[3192] Christian organization partners with film industry through new film on famine to raise support and feed the hungry

Christian organization partners with film industry through new film on famine to raise support and feed the hungry

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

Written by Lydia Ma

Chinese Christian Relief Association (CCRA) has been feeding the hungry in Taiwan since 2011 through a special food drive called “1919 Food Bank”. This food drive collaborates primarily with various local churches so that families without enough food to put on the table can get some food. The recent release of the new film “Back to 1942” about a great famine in Henan in 1942 gave the CCRA an extra opportunity to partner with Atom Cinema and Vieshow Cinema to further help the hungry. CCRA and these two companies held a special fundraising film viewing on April 22 at 7:00 p.m. in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. The purpose for holding this special event was to urge the public to reach out and help families who don’t have enough money to put food on the table every day.

This film directed by Feng Xiaogang, a Chinese national, chronicles the severe famine that occurred in Henan, China in 1942, where more than 3 million people starved to death. The film’s protagonist is a landowner who was forced to flee his hometown together with his family and his servants in order to avoid starvation. Besides having to go without food, they braved the elements and endured the effects of the Sino-Japanese War that was in full-swing at the time. As result, they witnessed the darkest and most vulnerable aspects of humanity during their journey in search for food.

Various Taiwanese artists were invited to this viewing and they shared their thoughts afterward. One Christian artist from China, Ma Zhi-qin, encouraged young people nurture healthy and accurate personal values. She urged young people against the blind pursuit of fashion brands and encouraged them to help people who in need so that their wealth can be used to accomplish the most noble things possible. Christian artist Yang Huai-min added that actively sharing and giving away things is a tangible sign that a person cherishes all that he posseses.

CCRA director Chang Chien-fang commented that the film demonstrates life’s reality very well, especially when it shows mothers selling themselves as prostitutes in order to earn money to buy rice to feed their children. Citing his own experiences, he said that his organization has encountered anxious mothers who are desperate because they don’t have money to buy formula for their babies. He reported that, as recent as April 18, when his organization delivered supplies to a family in Taoyuan, a mother came out to them and asked pointedly, “Do you have baby formula?”. He later learned that the woman didn’t have enough money to buy formula to feed her two-month old baby. When she learned that baby formula had indeed been included in the food packet prepared by CCRA, she was filled with gratitude.

CCRA established 70 centers with the collaboration of Morakot Rebuilding Centers in late 2011 and it currently distributes food at these “1919 Centers”. The CCRA’s goal for 2013 is to establish 307 such centers before the end of the year and to reach out to 3,800 families. 1919 Centers typically deliver approximately 22,800 food packets 6 times every year. Each packet is worth approximately NT$2,000 and contains staple foods and snacks, as well as cleaning agents. Anyone interested in donating to the “1919 Food Bank” may contact (02) 8660-9995 #118 or give an online donation at www.ccra.org.tw