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:

Retired after 35 years in the German Navy, Freddie Wieczorek was driving his wife nuts at home, constantly bickering, changing tv channels and wondering whether it was lunch time yet. Annoyed, his wife gave him two options - get a part time job or a divorce! (She probably takes credit for her husband's fame now, I imagine.)

Wieczorek eventually got a job as a security guard at Walt Disney World in Florida. While his main job involved checking the bags of people entering Magic Kingdom, it was the small booklet he carried with him that got noticed by an observer who snapped a very telling picture.

You see, in a twist on the classic tradition where kids go around asking for autographs and pictures with their favourite Disney characters, Wieczorek would walk around looking for children who had come to Disneyland in costume. Fred would then whip out his autograph book and ask them for their signature, gushing over his good fortune on meeting 'a famed Disney prince/princess'.



The picture that went viral in 2008 shows 5 year old Alli Bunchuk in her favourite princess gown, signing Wieczorek’s book. Alli's grandmother, Barbara remembers the day well.

In less than 5 years, Wieczorek collected over 1400 signatures from gushing children visiting Disneyland.

Author's note:

Millie and Matt did not have the best start to their wedding week. Millie - who loves baking - had painstakingly made her own 3-tiered dream cake for her wedding and the couple had driven down carefully to the venue the previous day only to find to their horror that the cake had fallen to pieces in the trunk of the car. While her fiance was devastated, Millie was more calm outwardly though she watched sadly as the hotel took the smashed cake away, promising to have an alternative cake ready for her wedding.

Which is why the couple were gobsmacked the next morning when they found themselves staring at the exact replica of Millie's cake for the wedding ceremony.

Millie's cake angel turned out to be  Clare Vaz of Patty’s Piece of Cake bakery.

The couple on their wedding day with 'The Cake'

Clare Vaz had gone to the hotel to drop off some cupcakes when she heard of the bride's fallen cake. Clare took it upon herself to try to help the bride have her dream cake and so began repairing it segment by segment. As luck would have it, she had an extra cake with her which she used for the smashed middle tier of the original cake, retaining the rest before crumb-coating once more and re-covering it with white cream.

She spent the whole day and a large part of the next, ensuring it was as close to what the original looked like. The best part? She had never even met the bride or groom about it. She had never spoken to them. She just did it because she wanted this couple she had never met to have a happy wedding. She did not even take money from them.

When did you find out about Clare Vaz's gesture?

I was disappointed that the cake may not be salvageable as I had spent days making and decorating it. But I was marrying the man of my dreams so it seemed trivial to get upset about the cake.
It wasn't until the next day, which was the morning of my wedding that I found out what Clare had done. As I was getting ready in my bridal suite, my sister came upstairs with her phone in hand and showed me a picture of the cake. It looked exactly like how I had decorated. She then went on to tell me what had happened.

One of the hotels chefs was married to a cake baker. She just so happened to be delivering some cupcakes to the venue the day before the wedding for another function and heard about my cake.
She took no hesitation in grabbing the cake, ordering a taxi to take her back to her home and spent her evening fixing up the cake and delivered it back to the venue in time for our wedding.

I saw a picture of the cake which had fallen apart. Yikes! Did you imagine it would be salvageable at that point of time?

When I saw the cake, I thought it wouldn't be salvageable. It was a mess, with buttercream and icing all over the place. I thought it would've held up okay as I had inserted cake dowelling in each layer with a sturdy base for each. Hitting traffic on one of the hottest days of the year just melted the buttercream and left the top two tiers in a big heap.

The original cake, the fallen cake and the dream cake remade!

My husband was most devastated as he was driving, and he had seen me take all that time decorating the cake. He obviously knows me as the "worrier" and I think he probably felt I would've reacted differently. But I was cool as a cucumber.

Have you and Clare stayed in touch since the wedding?

After the wedding, I didn't actually know the name of the baker who saved our day, nor did I know how I could contact her. Luckily, while looking on my Facebook timeline the day after I noticed a picture of our cake on Clare's business Facebook page.

I was rushed off to our honeymoon so I didn't get a chance to meet Clare in person. Instead, I messaged her and thanked her absolutely lovely gesture. We had been asked by the hotel to pay a fee of £60 for the repair of the cake which we ensured was paid directly to Clare for all of her hard work. When we got back from our honeymoon, we had a handwritten envelope waiting for us from Clare with a lovely card and the £60. She said she wouldn't accept the money, and was just so grateful to have been a part of our special day.

Is there a special message you and your husband would like to tell Clare?

Most little girls dream of how perfect their wedding day will be, they plan every detail over and over again as they envisage moments of their day. Then they meet the perfect partner that they want to share it with, and lets be honest... the details tend to stay the same because the men just want them to be happy. And then we grow up we learn that life isn't all rainbows and fairy-tales.

Sitting here now, I can honestly say that with all things considered, our wedding day was perfect and I wouldn't change it for the world. You hear about these "random acts of kindness" in movies but you never imagine that it'll happen to you.

From our conversations I can tell that Clare is an amazing, proud and loving mother to her beautiful children, she runs a busy business that she is so incredibly passionate about and she puts her all into everything she does. She truly is one of the best of humanity. Clare put aside her busy life and an evening of family time because she wanted me, a complete stranger to have a perfect wedding day.

Just talking to Clare, you know she is the kind of person that would do anything for anyone. We are blessed that we could be some of those people. ❤

"Leave it if you don't need!
Take it if you need!
Clothes, books, toys, shoes,
chappals, other useable items"

These words are painted on the brightly coloured wall of no less than the Collecterate in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, India.



The Tirunelveli 'Wall of Kindness' is an initiative of Sandeep Nanduri, the Tiruneliveli Collector, who realized that the Collectorate was a place where lots of people come and so ideal to raise awareness as well as get help for the poor and needy.



The vibrant art on the wall of this prominent government building is immediately eye-catching even from a distance but it is the added touches that complete the portrait of compassion. Shelves for books and toys are attached to the wall and cloth pegs hang from it, allowing people to deposit or browse through the items there in an orderly manner.
The response to this initiative has been hugely positive with many coming forward to donate and many more gratefully accepting these items.

Final thoughts:

The original concept of a 'Wall of Kindness' can be traced back to Iran in 2015 and has been replicated across many countries around the world since.



In India, similar concepts of walls of kindness have been started in Hyderabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhopal and Delhi.



Think about it. What is really stopping us from having a 'Wall of Kindness' in every city and town in our country? Our cynicism about how our fellow countrymen will swindle the times we donate? When the concept of a Wall of Kindness is succeeding worldwide and even in various corners of India, what is stopping us?

Authors note:

At 21, Nikita Shukla was a third year college student studying to be a lawyer at the Government Law College in Mumbai, India. But her story was not an ordinary one. The suffering she had faced to study this far was something quite unimaginable.

You see, Nikita is blind. Keeping this in mind, her parents did not wish for her to continue her studies after she had completed high school. When she resisted their attempts to get her married, the blind girl was forced to leave her own house by her parents.

While her friends persuaded her to stay, their small donations helped pay for her accomodation at a hostel. Aided by compassionate professors and small scholarships, Nikita was barely surviving. What was worse, she did not have any money for food and was dependent on 20 free meals provided by the hostel mess. Yes, the college student who was getting 80% in her exams was surviving on less than one meal a day.

Nikita Shukla was overjoyed when she won a prize after calling Mumbai Masala, a show on a local radio channel, Radio City 91.1. It was when she went to the radio station to collect her prize that she got to meet the radio jockey, Sucharita Tyagi.

When she realized the plight of the prize winner in front of her, Sucharita was determined to do more. She took to Twitter and highlighted Nikita's story, asking for help. Sucharita's use of social media for good paid off in spades.

Thanks to the donations that poured in from strangers, enough money was raised in no time so that not just that Nikita's tuition and hostel fees but also her entire canteen fees were covered, ensuring the blind lawyer-to-be (who broke down in tears when she realized what had happened) would finally get three whole meals a day.

I love how so many came forward in such a short time to help Nikita. Did you expect that?

I definitely expected to raise enough money to help Nikita out immediately, to cover her tuition and canteen fee. But I had no idea the campaign will blow up the way it did on twitter. Lakhs and Lakhs just poured in overnight.

Many today are disillusioned seeing the negativity on Twitter and Facebook. Your initiative stood out for me as a rare instance of using it for a selfless positive cause. Do you have any advice for others on making a positive difference on this tricky social media terrain?

You do anything with the honest truth in your heart, people will take note. If you want to make a change, you really have to believe in it. Twitter lets your voice be heard globally, and there is nothing more powerful than that.

You're certainly a Hero of Kindness in this form. Now show us the regular 'everyday human' alter ego of Sucharita Tyagi. What/who are your favourites when it comes to:

    1. Hobbies - Sleeping, eating, reading online (in that order)
    2. Movies - All of them, except horror and gore.
    3. TV shows - Whatever catches my fancy on Netflix to be honest. Currently obsessed with Shark Tank (Super weird I know.)
    4. Books - The Harry Potter series.
    5. Real life Personality - All the friends I've chosen to keep.
    6. Celebrity - All the ladies I follow on twitter. Find out @su4ita
    7. Food - Man I love food ! I can eat all day, everyday. Except pumpkin. I hate pumpkin.




To this day, Sucharita Tyagi still stays in touch with Nikita Shukla. You can follow the viral twitter thread that changed Nikita's life here.

Author's note:

Bethany Chambers' mother, Melissa called her school one morning with a request - she was hoping they could give Bethany's diploma to her three months in advance. If the request was unusual, the reason behind it was heartbreaking.

Bethany's father, Bob Chambers' had received a bone marrow transplant for leukemia earlier but had now found that the transplant was rejected by his body. With no more medical options left, Bob took the hard decision of choosing quality over quantity and leaving the hospital to stay at home with his family for what little time he had. Bob had always been involved with his daughter's education and it was crushing her heart to think he would not live to see her hold her diploma.

"When I found out that he wasn't going to make it to my graduation, it was kind of crushing because him and I are best friends, so it was like I'm going miss out on all of this stuff that we're not going to be able to do together anymore," Bethany, 18, said.

On understanding the reason why, the authorities at Rockford Public School held a quick meeting and decided they would do one better. A few hours later, the superintendent called Melissa with a counter offer. "We are going to do a full graduation at your house. How does 7 pm tonight sound?"




Within hours, the school board arranged everything, getting Bethany a cap and gown and setting up a table with her diploma and academic award plaque in front of her dad's bed so that he could see it. Everyone who mattered from the school attended the graduation - the Principal, superintendent, members of the school board, tennis coaches, counselors. They even had the iPad set up to allow Bob's 95 year old grandmother to watch the ceremony since she lived elsewhere.






Thanks to the extraordinary measures taken by the Rockford Public School for their student, Bob Chambers and his daughter got to share one last memorable event together before he passed away.


(Fair warning: Keep a kerchief nearby)

Quentin Love has not had an easy life. Coming from a broken home on the mean streets of South Shore, Austin, he had been on the wrong side of the law influenced by gangs and drugs. He has risen and fallen numerous times. Which is why his turnaround is all the more inspiring.

Having gotten out of the gangs and later honorably discharged from the Marines, Quentin struggled with various ventures including running barber shops and dry cleaners. It was when he finally decided to give back to his community that his life began to turn around. Wanting to offer a healthier option, he started his first eatery in 2001, alongside his charity, The Love Foundation. Again, success was fleeting for over a decade. Determined to make a change and focus on giving rather than succeeding, Quentin changed things up again.







From 2013, his restaurant, The Turkey Chop Grill, would close for the paying public every Monday and only offer free food to those in need. He served elaborate meals - baked chicken, mac and cheese, spaghetti, red beans, rice and greens - to over 1000 poor people every day from his own pockets, giving over 60,000 meals in two years.

Money, however remained an issue with such kindness and so, Quentin took a gamble and appeared on celebrity chef Guy Fieri's show 'Grocery Games'. The special edition show had veterans from four military branches in a cook-off. Quentin won. His concept of focusing on giving rather than winning had finally paid off.

True to nature, Quentin has invested his winnings back in feeding the poor. From 1000 a day, he successfully fed 2000 for Thanksgiving that year. Even today, in Chicago, Quentin Love keeps the Turkey Chop Grill running, feeding healthy tasty food to everyone 6 days of the week and exclusively to the poor and homeless on Mondays.