June 16, 2009

A-Mei: Giving Hope to the Hopeless and Being a Voice for the Voiceless

By Joyce Lim

For a veteran in the Mando-Pop scene, Taiwanese pop star A-Mei uses her influence not just to spread her music, but also her compassion around the world.

As an ambassador and a participant in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine Camp 2009, the talented songstress banded together with over 1000 Singapore youths to take part in a poverty simulator game where she role-played as an injured woman looking for her family.

Sharing World Vision's aims to fight global hunger, A-Mei recently traveled to Mewat, India along with World Vision volunteers to help the community there. She is also a proud sponsor of three underprivileged children from around the world.

MTV Asia caught up with A-Mei for a chat on her community work and learns more about the social issues close to her heart.

Tell us a bit more about your experiences on the recent trip to India.

As with all other trips I've been on, I bump into people involved in earthquakes, people in different places with different predicaments, and people living hard lives. I find that it feels the same - I feel like there are so many emotions running through me. I visit them because I wish that they can have a better future and that I could bring back those experiences and share them with more people.

It's when we experience such scenarios that we develop feelings of injustice. There are many people in this world with different standards of living, but some live in conditions that are beyond our imagination. How do we help them? How do we take care of them now so that they could be better off taking care of themselves in the future? That is something we [World Vision] wish to address.

This trip to India may have started out hard, but I saw more people from different walks of life. We faced temperatures of around 40 Degree Celsius when we were out exploring different places and visiting people. Everyone was fatigued, but no one found it annoying or a burden - everyone wanted to do a really good job.

A lot of people assume that you're meant to feel sorry for the less fortunate communities that you meet on your volunteer work and that translates to pity. But sympathy isn't necessarily very helpful at times, is that right?

Yes, I feel that every time I visit these less fortunate places, I feel that those who had to adapt the most are those [like us] who went, and not the locals. When we were there, we couldn't help but put ourselves in the shoes of those living in those conditions. And we looked at the locals and their views on life - and their will to live humbled us.

I feel that whenever we visit others, it is only natural to feel like saying in mid-tears, "I feel so sorry for you!" when you see a little kid's will to live through working hard in such meager conditions - without friends and being unable to go to school. I don't think that would be much of a help to them.

One should be brave to give them hope with a positive attitude and tell them that there are a lot of people out there who are concerned about them, and that we admire their bravery and will to live on.

Was it hard to get clean, fresh drinking water there?

I feel that this problem exists not only in India, but in a lot of other places too, especially the more rural areas. Clean water to them is very precious. The locals do not have the conveniences that we have - we could just turn on a tap and we'd have water.

In order to get clean water there, you need to walk a very long distance to scoop up the water and walk all the way back home with it. One family whom we visited had access to a clean water station, but the journey there was far.

I understand that it's mostly the little girls who are the ones doing the household chores and made to fetch water in huge urns.

Yes. We felt it was exaggerated for a little girl to be carrying something heavier than she was. We asked her to bring us to the place where she draws water. And she brought that urn to the location.

Our camera crew guys were curious about the weight of the urn, and when they tried to lift it, they were like "ugh!" They couldn't carry it, you know? It was really heavy! The little girl needed help putting the urn on her head, but once she was done, she walked back to her home with the urn, which was two kilometers away. It was unbelievable!

Tell us more about the children you're currently sponsoring.

While I was touring, people would often ask me, "Is it hard to sponsor children?" If you want to say it's hard, it will be hard. But what I want to say to everyone is - do whatever that is within your own ability. If you can help any kid, help him/her to the best of your ability.

While I'm sponsoring these children, I'd occasionally receive their cards, in which they'll tell me more about how they're doing - their progress in school and the friends they've made. You can really see that the help you've given has gone a long way and has encouraged him/her to study harder and do their best.

All of us are already toiling hard in life, how can we help others if we find it hard to help ourselves sometimes?

What I can share is - I have met my share of people throughout my course of community service who feel as though they can barely support themselves. Therefore, they do not feel inclined to support others. I'd like to say that the motive behind community service projects and charity work isn't about giving something beyond your means. I feel that one should do something that is within their means, as long as one has the heart to do so.

If you perform a small gesture like sincerely caring about how you treat others or if you plan to help a person or a cause, it doesn't matter how big your contribution is -love is the true meaning behind charity and community work.