Words: Alison Fyfe-Turck
Global Icon Hello Kitty recently launched a worldwide initiative, the Hello Kitty #OneKindThing Campaign. This initiative is aimed at making young people aware of just how powerful kindness can be in the world. The old adage that kindness doesn’t cost you anything is true and Hello Kitty is leading the way on this journey of benevolence, which is all about encouraging kids to carry out random acts of kindness.
The campaign launched in July and has consisted of Hello Kitty calling upon fans – old and new – to take part in an act of kindness, with the key message of the campaign being to encourage South Africa’s youth to “Do one kind thing for someone. Pay it Forward and join the movement”. Since launch, the social media uptake has been phenomenal, with over 22 000 followers on FaceBook all taking heed and interacting with Hello Kitty on the platform. This campaign has also extended into schools and malls and this month, Hello Kitty will be bringing kindness to the Killarney Mall which will host a Kindness Tree in their Truworths promotional court giving kids the opportunity to clip on their ‘kindness leaves’ (representing an act of kindness) and be part of Hello Kitty’s Kindness Journey. The Kindness Tree was created by the Siyavuma Foundation, a non-profit organisation that design and construct wire creations, the Hello Kitty Kindness Tree created 20 jobs for a solid two weeks.
The goal is to create a kindness forest in Johannesburg with leaves of kindness on trees all over the city! Visit the Killarney Mall on Saturday’s and Sunday’s between 10am and 1pm to get the opportunity to meet Hello Kitty and to hang your kindness leaf onto the tree of kindness.
Hello Kitty has been leading the way in terms of kindness acts, with the various random acts of kindness that she has been carrying out including donations of cake supplies to Kindness baker – ‘Girl with Cake’, dropping in on a Code Teen Workshop hosted by Claire Mawisa with inspirational words of kindness for the girls, impromptu coffees at key intersections for traffic suffering Gautengers including messages of kindness and finally late night soup and rolls for emergency services personnel to acknowledge their incredible work. The Hello Kitty #OneKindThing Campaign is aimed at making people remember that kindness costs nothing, but that it’s value can be immeasurable.
The campaign is all about trying to encourage kids to do kind acts as a part of their daily life and to understand that kindness is not charity, you don’t have to spend money or give anything, you simply have to do something for someone else that makes a positive difference in their life – it can be as simply as helping your Mom bring in the groceries from the car or helping an old lady to cross the street! If you can’t get to the Killarney Mall, how about creating your own kindness tree at home. Download the Hello Kitty Kindness Leaf sheet from the Hello Kitty Loves South Africa facebook page and start the kindness journey in your own family.
Hello Kitty Loves SA is on a mission to bring kindness to South Africa, inspiring people to do #OneKindThing for family, friends and even strangers. Visit Killarney Mall from the 29th September to the 20th of October to be a part of Hello Kitty’s Journey of Kindness.
For more information or to follow the journey, visit:
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloKittyLovesSouthAfrica
Instagram: https://instagram.com/hellokittysouthafrica/
Hashtag: #OneKindThing
