SINGAPORE — Mr Samuel Law Junkai’s grandmother suffers from dementia and depression, which means she gets mood swings and does not like to engage in activities.

But there was one occasion when she heard music, and she stood up and danced. And this surprised his family.

That incident inspired Mr Law, a 22-year-old national serviceman, to start his own ground-up movement, The Sound of Kindness, with Ms Lisa Tan Mei Yung, a 44-year-old senior assistant director at Yellow Ribbon Singapore.

Volunteers from the movement would visit the homes of people suffering from depression, dementia and stroke, among others, and play music using Soundbeam — a new piece of technology that captures people’s movements and turns them into sound.

Family members are roped in as well.

Mr Law said: “People can forget a lot of things but music is the last thing that they will forget.” Music, he added, helps people regain positive memories from their past and lift their spirits.

The Sound of Kindness was one of 14 ground-up movements that on Friday (May 21) were inducted into the Singapore Kindness Movement’s (SKM) Kindred Spirit Circle for their efforts towards building a nation of kindness.

Held via Zoom, the induction ceremony was held as part of the Kindness Day SG 2021 celebrations.

Another inductee was Penpals in the Community, a movement that connects volunteers with senior citizens through letters.

It was started by Ms Valerie Ho, a 28-year-old market analyst who enjoys writing letters to her friends through snail mail.

She started the movement last September after realising how seniors were struggling during the circuit breaker period as they were not able to leave their homes to engage in activities that they previously used to do.

Ms Ho worked with various senior activity and eldercare centres and other ground-up initiatives and paired elderly with youth penpals recruited via the initiative’s Instagram page @penpalsinthecomm.

Before Singapore entered Phase Two (heightened alert) on May 16, Ms Ho also organised physical meet-ups and video calls for the penpals to get to know one another.

She said: “I hope that this also encourages youths to start such conversations with their own elderly family members as well.”

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong, the guest-of-honour at the induction ceremony, said the events of the past year have shown the importance of “showing up for one another, extending understanding and compassion, and to be united by a common purpose”.

He added: “Let's remind ourselves that kindness is a mindset and ethos by which we live. And this must be something that we do each day – every day.”