Our amazing founder, Jaime, spoke to The Guardian and The Week Junior about the importance of kindness, dealing with unkindness, our national Kindness Awards and why what we all do matters. It’s great to see so much kindness in the press!
Speaking to Rhiannon Evans at The Guardian, Jaime explained that kindness is the most important thing we can teach children. She said: “Kindness doesn’t just benefit the person we’re kind to, it has a positive impact on our own physical and mental wellbeing. Kindness can be a simple but powerful way to help children feel calmer and happier.”
Jaime also spoke about why people might be unkind. Maybe they feel sad, or angry, or maybe they don’t have many friends and don’t experience much kindness themselves. She added: “People who are happy and confident don’t tend to be mean.”
She also explained how kindness is contagious – if we’re nice to just one person, that kind act can positively affect up to 125 people! That’s because the person you’re kind to feels happier, and they are more likely to be kind, and so on.
Plus, Jaime featured in The Week Junior! The story explained how 52 Lives started 12 years ago after Jaime talked to a woman who needed a rug to cover a damaged floor. Jaime said: “The woman was overwhelmed that all these people she didn’t know cared about her.”
From there, she set up 52 Lives, and started out helping 52 people a year, or one every week. But now, 52 Lives connects wonderful, kind people with more than 3,000 others who are in need of help every year.
She explained how practising empathy is important for our and others’ wellbeing. Jaime said: “Learn as much as you can about the cause you care about or the people you want to help.”
Download some of our free teaching resources to help teach children about the importance of kindness, the science of kindness and the impact it has on our physical and mental health.
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