Facebook page founder looking to inspire kindness

You don’t need extra time to be kind. It is an approach; an attitude, and a way of being that goes along with you on your journey,” said Siddhant Suri Dhawan, the founder of the Facebook page ‘Kindness Inspires Change.’ Dhawan started the page in 2016 with the aim of inspiring others to do acts of kindness in their own way. “The inspiration for starting the Facebook page came to me when I chanced upon the book Am I Being Kind by Michael J Chase. “Something in the title caught my attention and resonated with me,” he said.

As part of his personal mission to make the world a better place to live in, in what little way he can, he has initiated a number of projects. “I compiled, printed, and distributed a bilingual book of poems and stories for children in Hindi and English in various schools run by NGOs and government schools. The books serve as a readymade handbook for teachers to teach children from nursery to Grade 3 and for older students to study the book themselves,” he said, noting that each story provides moral or value education.

Realising the importance of expressing gratitude as an act of kindness and the sheer power of the words ‘thank you,’ Dhawan, along with his friends, organised a Thanksgiving Day for the domestic help working in his colony. “We expressed our appreciation for the domestic staff that work in our respective houses. We raised funds and arranged a fun, entertaining evening for the household staff and expressed our gratitude and for their hard work and loyalty,” he said, adding that this was just a pilot project and that they will be holding such events across Oman.

He has also arranged a meal for the maintenance staff of a property developer in Muscat, bringing a smile to their faces for acknowledging their hard work and hardships. Similarly, he distributed packs of cake, juice, and chips to workers at Al Nab’a Services and gave a speech applauding the workers for their commitment to help maintain cleanliness in the city.

In addition, this multi-talented all-round student of Indian School Al Ghubra has also used his talent as a musician to raise funds for various causes not only in Oman, but in India too. “I inaugurated a music division at an NGO in Gurgaon, India called VRCT with the aim of inspiring and empowering underprivileged girls to learn and enjoy music. I raised funds by playing the piano at events. These funds have gone towards the purchase of musical instruments and teachers’ salaries.”

‘Kindness Inspires Change’ is not just a platform where Dhawan shares his activities as part of the initiative, but he also tries to motivate and inspire his 20,000 followers to imbibe the core value of kindness and apply it to their day-to-day activities.

“This experience has taught me that abundance of being exists in all of us. This abundance is expressed through caring, love, joy, compassion, happiness, and cheer. And each one of us has it in good measure. ‘Kindness Inspires Change’ is a platform to express this abundance that we hold within ourselves,” said 16-year-old Dhawan.

Source: Timesofoman