Hi everyone, I’m Sonya from Hong Kong
I am a person who likes to travel
I have been to more than forty countries
But in the past three years I have had a place to go to more than ten times
It is not a tourist attraction
If you search on Google
The most common keywords are
Drug trafficking, drug abuse
AIDS, orphans
Poverty and leprosy
It is located in China’s Sichuan Province
Its name is Liangshan
2009 was my first time to go to this place
At that time, I formed a volunteer team with several friends.
We say we are going to this
Isolated leper rehabilitation village
Make a visit
Then we several people went to this place together
At that time they had not yet opened the way
So we must go into the mountains
Almost all of us are girls
What mountain path did not pass?
Then I think when I go there
It should be an ordinary mountain road
Just discovered
Not 诶
That is so narrow
Cliff Road
You accidentally slipped a foot
It will fall
What is that fortunate?
Because it is evening
I can’t see anything
Once I really slid down
Then nothing
Because my bag was up
Then still feel that time
Hey, you should be able to get it back if you drop it.
Later when I looked at it during the day
When you fall, you won’t come back.
Then we went to eleven o’clock but still not in the village
But tired and tired
The volunteers encouraged us to say:
“It will be time to cross the bridge.”
Why do we say it was a bridge
Because I’ve been thinking
After crossing the bridge will cross the river
But after I arrived, I discovered
No bridge
How did you cross the river?
Everyone saw
The above line
Does anyone know what it is?
Yes, I heard
That is called “cable”
This is what we have seen on television
Then they say
It is twelve o’clock
Can’t see anything, just hear the sound of the river
He said:
“Yes, we’ll be here before.”
Then, when I saw it, I was thinking
How do you get past?
Is it by that arm?
How to walk?
Then they say:
“No, there is a small bench for us to sit in the past.
There was no escape route at that time
Then we closed our eyes
It’s past
the next morning
Let me see
It is a uniform earth room
There are big kids
Because they are born with insects
Then naked
That picture
It’s particularly shocking for me
Because I feel
How in China now
Where are the poor and backward places?
At that time I told myself:
“I must come back to this place again.”
But this one
Waited four years
When I went back again, it was 2013
In these four years
I’m not thinking about going back
Just slowly I can’t figure it out
Why did I go back?
I go back and give them ten days and eight days of care
Still stay for six months or one year
When I left
Isn’t it all back to the original place?
But fortunately
I work in NGO for four years
I am engaged in disaster management
Let me learn
It turns out I can look at it from another perspective
To respond to the needs of these places
Then slowly
There is an idea in my head
I’m thinking
Is it one day
I can also be in this village
Do some sustainable projects?
So the end of 2013
I finally resigned
I lived in the village for a month after I resigned
At that time, my friends thought
You are crazy
Why do you want to resign? So good work
You go in and ask them:
“Hey, what do you guys need? I’ll help you.”
Enough
At that time, I told my friend:
“I haven’t returned for four years
I don’t know what they need
But more important
I hope to get along with them
I may find that they need it at the same time
See more
They have
Including their capabilities
Including the cohesion of their community
We don’t just see forever what they don’t have
We are more to see
What they have
So I came back to Hong Kong
Set up a
A very small charity called i-Action
My first project
It is the construction of student canteen
At that time there was a school in the village
Then the students are all eating on the ground
Then everyone sees
This meal
Can you guess what it is?
That’s what we rarely eat in peacetime
Dried vegetables boiled red kidney beans
With white rice
Two times a day
Every day is the same
Multiply the second day by 365 days
I told them at that time
Eat the same food every day
But they will not feel
Hmm… I’m afraid to give up this meal
But I remember one day
Because we are all eating in the open air
Because there is no canteen
Under the rain
You don’t feel any rain on the body
Because of the fine drizzle
But when we eat
Rain drops into the bowl
When you dripping
I particularly remember the scene that we opened
At that time my heart was particularly sore
I told myself at that time
I cannot be short-term
Improve their meal
But can I let them in a good place
Eat a settled meal
Then when I returned
I told my friend about my idea
They are also very good
Everyone is willing to save money
Donate to me and say:
“Well, then you go back and build a canteen for them.”
The entire dining hall is a one-storey structure with a brick structure
We spent a year and a half to build
All my friends say:
“You must be lazy, right?
You must be having problems inside
How could it take a year and a half
Do simple projects? ”
What do I say when we do the longest time?
to chat with
We chat with the villagers
Often chat
They asked how the chat has anything to do with the project.
I remember when I was in the village
The first question I asked them was:
“Do you think there is a need to build this dining hall?”
Everybody may think it’s funny
This is obviously a good thing
Why should I ask?
Did everyone discover
We are doing projects now
Going to help others
It is always felt
I think you need
I need to give you
But did you ever think about it?
Does the other person really want it?
Maybe they think
No, I think it’s good for children to eat like this.
Of course the last
Their villagers still think:
Hey, I also want children to eat in a good place.
The second question I asked them was:
“How do you want to build it?”
Wow, this is a huge problem
Everyone may think
No, it was like asking me: “What do you want to eat tonight?”
It’s very simple
But everybody thinks
They are isolated from the world
Leprosy rehabilitation village
In the past, few people went in and visited them.
Few people will ask them
What do you guys want?
Even if there is funding
Or it is a government aid project
All from the top down
So they heard me this Hong Kong person
Suddenly come in and tell them
When do you want to
Their first question is
What are you asking me?
Then the second question is
Yeah, what do I want?
The third
How can I tell you what I want
So we used a lot of time
Just inside this different process
To communicate this “your idea”
At last
Not only are they telling us how the design is
They also chose their own foremen
Division of labor
Make your own record
Make your own transport of materials
The last interior decoration is also done by themselves.
One day when I was walking in the village
One student told me:
“Mr. Haugh, look!
This student’s canteen is my father’s share in the establishment of
I am very proud! ”
We started from the first day of the project
We told them:
“The project is yours
not ours
You are the master of the project
We just come to cooperate with you.”
After the establishment of the dining hall project
Everyone thinks that taking a project is also education.
Hey, let everyone down
Our second project
Is a small farm honey project
That is, the fare trade project
Hey, how can such a big jump
Because the other person is
They really need such a project
Help them
They are the rehabilitation village of leprosy
Their honey is particularly good
But these three words leprosy
In Liangshan is particularly taboo
Even everyone compares AIDS to leprosy
More taboo
So their honey is no way to sell a good price
Then our approach is
Help them repack and design
Then marketing to different places in Hong Kong and the Mainland
Not only let them have a higher income
What we hope more is to encourage them
Set up a beekeeping fund in the village
After investing some funds
Learn more honey technology
In the future, they can rely on this thing
Maintain better livelihoods
Then the process is particularly thrilling
Do you see what the young girl is heading?
All are bees
At that time when I went to collect honey with them
They do not have any protective equipment
Go inside the mountains
That’s wild honey
Move the stone away
All are inside
Very beautiful hive
Then they are freehand
Take the hive one by one
That time the bee
All the ones fly out
Then you see that the little girl is full of bees on the head
I will put these processes
Use videos, photos, and text
All recorded
Then each bottle of honey above
We all have a small card
It was their story that was written on the small card.
Because we want
When consumers buy honey
Not just tasting a bottle of honey
But it feels more
A bottle of honey is not easy to get behind
Also know the story behind these producers
Many times we think
Fair trade is just a relationship above the economy
But actually
When I did this project
I will find it
Behind the fair trade
Not only economical
Instead, it speaks of more people-to-people relationships
The relationship between man and nature
Looks like a small consumption
If every one of us is willing to pay a little more
In fact, we are not only supporting fair trade.
We are all pushing together
The fair development in this society
So two years
We only did two projects
One is the construction of a school canteen
One is small farmer honey
It looks like something completely different
But we emphasize
Is “work with the community”
Not “for the community” (work for the community)
honestly
Today’s top-down model
It is no longer suitable
We don’t say anything again
The idea of ”better than ever”
Because we did the project
Who is the project?
Not belong to us
Belongs to the community
Local villagers
Community participation tells more
Is their idea
Let them start in the project
Listen to community opinions
Don’t always think
Well, they are very backward
Their ideas should not be very advanced
Listen more to what they want
Then through our capabilities
We are below this limited resource
To find a solution that works best for each other
And in that process
Don’t think forever:
“Well, I’ll do it for you.
You just have to wait
I listen to your opinion. OK, I know it, then I will do it for you.”
But let them participate together
Don’t let them think
Well, I am a recipient
But to make them feel
They actively participated in this project
Finally, not only grow together with each other in the process
After the project is completed
Better sustainability
We often say “Teach people to fish”
So most of what I want to say to you today is
Let’s not say it later
We go to help them
Don’t always think that we are donors
You are the recipients
Because of our relationship with them
Friends, partners
Is a fellow person and a comrade
We are together through different projects
Let them grow together, learn and experience
Also through different sharing
In this process
We are together for the darkness of this world
Bring a little hope and light
Thank you
(applause)
”
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