Akha Children — A View of Rice
While in Meaung District in Laos I donated some school supplies with my Sister Nok. We used some charitable donations to deliver paper, pencils, shoes, clothes, food, colored pencils, pencils and pens to the kids and their families. It was beautiful and I covered that experience in my last blog. This second charitable trip was made possible by this trip.
A Grandfather caught some fish and an Akha woman cooked it for us while we sat under a bamboo hut overlooking the rice field. It was here that I began to do a Sumie Painting. I started by painting a flower which I always love doing. Then I decided I would paint the rice field. The kids wanted to participate so after doing the mountain and the clouds I handed them my brush and taught them the basics and let them finish painting the rice field with me.
Then I had an idea. What if I minted the collaborative painting and we used it to bring more funds to the schools and village there. And that is what I did! And people really responded helping us out. It has been an amazing journey.
It is not easy to sell NFTs but a story is very powerful. And I gave 100% of the money back to the village. I Spent a few weeks going Twitter Space to Twitter space sharing this idea and project. Soon as we had enough money for the project I burned the excess NFTs so that those who donated could relist them and recoup their donations if they wanted to.
With that money we managed to do a lot. We outfit another school with similar supplies books, pencils, pens, paper and more. We got the kids school uniforms and shoes as well as sent them some snacks and food.
We also made sure to give a special treat to my painters Khamsao and Noy. We bought them a sweater, some bread and canned milk which the kids in the villages enjoy.
It was amazing to help them again. The third Trip is coming soon! Let’s see if we can help one more school before my visa here in Laos expires. Thanks again for everyone’s support.