Dubai students taught how to ‘pay forward’ random acts of kindness

International Pay it Forward Day was established to inspire people from all walks of life to perform a good deed without receiving anything in return and to encourage the recipient to pay it forward to another person.

DUBAI // Business students at Canadian University Dubai have been “paying it forward” to learn about the value of random acts of kindness.

They were challenged to look at how their acts of kindness affected the people around them, in an activity organised to mark International Pay it Forward Day.

The day is on Thursday and was established to inspire people from all walks of life to perform a good deed without receiving anything in return and to encourage the recipient to pay it forward to another person.

“I start the assignment by bringing chocolates into class and when students thank me for the treat, I ask them instead to pay it forward,” said assistant professor and project supervisor Jeanette Teh.

“Their task is then to write about the reactions of the recipient and their own feelings about their good deed.”

The students are covering Business Ethics as part of their course and they must apply their thought process and theories to understand the motives of companies that have corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.

Although the International Pay It Forward campaign has not officially reached the UAE, students believe the concept would fit in well in the country.

“It’s something that isn’t labelled here but it is certainly practised,” said student Issam Kassabieh.

“It relates very much to the Islamic culture which is at the root of our society.”

He offered his phone to a cleaner at his workplace, allowing him to call his family back home.

Fellow student Hammam Ahmed Abbas took food to a group of labourers who were gathered in the street after a long day’s work.

The student project was set in the run-up to this year’s campaign, which is expected to inspire more than three million acts of kindness across 70 countries.