Cartoon Characters Shave Their Heads To Show Kids With Cancer That Bald Is Beautiful

Snoopy never looked so cool.

The Peanuts' pooch and other animated characters shaved their heads to show kids who have lost hair to chemotherapy that they are not alone.

The solidarity haircuts emerged from a partnership with the Brazilian cancer charity and hospital operator, GRAACC, as part of a cancer awareness drive in Brazil. Garfield, Olive Oyl and characters from "Adventure Time" and "Rio 2" also sheared their locks for the project.

"I think it will be more normal to see a bald child because everyone will see on TV," a young girl says after watching the cartoons in a moving video about the project. In another interview, a boy says that he will no longer be ashamed to take off his hat.

"Famous cartoons from all over the world have gone bald, sending out the message that a child with cancer deserves to be seen just like any other child," the Bald Cartoons homepage states.

A few characters appeared with their heads shaved last November, but the campaign was expanded to include 40 characters for a cancer awareness week, Ogilvy Brasil, the agency behind the campaign, wrote in a release.

"We want to reduce all prejudice around the disease," the agency's Roberto Fernandez said.

"The Kindness Project in the Middle East"

People Disguised As Homeless Ignored By Loved Ones On Street In Stunning Social Experiment

If a family member posed as a homeless person, would you recognize him or her?

That's the question a new campaign -- Make Them Visible -- is asking. In a video produced by ad agency Silver + Partners and Smuggler for the New York City Rescue Mission, several people come face-to-face with their relatives and significant others dressed as homeless people. However, not a single participant recognizes their mother, brother or wife.

"There’s only one person that didn’t make it into the film -- because they couldn’t handle the fact that they walked by their family," video director Jun Diaz of Smuggler production company told Fast Company. "It happened every time."

The jarring social experiment, staged in Tribeca and Soho near the mission's shelter, shows just how invisible homeless people are to pedestrians on the street.

"We don't look at them. We don't take a second look," Michelle Tolson, director of public relations for the New York City Rescue Mission, told The Huffington Post.

Tolson explained that the ad agency and production company hired actors for a documentary video and quietly contacted each person's family to see if they would be interested in being apart of the social experiment. While the family members were in on the ruse, the participants had no idea they were being set up, and only learned after the fact when they watched themselves walk past their "homeless" family member.

"The experiment is a powerful reminder that the homeless are people, just like us, with one exception," Craig Mayes, executive director of New York City Rescue Mission, said in a statement provided to HuffPost. "They are in trouble and in pain. And they are someone's uncle or cousin or wife."

Watch how each person reacts after the big reveal in Make Them Visible's video below.

"The Kindness Project in the Middle East"

What happens when an Elephant looks in the mirror?!

Elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror, joining only humans, apes and dolphins as animals that possess this kind of self-awareness, researchers now report.

"This would seem to be a trait common to and independently evolved by animals with large, complex brains, complex social lives and known capacities for empathy and altruism, even though the animals all have very different kinds of brains," researcher Diana Reiss, a senior cognitive research scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society in Brooklyn, N.Y., told LiveScience.

Hopefully, she added, this will encourage people to protect elephants.

Take a look at the following clip from “Through The Wormhole” and you’ll see what I mean! Please SHARE with others!

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

Support pours in for mom accused of leaving kids in hot car

Her tears have struck a chord.

More than $100,000 has been pledged to help a single mother from Arizona who was arrested last month after allegedly leaving her 2-year-old and 6-month-old sons alone in a hot car while she went on a job interview because she was unable to find a babysitter.

The mother, Shanesha Taylor, 35, was charged with two counts of child abuse. She has pleaded not guilty and was released on bail posted by a stranger, her lawyer told TODAY.com Wednesday. Her two boys are now in state care. 

Her tearful mug shot has brought attention to issues facing the nation’s poor and unemployed, especially single mothers.

Amanda Bishop, a New Jersey woman who does not know Taylor, felt compelled to help. She launched an online fundraising campaign in support of Taylor, with pledges now totaling more than $102,000.

“There are some of us that feel that Shanesha was in an unfortunate situation that sadly an economy like ours is putting many single mothers in a position to make terrible mistakes like this,” the fundraising site says.

Bishop, 24, told MSNBC's Tamron Hall that she launched the fundraising campaign after viewing Taylor’s Facebook page and finding nothing but posts and pictures featuring Taylor’s kids. “That convinced me she wasn’t a bad mom, she just made a terrible mistake,” Bishop said.

She faces a maximum penalty of more than 8 years in prison, according to her lawyer, Benjamin Taylor, who is not related.

“This is a single mom who was trying to get a job, and unfortunately she was arrested for trying to get a job,” he said, adding that he plans to meet with prosecutors on Friday. “She wasn’t going to a liquor store. She wasn’t going to a party. She was going to a job interview.”

“This is a case where you have a single mom who’s doing her best, who’s trying to survive out here in the world,” he said, adding that it was her first criminal offense.

On Tuesday, he gave prosecutors more than 12,000 signatures on a petition supporting the desperate mom and also relayed her thanks by reading out loud a letter she wrote.

"The love, compassion and support of those of you around the world are nothing less than phenomenal,” her lawyer said. “I read all of your cards, emails and letters. They keep my spirits up. And your prayers brighten my darkest days. I read a message the other day that reminded me … it takes a village to raise a child. Thank you all for being my village."

"The Kindness Project in the Middle East"

5 things I learned from kind people

In my 30 plus years on this planet, I met lot of people from different background and diverse religions, ethnicity, color, etc. And from those thousands hundreds that passed throughout my life, there were the deluded kind ones that had self-interested politeness, calculated generosity and superficial etiquette. There were the kind people who pretend to care for someone all the while repressing anger or contempt; hiding rage or frustration behind false pleasantries. And lastly, there were the simply nice people, selfless and waiting nothing in return for their kindness.

5 things I learned from the selfless kind people I encountered in my life:

1. Be kind to myself. In order to be kind to others, I had to focus on being kind to myself and having the ability to know myself better. Because when the basic of a building is not solid enough, the building will eventually fall apart. Same thing applies for kindness: when you are not kind to yourself, your kindness to others risks falling and you become deluded self-interested and superficial person.

2. Be happy,  joyful, and grateful. People living in the Middle East - precisely - experienced lot of cruelty, challenges and despair, but they - continuously - restored their sense of faith in humanity. I learned to maintain an optimistic attitude and do acts of kindness with genuine joy and cheerfulness rather than with reluctance or out of a sense of duty or service.

3. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle". I learned that it's so easy to forget about other people's feelings and battles. Therefore, I needed to think before committing any act or saying any word, and calculate the impact it has on others. 

4. Expand my circle of kindness. It can be very easy to be kind to family and friends or people from same background and same country. I learned not to do selective kindness, and be kind to everyone: the sick, the poor, the vulnerable, the rich, the ones who have everything, the ones I dislike etc.

5. Expect nothing in return. Princess Diana said: “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” I learned that practicing a random acts of kindness is contagious and when I carry out one act of kindness, someone might be kind to me someday. And that's when I decided to start "The Kindness Project in the Middle East" and spread kindness everywhere. 

And now I just want to be the kind of person that kind people like and want to be like.

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

'My best friend took a knife for me'

Two teens who helped treat friends wounded in a massive school stabbing at their Pennsylvania high school said they remain stunned Thursday by the rampage they witnessed.

“I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night because I’m so traumatized,” Gracey Evans told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie.

The 17-year-old junior watched as a classmate began stabbing people around her in the halls of their suburban Pittsburgh school just moments before class started Wednesday. Evans said her best friend jumped in front of her right as the stabbing suspect approached.

“I was just so scared and I didn’t know what to do. All I could really think about was, did this just really happen?” Evans said, “Like, I couldn’t believe that my best friend just took a knife for me. I could tell you exactly how much blood was on that knife. It’s just too scary.”

Authorities have taken 16-year-old Alex Hribal into custody for the attack. They say the teen stabbed 20 fellow students and a security guard at Franklin Regional Senior High School before he was apprehended.

Kristen Beard, 16, lived down the street from Hribal but said the two didn’t interact much.
“He was always very quiet and I would have never expected anything from him like this,” she told Guthrie. “He was just quiet.”

Beard witnessed her prom date get stabbed in the attack. She helped pull him into a nearby classroom for safety and attended to his wounds while keeping him as calm as possible until help arrived.

“I was just holding his hand and rubbing his hand and trying to assure him it was going to be okay, and that we were going to prom and that he was going to be okay,” she said.
Beard was in the same room as Evans, who was applying pressure on a gaping wound of a seriously injured classmate.
“I actually had no idea how to do any of that. I just had a gut feeling that it wasn’t right for him to sit up and that he needed his airway cleared so I sat him down,” Beard said. “I said I needed to put pressure on the wounds so I got paper towels and I put pressure on the wound.”

She said the boy then started vomiting but an emergency medic had entered the room by then and asked her to move.

Authorities say Hribal will be charged as an adult. He faces four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. His attorney, Pat Thomassey, said Hribal needs to be seen by a psychiatrist to determine whether the teen is mentally fit to stand trial.

“This is a nice young man. He’s never been in trouble,” Thomassey said. “He’s not a loner. He works well with other kids at school.”

The boy's father, Harold Hribal, made a short statement outside of his home to reporters Wednesday.

"My prayers go out to everyone who was injured today and I hope they recover as quickly as possible," he said.

It's not clear yet if Hribal suffered from bullying or no, but school violence is becoming outrageous, and we have to remind our students of kindness, of tolerance and understanding, and demonstrates how we must be willing to give in order to receive, whilst fostering the good values that helps build the self esteem, respect, compassion, generosity, commitment, resilience, honesty, confidence, love, gratitude and sense of belonging that helps avoid the “it’s all about me” virus and destructive mindset that can manifest in teenage years.

To become a KP School, please email us at: mea.kindness@gmail.com

By Heidi Shebaro

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and

a blogger

This 3 Minute Video Made Me Cry, And I Never Cry. Must See For Everyone

This is really worthwhile to watch for everyone, and I hope that you SHARE it after watching. The message in this video is extremely powerful. If only more people acted this way, the world would be a much better place. 

What are you waiting for? Do an act of kindness today!

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

Fuck the Poor!

A must see video about a man who walks the streets of London shouting #FuckThePoor, a social experiment to see whether we really do care about those less fortunate. And see what happens when he says "Help the Poor"...

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

Facebook Friends Help Diagnose A 3-Year-Old With Eye Disease

Like most parents, Tara Taylor posted a picture of her 3-year-old daughter Rylee on Facebook to show friends. She was proud because her daughter had fixed her own hair like a princess. Taylor had no idea how that picture would end up helping her child.

In the picture Rylee’s left eye was glowing.

While most people would have thought it was caused by the flash, two of Taylor’s friends told her there might be something wrong with her eye.

“They said ‘Hey, I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s probably the lighting, but your daughter’s eye is glowing and you might want to have it checked out because it’s a sign there could be an issue with her eye,’” said Taylor.

Rylee was taken to her pediatrician and later to a retina specialist with Baptist Eye Clinic.

She was diagnosed with Coat’s disease, a rare condition that causes vision loss or blindness in one eye.

Dr. Jorge Calzada with the Charles Retina Institute and Baptist Eye Clinic said the earlier they can treat children, the better.

“The significant problem we have with children is that a child won’t say, ‘Mommy, I can’t see out of my right eye.’ It is usually caught in an expected way. When a child recognizes he cannot see or the parent recognizes they cannot see, it’s often because they’ve lost vision in both eyes,” said Dr. Calzada.

Taylor said she had no indication her daughter was having any trouble seeing.

In fact, she says it was quite the opposite.

“She didn’t sit close to the TV. She is actually in gymnastics and can walk on the balance beam,” said Taylor.

She’s grateful to the friends who pointed out the problem.

Baptist received a $550,000 grant from the Baptist Memorial Health Care foundation to open its ‘state of the art’ eye clinic at the Women’s Hospital.

The eye clinic treats children and even premature babies.

Another time, technology and Facebook - precisely - help people save lives. While some may tease parents for flooding social media with boastful posts about their child, some cases do prove that sharing really is caring.

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

'Everyone Matters Day' campaign

"I wanted to be less judgmental."

That simple sentiment was the impetus behind Everyone Matters -- a global awareness campaign which advocates for every person's right to dignity and respect, without judgment or shame. According to the campaign's website, founder HealthCliff Rothman's personal journey to becoming "a better person," morphed into a worldwide movement, bringing together local governments, celebrities and the public at large in order to help people embrace inclusiveness and tolerance.

Wednesday marked the first Everyone Matters Day and it's aimed at amplifying the message that the bullying and mistreatment of certain people because of their differences is not acceptable.

"Everyone Matters is about everybody’s value, that we all count, that we all should stand tall for who we are, as we are," Rothman told The Huffington Post in an email. "It’s about judging each other less, and ourselves less."

Find out how you can get involved here, and check out some of the celebrity supporters below, who each penned a slogan of "inclusiveness, pride in identity or tolerance."

Appreciating others and ourselves as we are is a very important matter to have a better world. Kindness is like a magnet for all the good things in this life. 

By Heidi Shebaro Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

First-Of-Its-Kind Hotel Will Train, Employ People With Disabilities

Jeff Huffman could no longer sit by and watch his son with Down syndrome get repeatedly denied employment opportunities. So, he decided to develop a job that had never before existed.

Huffman volunteers with the Arc of Indiana, an organization that empowers people with developmental disabilities. When the concerned dad proposed that the organization start a program that trains its clients to work in the hospitality industry, it enthusiastically accepted the challenge, according to the nonprofit’s blog.

The organization decided to build a Courtyard by Marriott unlike any other hotel in the hospitality industry, the Star Press reported.

The Muncie, Ind., hotel -- which is slated to open in the summer of 2015 -- will train people with disabilities, and will then give them a chance to apply those skills by working at the hotel. The venue expects that at least 20 percent of the jobs will be filled by people with a range of disabilities, according to the Disability Scoop.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. for people with disabilities in February was 16.8 percent -- more than double the rate for people without disabilities, according to the Department of Labor.

Considering that the hospitality industry added 80,000 jobs last year, and demands a wide range of skills, the Arc of Indiana thought this would be the ideal area to try and create work opportunities for its clients.

"As far as the typical guest experience, this Courtyard will be no different," Sally Morris of the Arc of Indiana told the Disability Scoop. "That said, this hotel will not just meet ADA standards, it will exceed them. Every decision we are making is meant to enhance the guest experience for all of our guests."

“A simple act of kindness the size of a rice grain can weigh as heavy as a mountain.”

― Feroz Bham

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger

Tell Random People That They're Beautiful

Internet prankster and online personality Andrew Hales (aka LAHWF) has a very special message he wants to relay to people: you're beautiful!

At least that's the premise of his latest uplifting and hilarious work where he compliments random people on the University of Utah campus.

The prank was done in collaboration with Break.com for Prank It Fwd, a project that has $1 donated to non-profit Do Something for every 1,000 views during the month of April. So watch, laugh and know you're helping to make the world a better place.

Oh, and if we haven't told you lately, then let us just say: smile you're beautiful.

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger