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Shining World Compassion Award: Amy Lambert's Big Heart for the African Children      
Everywhere in the world, we can observe and be touched by acts of kindness. People from all walks of life, faiths, and cultures extend themselves beyond the call of duty to help others unconditionally. Through their noble deeds, humanity as a whole is elevated.

To commend virtuous actions and encourage more people to be inspired by their examples, Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly created a series of awards, including the Shining World Leadership Award, Shining World Compassion Award, Shining World Hero and Heroine Awards, Shining World Honesty Award, Shining World Protection Award, Shining World Intelligence Award, and Shining World Inventor Award, to recognize some of the most exemplary, generous, caring, and courageous people who walk amongst us.

In a foreign land thousands of kilometers from her native United Kingdom, a young college student makes a decision that is to forever change her life, 150 children and numerous people around the world.

You have to go there and see it through your own eyes and see why, why it is so important to her and it is amazing what she is doing, it needs to be done.

Kichijo Orphanage, which is an abbreviation for Kilimanjaro Children’s Joy Foundation Orphanage, is located in Tanzania in East Africa. Due to financial difficulties, the conditions of the building were not ideal for the children living there. The orphans were ill with malaria, with many on the brink of starvation and dehydration.

You walk in there and you’re just overcome with sadness because there are six children to a bed. The last time, when I went out there at Christmas, their tongues were turning black where they hadn’t eaten for so long. And most of the children have malaria, so they are all very sick and in bed a lot anyway. So it is horrible, horrible conditions when you go out there.

After volunteering in Tanzania for several weeks at the end of summer 2008, 24-year-old Amy Lambert from Chippenham, UK was “heartbroken” after witnessing the tragic circumstances of the children at Kichijo Orphanage.

A lot of the children have lost their parents through AIDS and malaria. Fifty of the children have family, they just can’t afford to feed them and that must be the hardest thing giving up your child because you are too poor to look after them. One of the children, Joshua, he was found in a field at eight weeks old.

Although lacking in physical comforts, the children showed a remarkable spirit for life and cared for one another to survive. Many of the orphans were physically disabled and relied on the aid of fellow children. Amy witnessed the depth of their selflessness when watching children as young as 8 years old acting as caregivers to special needs children and showing them how to use the toilet.

Even though they have absolutely nothing, they don’t even have their own clothes, they don’t even have any toys, but they are the happiest children you’ll ever meet, they’re beautiful children.

Their innocence and purity of heart motivated Amy. She wanted to offer them the same opportunities to life, education and shelter.

It’s hard to walk away, once you see it, you do feel responsible for it. And the children there have got no one else. They fall over and they don’t cry because they know no one is going to pick them up. So it’s so hard to walk away from children who have never really been loved. So that’s why I’ve been out there three times, and I am moving out there for the next couple of years or so just because I want to spend my time with the children.

Amy is certainly no stranger to volunteering and caring for special needs children. Since she was a teenager, Amy was already opening her heart to others and trying to help in whatever way she could.

When I was 15, I started volunteering in the local special needs school and I worked there for the summer playing with the children, taking them out on day trips and things like that. And then throughout university I volunteered with the local riding for the disabled group and I have always worked in care work anyway, so that’s the job that I like. And then I volunteered in Africa and I’ve been out there a few times since. And it is really easy to volunteer, you are just giving your time to help someone else and I absolutely love it.

Although busy in her final year studying for her double major in psychology and health studies at Bath Spa University in England, Amy strived hard to make her dream come true to help the orphaned children. Within 7 months, she had raised £30,000 or US$45,000 through the help of friends and fundraising projects.

It was hard work. We’ve been out shaking buckets in town, we’ve painted faces, we’ve held a charity auction, we’ve held concerts and club nights, loads and loads of smaller things. A lot of donations have come from local papers and even national papers picked up on the stories as well. People have just been really, really supportive. It’s been brilliant.

In April 2009, Amy made the courageous decision to purchase Kichijo Orphanage. She felt this was the best way she could help the children. This was just the beginning of her noble mission. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. We will be right back after these brief messages with the presentation to Amy Lambert of the Shining World Compassion Award and a contribution from Supreme Master Ching Hai.

Welcome back to our program on the presentation of the Shining World Compassion Award to Amy Lambert, who had purchased the Kichijo Orphanage in Tanzania to provide more comfortable lives for the children. Since July 2009, Amy has moved to Tanzania to run the orphanage herself. Amy wishes to reconstruct the dilapidated building to provide the children with modern amenities and a schoolroom.

Well, they are going to have a bed each for starters. They are going to have a constant supply of food and it’s going to be clean, it’s going to be secure. So it will be a lot safer for the children and also we are going to set up some farmlands so we can teach the children who are over 14, they are going to have vocational training so that they can look after themselves when they leave. But also they are going to hopefully sell the crops and be able to feed themselves as well. So, the new building will change their lives extremely, from just being more spacious and cleaner and safer to being able to educate them as well for their future.

Wishing to do what’s best for the children, Amy plans to provide care for them in any way that is most conducive for their development.

The children who have families at the moment, I’m going to place them back into their family homes, and pay for them to go to school and feed them. It’s best for any child to grow up with their family, but they just don’t have the money to do it so we’re going to supply, support their need.

Through her work in Tanzania, Amy has a greater appreciation for life and gained a meaningful perspective on the value of material items.

Twenty-five pence will buy a pineapple which would feed five of the children for breakfast, 50 pence will treat one child with malaria. So if you think about that next pair of jeans you buy. This is what I find hard, when I come back to England and you buy a new pair of jeans for £30, in my head I’m going, “That’s 60 children treated with malaria.” Six pounds will feed one child for a month, £25 will send a child to school for a year and that’s what gets them out of their poverty for the rest of their lives. So anything could make a difference.

Amy’s noble endeavor to help the children of Kichijo Orphanage has changed not only the fate of 150 children but in the course of her journey, Amy has inspired many other people. Amy’s family and friends have joined her as volunteers at the Kichijo Orphanage.

I wanted to go and see what she was so passionate about. When I went there, I just fell in love and I thought it was amazing and I thought that she was definitely doing the right thing.

My partner wants to come out as well too, because he wants to help and do the building and things like that.

She’s kind of got us to question our own lives and our own sort of existence and the world around us. I was just generally doing the same thing from week to week, questioning the amount of money I spent on unnecessary stuff. And what kind of really rewarding kind of stuff I was getting out of life. It’s about time to take myself out my comfort zone and go and do something that’s going to change other people’s lives for the better.

Amy’s inspirational story also appeared in national British newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. Many of her co-citizens were moved by the young lady’s noble love and fortitude and wrote to express their admiration. From Chingford Longdon, UK, Rose Trachim wrote: “Dear Amy, I was extremely touched by your story especially about the children with special needs. I look after my grandson who has Downs Syndrome. I would like to sponsor a child in your orphanage who has special needs. Please let me know how I can do this. ”

George from London, UK, expressed: “Yes, one single person CAN make a difference despite of what is the common perception. Good on you Amy. You are a human being in the most true sense of the word! BRAVO.”

Touched by Amy’s unconditional love and concern for fellow humans in need, Supreme Master Ching Hai recognized the young humanitarian with the Shining World Compassion Award and US$30,000 to support her noble work for the African children.

Amy, I’m honored to present to you the Shining World Compassion Award for your noble work.

Thank you so much.

Along with that, from Supreme Master Ching Hai, we have a check towards your noble cause of £18,360.

Thank you Supreme Master Ching Hai that money will make such a difference to the lives of all those children I look after, and you will feed them all, send them all to school and build them a home and just change their lives for the better, so thank you, thank you so much.

With wisdom beyond her years and a heart filled with love, Amy offers these humble words of encouragement to others wishing to offer their help to others:

I’m going out there, I’m not going out there to change the world, I’m going out there to change the life of 1 to100 children. But if everyone goes to do something like that then the world will be changed and it will be such an amazing place. You just need love to go out there and work.

Amy Lambert’s benevolent spirit is truly honorable. We thank Ms. Lambert for her selfless devotion to the noble cause of serving the less fortunate children. May Heaven’s blessings grace you with continued success in your heart-touching mission of love.

For more information about the Kichijo Orphanage in Tanzania being run by Amy Lambert, please visit Amy Lambert’s Kichijo Orphanage in Tanzania

Kind viewers, thank you for joining us for today’s program. Now, please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Words of Wisdom, up next after Noteworthy News. Wishing you much peace and happiness today and every day.

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