Singapore launches first Kindness Day SG

SINGAPORE: Singapore now has a Kindness Day to call its own.

The Singapore Kindness Movement launched Kindness Day SG on Friday, and it has chosen the last Friday of the second school term to be Kindness Day SG so that more schools can be involved.

There’s a role that everyone can play in making Singapore a “nation of kindness” – that’s the focus of Singapore’s first Kindness Day SG.

And students took the opportunity to reflect on what they can do.

Alvis Tan, student from North View Primary School, said: “I give up my seat to an old woman because I see her carry a lot of bags, and I’m scared she might fall when the bus moves.”

Maxine Koh, student from North View Primary School, said: “I would like to help my parents more because after a long busy day, I would like to help them by doing simple household chores that I can do, for example, washing the cups, washing the plates.”

To get everyone on board, students were given materials like magnetic boards and cards with reminders to perform small acts of kindness.

Kindness Day SG is a uniquely Singaporean occasion, even though there is already a World Kindness Day which falls on November 13 every year.

Cesar Balota, Associate General Secretary of Singapore Kindness Movement, said: “Most schools are not able to join us actively on that day because they’re either already on break or some are still in exams. So together with the MOE (Ministry of Education), we agreed that today would be a better day for Kindness Day SG.”

Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education, said: “Individual acts of kindness form the building blocks of a more gracious society, of a kinder society. And it’s important that we encourage our students to start young, encourage them to care for their friends and families, to encourage them to care for the school and the broader community. And you see all these simple acts, which each one is capable of, and we must encourage that and encourage an appreciation of the good deeds all around us.” 

But the occasion was missing a familiar face.

Singa the Courtesy Lion was nowhere to be seen, now that he has resigned from the Singapore Kindness Movement two weeks ago.

Alvis Tan added: “I felt quite disappointed because Singa is our kindness mascot, which motivates us to be kind and not say hurtful things to other people. Actually, I feel that Singa should not quit as he’s doing a (good) job at motivating people to be kind. Even if Singa leaves, people should be kind because if people are not kind, the whole world will become like the Land of Unkind, very rude, very dull.”

Maxine Koh added: “I find that having a mascot for core values would be good because actually it’s easy to remember and once you think about it, you’ll think about showing kindness to others.”

But mascot or not, the education minister said there are other ways to encourage students to be kind.

Mr Heng said: “For students, I think it is useful for them to have something that they can relate to. But you see that the children today all have been able to do it through a variety of media, whether it’s through songs or through play or through art and craft. So there’re many different ways that we can get them to show appreciation, to get them to acknowledge and perform acts of kindness, to acknowledge people around them.”

The Singapore Kindness Movement said it has accepted Singa’s resignation and now wants to focus on real people instead.

Singapore launches first Kindness Day SG