kindness Day on November 13, 2020, the youth were given a megaphone through which they could speak to the entire world in order to make it a kinder place. During the Kindness Speaks virtual speech contest, 16 children between the ages of 8-16 years shared their perspective and experience of kindness! What emerged were pearls of wisdom, with our youth showing us that sometimes they perceive kindness and compassion in ways that we never have.
The 6 winners from the U12 and U16 category then went on to perform their speeches LIVE on a much larger platform, at the International Kindness Festival in March 2021.
The Kindness Gallery
The world is enriched when art is used as a medium to engage, educate and express. A fund-raising initiative, The Kindness Gallery is a collection of inspiring art from novice & professional artists, with each one so different in its purpose.
All artwork is sold on The Giving Trees (India) , with sales proceeds directed towards fueling the Foundation’s ongoing work.
To donate your artwork to the Gallery, please reach out to us at hello@thekindnessfoundation.in