Concert for kindness this evening

Friday is World Kindness Day, and the NGO Kids in Need of Direction (KIND) wants to spread kindness around TT with a free concert.

It will feature, among others, Denyse Plummer, Freetown Collective, 3canal, and DJ private Ryan on Synergy TV.

Karina Jardine-Scott, chairman of KIND, told Newsday in an interview on November 9: “We are trying to flood the country with love, light and kindness. TT and the rest of the world is going through a difficult time because of covid19, we want to remind people of how good life can be.”

Established in 1996, KIND runs a literacy programme to help children struggling to read learn to read at their age level.

This year, before covid19 hit and schools went into lockdown, Kind held a two-part programme for students. In the first part they learned mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing and relaxation techniques and in the other half, they were taught leadership skills.

When the lockdown began, KIND switched its teaching facilities into a food distribution service, delivering 5,500 food packages worth $2 million to 18,000 beneficiaries. KIND is still distributing food to 22 communities in Trinidad to areas such as Cedros, Moruga, Paramin, Maracas , Las Cuevas, Carenage, St Augustine, St Ann’s and Cascade.

To make the donations, KIND partnered with the Foundation for the Enhancement and Enrichment of Life (Feel), Living Water, Paradise Women’s Clubs, Raffa House, the Loveuntil Foundation, Rainbow Rescue, Credo Foundation for Justice and the Cascade Council.

The KIND team gave out 25-50 hampers per week to individuals, and had bulk donations in which a group would package items for 200-1,000 people.

It also delivered uncooked food to be prepared for meals on wheels including the Abercrombie Kitchen.

For last year’s World Kindness Day, KIND had a concert at Napa in which 137 people, mostly students between four and 21, performed different genres of music, danced and performed spoken word poetry.

Jardine-Scott said, “Because of covid, we decided to do our first virtual benefit concert...The goal of the concert is to create a public awareness of what KIND is doing. Flood the country with love and kindness, and celebrate TT, being here and enjoying our family.”

The concert, on Friday night, will be shown live on Synergy TV from 8-10 pm. It will also be streamed online via Synergy’s Facebook and Instagram pages as well as KIND’s digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook at Kids In Need of Direction – KIND and Instagram at Kind_tt.

Hosted by Errol Fabien and Nikki Crosby, the show will feature 25 artists, among them John Thomas, Germaine Scott, Kristin Lee, Gary Hector, author Aliya Blake, sisters Adia and Aniya Noray, Garvin Sampson, Larry Edgehill and singers Wendy Sheppard and Raymond Edwards.

“Their voices (Sheppard and Edwards) are angelic, every time I listen to them I get goosebumps. The two of them…We want older people to listen. The music is suited to all different people,” Jardine-Scott said.

Earlier on World Kindness Day, from 6 am KIND will release videos with empowerment messaging such as videos from its e-learning platform, videos about plant food, on mindfulness, digital transformation, digital learning and reskilling for the future.

“There are so many people who have it so much worse than we do. We want to encourage people to do an act of random kindness, and post it on social media and say, 'I choose to be kind.'”

Jardine-Scott is asking people use the hashtags #TTbeKind or #IChooseToBeKind.

People wishing to make a donation to KIND can call 626-5810, 494-5046 and 494-5079, e-mail marketing@kindkid.org or info@kindkid.org, send a message on the website kindkid.org or through Instagram or Facebook.

“KIND has helped over 72,000 beneficiaries over the years," Jardine-Scott said. "We are asking for support to continue the work we do.”