Portsmouth residents encouraged to celebrate acts of kindness in bid to become Britain's kindest city

CELEBRATING generous acts will help the community ‘rediscover kindness’ and could see Portsmouth named Britain’s kindest city.
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Tales of neighbours helping each other, children raising charity funds and businesses donating free food have boosted residents throughout the last few months - with a new movement set to recognise people’s goodwill.

#KIND20 is an online competition launched by the TUFF Earth charity to promote the spread of thoughtful acts to raise spirits in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, featuring 70 cities including Portsmouth.

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Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, councillor Rob Wood is keen to see the city celebrate kindness, having seen the sheer quantity of volunteers who came forward to help Portsmouth Hive, which has been supporting residents through Covid-19.

Justina Haddigan donates gift boxes to teachers in schools across the area, including Craneswater Junior SchoolJustina Haddigan donates gift boxes to teachers in schools across the area, including Craneswater Junior School
Justina Haddigan donates gift boxes to teachers in schools across the area, including Craneswater Junior School

Cllr Wood said: ‘We have been through quite a difficult time and we’re all anxious at this present time. I think celebrating kindness is a good way to remember who we are, rediscover our humanity and reconnect with people.

‘We’re an island so we live cheek by jowl, so I think during this period of time if you look how well we have done, we were so good in the lockdown.

‘We have such densely packed neighbours and we respected each other and there were lots of acts of kindness in the community. People just need to rediscover kindness.’

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For the six-month campaign which starts on Wednesday, #KIND20 is inviting people from every UK city to send in their thanks for any act of kindness in their community by creating a post on the #KIND20 social media pages.

Posts are encouraged to be photos and videos showing experiences of kindness and expressing what kindness means to each individual, and nominating three others to do the same’.

#KIND20 will keep a running total of the posts and will publish a monthly league of each city's number of good deeds, with the final count published at the start of January 2021.

At the end of the year, the number of posts will be totalled, taking population size into account, and the name of Britain's Kindest City will be announced and an award presented to the winner.

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Community volunteer Justina Haddigan is confident that Portsmouth has what it takes, due to the immense kindness and generosity she has seen during lockdown.

Southsea resident Justina said: ‘I found at the beginning of lockdown a lot of people that I knew just felt helpless and couldn’t do anything - for me, it was “how can I help?”.

‘Everybody had to come together by keeping apart and everyone became so much more friendly. We're all in this together and all have to do our bit.

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‘We’re a kind city and we are very underestimated. I didn’t realise how much I loved living in Portsmouth until lockdown came - everybody pulled together and I really did get to see it as a really beautiful place.’

For more information about #KIND20, or to nominate a kind act, visit facebook.com/pg/tuff.earth

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