Editor’s Note:
Hey readers, we think you’re great! Today, November 13, is World Kindness Day, created in 1998 by charities who urged people to do at least one intentional act of kindness. At Goats and Soda, we wanted to learn more about kindness and how small acts can change lives — especially when cruelty, war and bad news dominate the headlines. Spoiler: small acts matter. Kindly stick with us as we explore kindness.
A biscuit that tasted like hope
In 2004, Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, then a 28-year-old neuro‑psychiatrist working in a chaotic Lagos emergency room, went more than 12 hours without food while treating accident victims. An elderly cleaner approached her with a small nylon bag containing a biscuit and a sachet of water and said, “Doctor, you need small strength to save people.” Kadiri says that biscuit “tasted like hope.” The cleaner’s kindness reminded her that healing isn’t only medicine but human connection. As a psychiatrist, she’s seen how people heal in relationships as much as in hospitals.
A life redirected
Huguette Diakabana had to drop out of school at age 10 because her family couldn’t afford fees while planning to emigrate from Zaire. She sat outside her classroom in her old uniform until the director invited her in. Years later she learned a school guard had secretly paid her fees. He told her to “help others when [she] could,” and she later launched a scholarship program. Diakabana now co‑founds a digital literacy nonprofit and credits that anonymous act with changing her life.
Kindness spreads
Dr. Junaid Nabi, a physician‑scientist at RAND and senior fellow at the Aspen Institute, likens kindness not to a trickle but to a stone making ripples. Studies show kindness spreads through social networks: when people are helped, they’re more likely to help others — one paper cited a roughly 25% increase in helping after receiving kindness. One noted example came from a 2012 morning in Winnipeg when customers in a drive‑through kept picking up the tab for the person behind them; the gesture passed through 226 customers. Researchers call this “social contagion”: helping can be driven by observing or receiving help.
What people say
The 2025 World Happiness Report, surveying people in 147 countries, found a simple pattern: doing something kind with no motive for gain made people feel better. Feeling cared for tends to make people want to care for others, creating positive feedback loops across communities and relationships.
Nature or nurture?
Where does kindness come from — innate temperament or learned behavior? Jeff R. Temple, a psychologist at UTHealth Houston, says kindness is central to healthy adolescent relationships. In school‑based programs such as the Fourth R curriculum, educators teach perspective‑taking, expressing care even during disagreement, and recognizing the impact of words and actions. These behavioral skills — essentially expressions of kindness — lead to healthier relationships and reduce bullying.
Everyday acts and community care
Kindness appears in many forms: individual acts and collective projects that reflect communal care. Women in Alausí, Ecuador, helped clear roads after a landslide, an altruistic act for the collective good. A neighbor in Kinama, Burundi, rescued a chicken that slipped from its owner’s hands, a small moment of mutual aid. In Bangkok, migrants exchanged a smile after an earthquake; in Puno, Peru, a boy returning from school teaches his younger brother — kindness as knowledge sharing. Volunteers dressed as princesses visit hospitalized children in Quito to bring joy. Treating stray animals kindly, as seen in a Bangkok neighborhood, speaks to residents’ shared humanity. These images of small but meaningful moments illustrate how kindness is woven into daily life across cultures.
Kindness changes the giver
Kindness doesn’t only help recipients; it transforms those who give. Nabi recalls the 2013 Savar building collapse in Bangladesh, where garment factories collapsed and thousands were trapped. As a Red Cross volunteer, he worked among survivors and dying workers. He describes performing CPR on those he knew would not survive and staying by their side when he could not save them. Witnessing workers embrace each other as concrete crushed them — a final act of human kindness — shattered his previous clinical callousness. Returning home, he listened differently and urged medical professionals to volunteer to practice compassion. For him, kindness meant showing up fully for someone else’s suffering and letting that experience change you.
A ripple effect, in practice
One person’s kindness can inspire others. Kadiri says when people receive kindness they “don’t just feel better, they become better,” often performing their own acts of kindness. Nabi notes the multiplier effect: your kindness influences a friend, who influences another, spreading care through social networks and strengthening communities.
Your turn
Readers: have you experienced a life‑changing moment because of an act of kindness? Share your story by emailing [email protected] — we may use it in a follow‑up story.
Credits
Special thanks to the photojournalists of The Everyday Projects for sharing images of kind moments. Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, India, reporting on global health, science and development. She has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets.
