How Can We Care More?
I truly appreciate the privilege to become who I can be in this lifetime, and with that, the ability to do what I can from where I am with what I have for others. I have been deeply moved by the suffering and strength of refugees around the world, especially the children and women.
I was very affected by the heartwrenching image of five year old Omran Daqneesh in blood and ash when pulled out from under the crumbling rubble in Aleppo, Syria after an air raid. Feeling helpless, I could only write a song for him: I Dream of A World. So when one of the worst humanitarian crisis of our times with the Rohingyas happened in Aug 2017, I knew I couldn't just sit here and write a song (well, in this case a book!). It's happening in our own backyard so I went over to Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in 2018 and visited the refugee camp that houses 1 million Rohingyas. 65% of these refugees are children, many traumatised whilst denied of formal education as stateless beings.
One of our projects, Playground of Joy, has been working on opportunities with local NGO BRAC and global NGO IOM in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh to bring our psyschosocial support programmes for children (and women) for the Rohingyas refugee community. We are also planning to start an emotional health programme at local NGO, Cahaya Surya Bhakti, in Johor Bahru, Malaysia this coming September. (Did you know that Malaysia has 150,000 Rohingya refugees?)
The net proceeds (after printing and services costs) from this book will go towards supporting such refugee programmes, including for Syrian and Afghanistan refugees.
Learn More
We will have the latest on how proceeds are distributed and used on the 50 Shades of Love Facebook page. For updates on the psychosocial support programmes with the refugees, please go to Playground of Joy Facebook page.