“There’s so much willingness out there to reach out to one another and offer care and kindness. And kindness is needed everywhere.
According to Japanese tradition, folding 1000 paper cranes gives someone a chance to make one special wish come true. It was globally popularised through the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who, exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, developed leukaemia and began folding paper cranes so that her wish of becoming well would be granted.
Inspired by the legend, in 2016, Hobartian Sarah De Jonge decided she wanted to spread love and kindness – not by folding paper cranes but by sewing 1000 felt hearts. “I wanted to do something that was just about kindness that I wasn’t doing for any kind of strategic plan or being paid for,” she says. “I wanted it to be truly from the heart.”
Having worked in the not-for-profit space her whole
