May 12, 2010

With the Shanghai World Expo Opening Ceremony ending, I have been hiding in a quieter side of Shanghai to have script meetings everyday with my production team. But with my A.D.D., you know I can't sit still and have meetings every day. So along with my team (The Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation), I flew to TongRen City, Guizhou Province in the Tujia County. We brought 48,000 bottles of water to their people. My team told me that the GDP is the lowest in the country and up in the mountains where the people lived, they were facing serious water shortages.

So I immediately rushed from Shanghai to TongRen. On the two hour flight, we discussed the arrangements of how to donate water, and what our next stop was after this trip. When we landed at the TongRen airport, we sat for more than five hours on a car straight to the county. Along the way, all I heard was "AHHHH! AHHHH!" Why? We were on a very bumpy road and for 5 hours, that is all we heard. We finally arrived at the hotel in the middle of the night and I finally ate my first meal of the day. I sat down to do my homework: I watched two films and went to bed.

We woke up early at 8AM and rushed to the official village of the Guizhou town. This was the mountain village with the water shortage. Along the way, I learned that the water was difficult to store and that 97% of the farmland were in the mountains. In the summer's dry season, villagers have to walk 10 miles down the mountain just to collect two bottles of water. So in the car up to the mountain, I could see the roof of many houses, used as a reservoir for water. However, it was covered with moss and there was no filter. They used it to wash their clothes, their plates, and even to drink.


First, I went to see the kids at an elementary school. I learned that hundreds of thousands of people worked outside the village, leaving 40,000 women, children and elderly behind. All of the kids' parents were outside working. I encouraged all of them to study hard in school and give back to the community when they grew up. I also gave all of them Dragon Heart bookbags! Inside, there were rulers, slippers, t-shirts and notebooks. They were so happy! In the end, they sang my song "Guo Jia" (Country) to me and I was very touched.


Next, I brought water to the first family in the village. Their old house had tiles as a roof. Tied to the roof top was a plastic bottle, and tied to the plastic bottle was a thin tube that introduced the tank inside his home - and that was their water source. The only way for them to get water was when it rained, and it hardly ever rained! You cannot imagine how the people in this city live. Last time when I was in Yunan, at least there was a small faucet pipe. But here, they drank the water from the rooftop reservoirs!


When I delivered the water to the house, the elderly couple immediately knelt down because he was so grateful. But in my mind, I was just doing a small part and using little of my power to help them. I was SO MOVED. Then I went to visit a few more families and told them that today, I only came with 48,000 bottles of water. But in the future, I will bring more and all my friends, including the Jackie Chan Auto Group are all organizing volunteers to come deliver water to your homes!


After seeing how they drank water, I immediately donated 1 million RMB to the local government. Also, I donated money of the construction of 10KM of water pipes and a water tower. Now, 9,000 people in the village can drink clean water!


Every time I do charity, the road is very far and very bumpy. But every time I get to help people and see a smile on their face, I feel VERY satisfied. Many of my friends have entrusted me with their money and well wishes to donate the water - and I am the messenger! Finally, I want more people to join us and help us! If we are united, many more people will help!

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