Icame across The Goodwill Tribe, whose philosophy is to inspire compassion andhuman connection, back in 2014 while I was skimming through my Facebookaccount. This social initiative was incepted in Dubai by Sonia Parekh andChandni Sawlani, who sought to make life more meaningful and complete by makingpeople smile and by spreading joy and love to all.
Itstarted with a social experiment, where they took up a stall at a flea marketin Dubai and offered everything on their table as a gift to the community.Every gift was wrapped with a ribbon and a handwritten note, amplifying theexperience. The reaction of people and the happiness expressed really touchedthe duo. In time, thispositive energy led to the birth of The Goodwill Tribe, which has now spread to12 cities worldwide: Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai, Goa, Nagpur, Dubai,London, Sydney, Munich and Kuwait City.
Inall the twelve cities, The Goodwill Tribe hosts events, where kindness isextended to strangers, to help us connect with others and break the momentum ofour lives. In a way, these events give us the opportunity to experiencegenuine love and kindness toward members ofthe community, and freedom from the self.
KindnessConfetti is one such event that has always turned out to be a success in thispart of the Gulf. At this event, we write notes and draw sketches with positiveand kind messages and distribute them to strangers. It makes those of us whoorganize the event believe in goodness. The space of kindness that is createdby the people gracing the event is sacred, pure and full of joy and smiles.
At our latest Kindness Confetti event, we met at our usualcoffee place at 5.30 pm (coincidentally,we all love F.R.I.E.N.D.S), and our kindness preparations began. Theparticipants who preferred writing passed the words they had written on thecards to the artists to add their magic, while the artists handed their cardsto the writers who translated their art into words.
Thisconnection between the artist and the writer, and consequently between theperson who hands out the card to a random stranger and the receiver, highlightsthe importance of reaching out to others. Though the intention is to extendhappiness to others, even the ones who handed out the cards said that they feltgood, having not done something nice in a really long time. We ended the event by enjoying our cup of coffee andcatching up on how everyone was doing and basking in the overall feeling ofgoodness in the room.
Let’snot pretend it’s easy to be good all the time. Let’s fuel ourselves withkindness often because life has got no time for negativity.
ByMelissa Azavedo