DYM Project #14 - Random Acts of Kindness

Hey Guys, Shaha here. You might know me from Diary Girl or not. Anyways, on January 3rd we celebrated DYM's 0th Anniversary. You might be a little surprised by 0th? I mean, who celebrates 0th? Is that even a thing? Well now it is. Technically, we have been going on for months now, but we got registered on 12.12.12 and we just wanted to be nice.

Since we are such nice people and also because we have lately been very inspired by the acts of kindness going around the world, we decided to do a Maldivian version of it. This idea was mostly mine (seriously. -.-) and I was going to do it for my birthday, but then we decided this is the perfect time for it.

So, the core group (Nawaf, Shaam, Hoodh, Rish, Zubair, Nattu and I) decided on a big list of 33 activities (based on the date 3-1-2013) but then due to budget constraints and the small-ness of our team, we decided on 17 simple but very happy and nice things. After a gazillion meetings deciding on every little detail, lots of printing and going over logistics, we managed to do it. Here’s the big list.

1. Donated blood to Thalassemia Centre.

Shaam, Nawaf, Zubair and Hoodh were carrying out this meticulous and yet rewarding task (which as the first is such a wonderful thing) while I was being busy at office. They said it felt really good and that there were no casualties (except for Nawaf whom I heard was being all Nawaf-ish about it) and that it was meaningful and all that.

2. Gave juice boxes and cookies to construction workers

Again, it was the guys who did this. They went to a construction site and gave juice boxes and food to them, who were more than happy to receive a helping hand and they were all smiles. The guys said at the end that this felt the best.

3. Left a happy chalk message at Helipad area

On Friday morning, we woke up extremely early and after doing some other ARK’s, we headed to Helipad Area (joined by Azaan and Aru) and Zubair started to draw the Cyanide and Happiness inspired comic-message which he had thought of before. We helped by colouring in and this took a lot longer than we expected. After around three hours of burning in the sun and a dozen water bottles later, we were more than happy with how it turned out. The best thing is that it stayed for around three to four days, later to be destroyed by rain. I was very happy about it because I thought someone would destroy it. I guess my faith in Maldivians were restored by 2%.

4. Left hearts with nice messages on cars

I made the hearts that said “You are a wonderful person, don’t let anyone else tell you different!” and printed them on red paper. The guys and I went around in bikes and left them on random cars that we saw. We hope it brightened someone’s day!

5. Left smile tear off posters at random places

I have always been wanting to do a smile tear off and it was the most fun making them and posting them around the place. We sincerely hope that people took it and it meant something because if I were going down the road and saw something like that, it would totally make my day!

6. Gave happy pamphlets to people on the road

We made posters with inspiring quotes (one from Taylor Swift, who is my favourite artist obv) and gave it to people and even stuck them to walls and halls. Again, we hope that they got the message.

7. Gave balloons to kids at beach

We bought a bunch of balloons (thanks to Izu and Aru who paid for them and wouldn’t let us pay!) and then tied strings to them and we headed out to beach at the evening and gave them to little kids. The smiles on their faces were the most charming. We even played a few pranks on Nawaf which was also a lot of fun.

8. Gave popcorn to kids on the beach

Bought around ten bags of popcorn and gave them to ten kids who were very excited to receive them.

9. Gave three random strangers vouchers for jugo to go with a friend as an unbrithday present

Nattu, Shaam and I went around and picked three people at random and gave them the vouchers. This one girl and one guy was quite surprised and happy, while another girl was not too excited but we hope they went and had fun with their friend.

10. Gave free bus tickets to people.

This was so so much fun. Izu, Althaf, Iyad and I were on one bus where the conductor was really nice and let us pay the fair without asking too many questions. We met this very nice lady who was a teacher and she was very touched with it. I saw her on the bus the other day and she remembered me which shows that when you do a selfless act for a stranger, they will mostly remember it.

11. Gave free ferry tickets to people

We were enroute to IGMH on the bus and still had some money left so we headed to the Villigili Ferry terminal and bought tickets to give to people. One lady was rather paranoid and kept saying that one would never give free things without expecting something. I’m glad we proved her wrong. I being the Dory I am, forgot to video this, so Iyad was nice enough to buy some more tickets so we could video it. Thanks!

12. Gave apples to nurses at IGMH as appreciation for the work they do

This took a lot of courage because I am afraid of hospitals but being in the big cheer group made me feel good and while some nurses were again, rather “Maldivian” (I don’t know how else to describe this) about it, but overall we had a good time.

13. Sent a dessert to a couple at Symphony Solo

After all that, it was almost dark so we headed home and later that night met up at Symphony Solo to talk about the events. There were two couples, so we voted on which couple to give the dessert to and we chose Sizzling Chocolate Affair (which is our favourite dessert) and the waiters were really nice there as usual. The couple was rather surprised. The biggest surprise was the sweet message they left on our Facebook page, again showing that no kind act goes unnoticed.

14. Gave a big tip to our favourite waiter at Symphony Solo

DYM was sort of born in Symphony Solo and it is our usual hang out place (for obvious reasons) and so we decided to show them just how much we love them by giving a big tip.

15. Sent reloads to ten random numbers

Zubair and Rish sent reloads to random 10 numbers and from what I hear there were lots of questions.

So overall, it was so overwhelming in a good way and by the end we just felt awesome. I’d like to thank our team - Nawaf, Rish, Siyah, Iyya, Zubair, Shaam, Nattu and Hoodh - for organizing this whole thing detail by detail and for carrying it out despite minor setbacks. I’d also like to thank all the awesome volunteers - Izu, Iyad, Nasif, Althaf, Azaan and Aru - without whom we wouldn’t have pulled it off. You guys rock!

Stay awesome, stay kind.

DYM #12 - Random Acts of Kindness

~Shaha~