Singapore Gives Street Cleaners the Day Off and Gives Away Daisies for World Kindness Day

November 13 was World Kindness Day, an initiative of the Kindness Movement that’s been sweeping the globe. This year marks the third anniversary of World Kindness Day and in support of the movement Singaporeans took to the streets to show some kindness and appreciation.

In Marine Parade Town, the cleaners were given a break for the day. They were replaced with volunteers, which included members of Parliament like Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, residents, grassroots leaders and volunteers.

Throughout the day, volunteers picked up litter on private estates and in public areas. They also encouraged locals to clean up after themselves, especially in areas like food courts by placing posters at Marine Terrace 50A Market and Food Centre.

The implementation of this day-long initiative wasn’t just to recognise World Kindness Day, but also to send an overall message to the town’s residents of the need to be conscious about how they treat their environment.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan, MP for Mountbatten said after the day:

“We also want to send a message that we need everyone to do their part to keep the place litter-free. As we walked around, we actually saw a lot of litter, and so we’re just wondering, if everyone does his part… this whole place will be much, much cleaner.”

On Orchid Street, Singapore’s downtown shopping belt, 500 volunteers surprised and delighted passer-bys by handing out 30,000 yellow gerbera daisies while the Singapore Tourism Board bought hundreds of daisies and delivered them to its employees.

As part of the Singapore Kindness Movement, an online interactive map has also been created to track the growth of kindness throughout the country. Each act of kindness allows a flower appear and bloom where it occurred. And the more kind acts in that area, the larger the flower. It can be viewed at www.makesomeonesday.sg.

The World Kindness Movement was officially launched in Singapore on 18 November 2000. It was inspired by the Small Kindness Movement of Japan and aims to inspire and encourage kind acts and unite nations through kindness.

Other acts of kindness on this day included:

A “big hug” event on Bondi Beach,Australia: people joined hands, gave random hugs and enjoyed a free breakfast on the beach.

A “kindness text” event throughout the UK: people sent kind texts to someone they knew, either to thank them, to forward on a kind quote or to advise them of a kind act they witnessed that day.