Kindness Trumps Xenophobia #AtoZChallenge #WATWB

How do you fight something with the potential for so much hatred as xenophobia (a prejudice against people of other countries) and religious discrimination? With knives and blades? No. You do it with simple gestures of kindness.

Across the world, millions of men, women and children do it everyday with simple acts. They showcase the ACTUAL best of their race and religion with genuine acts of compassion towards those in need.

Here are just 10 of them.

• The International Community School in Atlanta has been educating refugees from across the world for 15 years. Realizing how frightened new immigrant families would be in the post-Trump world, the local women gathered their children for a sign making party. The children and their moms made over 50 signs reassuring the new students they were loved and welcome to their community, which were placed across front yards all over.

• 'Rings of Peace' have been formed in places as diverse as Cameroon, France, Norway and Egypt where Muslims guard the churches while Christians pray and Christians guard the mosques while Muslims pray. The message is simple - do not allow hatred to win, even if it stems from our own people.

• When a man pulled into an auto repair shop asking for estimates for erasing racist graffiti done on his truck, the Collison Masters repair shop in Buffalo dropped everything they were doing and cleaned the car in just 30 minutes, refusing to take any money. It was their way of letting the man know that all folk from Buffalo were not like the racists.

• In much the same way, Gregory Locke entered a subway car to Manhattan to find everyone quiet, their faces covered with frowns as they stared at swastikas and racist graffiti on every window and wall. One man's suggestion that hand sanitizers and tissues might help galvanized the entire coach with strangers all across seeking out hand sanitizers and cleaning up the Nazi symbolism in just two minutes.

The organization Khalsa Aid follows the Sikh principle of "Recognise the whole human race as one". They are always at the forefront when it comes to humanitarian aid around the world, looking beyond religious beliefs and serving the downtrodden.

Life After Hate is a non-profit group that employs former neo-Nazis and white supremacists with one goal - to use their own experiences to help educate communities to give up extremist ideologies and choose love.

In Nathowal village near Ludhiana, Punjab the three major religious communities look to help each other instead of falling for the tumourous animosity engulfing the nation. The Sikh and Hindu communities helped repair the old mosque while Muslims and Hindus contribute to the gurudwara functioning as well.

When a Muslim couple on their way to the hospital to deliver a baby were forced to exit the taxi because the driver was worried the baby would be born inside his vehicle, female devotees from the Hindu Lord Ganesh temple in Wadala, Mumbai came forward and made a makeshift delivery room near the temple with sarees and bedsheets. The child was eventually delivered safely and nicknamed Ganesh after the Hindu God who 'was watching over them' in their time of need.

Even as the two Koreas have continued to be at war for seven decades now, a group of Korean men and women are looking to promote peace using a weapon present since centuries - music. The Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra recently performed in the Demilitarized Zone which forms the border between North and South Korea so that people across both borders could hear the music. Founder Hyung Joon Won aims to aid communication between the nations by building a bridge through his music, showing the two how alike they truly are.

In stark contrast to the religious hatred brewing around, the Sri Krishna Mutt in Udupi, Karnataka showcases a wonderful example of communal harmony every year during the Paryaya Mahothsava festival. Dating back to a tradition that began more than 110 years ago when Hindus and Muslims lived more harmoniously in India, a family of Muslims offer 'Hore Kanike' (a bundle of gifts) - a donation of oil and rice - to the Hindu temple to help feed the 50,000 devotees that throng there during this festival. Inspired by this, even the Christian community of the area has since joined in with food and aid.

Final thoughts:

I know that these random acts of kindness appear to be mere droplets against an ocean of hate. But it is one significant handful of hatred less. And as it did for all the recipients of love above, these acts mean the world to them. It restores their faith not just in humanity in general but more specifically, cultures and religions other than their own. That matters a lot in today's world.

I leave you with the soothing music of the Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra who played at the border between North Korea and South Korea, hoping to end the hatred between the two nations.

Author's note:

This is part of my #AtoZChallenge where I will be focusing on Real Life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion.

The list for this year's (2018) Heroes of Kindness can be found here.

Of course, I have been tracking these lovely human beings for years now and have found children as young as six years old and old women in their eighties from across the world who will restore your faith in humanity. You can find the entire list of Real-life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion here.

This post is ALSO part of the We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event to showcase stories of compassion. The hosts for this month are:  Shilpa Garg, Dan Antion, Simon Falk, Michelle Wallace , Mary Giese. The idea is to spread positivity and light to counterbalance the negativity and darkness in social media. You can check their pages to find the list of feel-good stories written by bloggers from around the world.