Singapore Kindness Movement at 21: 'Without kindness, society will fall apart'
Singapore Kindness Movement holds 21st anniversary gala dinner, social enterprises praised for promoting graciousness
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
For Ms Li Woon, founder of The Volunteer Switchboard (TVS), a social enterprise that creates volunteering opportunities for individuals and corporations, kindness is the most important ingredient in life.
She said: "Small gestures of kindness send big signals about who we are and what we care about, as an individual and as a team.
"Without kindness, our society will simply fall apart."
In 2015, TVS was formally inducted by the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) into the Kindred Spirit Circle as a Ground-up-Movement (GUM).
SKM is a non-profit organisation that conducts public education programmes to promote kindness and graciousness in Singapore.
It held a gala dinner last Friday to celebrate its 21st anniversary at Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore.
At the dinner, SKM shared on developments on the state of kindness in Singapore and honoured partners, GUMs, and employees for their years of service.
TVS was commended for its volunteering endeavours and efforts to promote graciousness in Singapore.
Ms Li told The New Paper: "In May 2014, we received an e-mail from SKM for a possible partnership and when we shared what we wanted to do, SKM offered to support us in our future projects."
When it first began, TVS gave 8,850 goodie bags to 800 residents at Jalan Kukoh under its Project Home Sweet Home.
To date, TVS has organised events in neighbourhoods over Singapore, with volunteers clocking over 18,000 hours and giving more than $250,000 worth of donations.
Great Eastern Life Assurance (Singapore), one of the leading insurance companies in Asia, was another organisation praised for its efforts in promoting a kind working environment.
Its partnership with SKM began in 2015 for Kindness@Work, an SKM initiative aimed at creating a gracious workplace.
As part of the initiative, Great Eastern conducted its own event called Kids@Work in 2015 and 2017.
Ms Christine Cheah, Vice President, Regional Agency and Financial Advisors and Chairperson of the Kids@Work Committee, told TNP: "It was a special day where the children learnt about kindness through activities and put kindness into action together with their parents."
For Kids@Work last year, parents and children formed teams to take part in the Parkour Challenge, where they get first-hand experience on how kindness can be put into practice.
Great Eastern also held a parenting talk where parenting expert, Ms Carol Loi, and three of the company's senior management staff shared practical ways to impart kindness to the kids.
Ms Cheah said: "We believe in making a positive difference in the communities we work in and adding value to the lives around us.
"Being kind to one another is an important step towards building an inclusive and caring community and is an attribute we seek to inculcate in our staff."
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