My Chinese Charity Project

I believe that when a country has been so good to you that you have to give back so after my shooting with Jefen and before flying off to London, I went to visit the Disabled Children's NGO that my friend Brian Zhang is running. The NGO teaches physically and mentally disabled children to sew, read, write, maths so that they can have a place in Chinese society. I really appreciate the work of Brian Zhang, when he could go out and be all commercial, having been schooled in the west and coming from a family well connected, he decided to come back to China and create some socially economically sound companies. I am really grateful that there are people out there like Brian Zhang with his other NGO, the Performing Angels Troupe, a group of disabled children that are taught to act and perform theater in order to get hired and have a place in society. The NGO that sews their costumes are the disabled people of this school. When they graduate from this school, now Brian is creating a farm community where they can live when they are older and he's building a bigger workspace atelier for them in that space along with a hospitality training and place that can be rented out by people or companies for events or retreats. Brian took me to the farm and showed me what it was like to be in the Chinese country side.

I got given a hat - love it!                                                      These are the costumes they make for the Acting Troupe

This is the school where they live and learn and work.

At first I was totally taken back by my own internal reaction to the Children. I really noticed inside myself that it is one thing to dream up a way to help people and a project, and to actually get your hands dirty so to speak and execute it. I went away from their sweet natures thinking how will I ever do anything to help them really but Brian said "Step by Step" we will find help. I was so discouraged. It was a really hard thing for me, a model, to see these kids in their disabled states. What a faker I am, I thought, when I saw my inner reactions to their disfigurement. Here I say in my project that "Being different is cool and not scary." and yet here I was scared--of what I do not even understand. I think that when we see someone disabled, we superimpose it upon ourselves and we try to put ourselves in their shoes with our mentality and then the whole photo gets really scary in your mind.

I think that if we could instead reprogram our own images playing in our mind to actually see the heros in front of us--people who have overcome so much physically, socially, and mentally--and instead see the image of a superstar from the disabled Olympics, we wouldn't have all those crazy recoiling feelings or helpless feelings. Yah, it's a lot of bla bla from me out of my mouth, because when I was there I was feeling helpless. Thank goodness Brian was there and he could get ahold of my fears and break it down for me how we are going to really actualize this project. I mean, again, egoistically my fear was that I was all talk but that I would not actually be able to do anything.

How would the kids sew the patterns for the project? How would they be able to do it? I was so discouraged. Brian said, "Step by Step and we will find the way to arrive." I"m really glad that people like Brian Zhang exist. A person that could go out like me and do a lot of commercial things in the world, and yet here he is rolling up his hands and digging them in the dirt to make his country a better place. So I'm excited to be back in China and be able to take more steps towards realizing this charity project to create an economic model for these persons to find a place in the society. It is a privilege to have the chance to catch myself and not be all talk.

 

More dresses that they made for the actors.