By Kay Zhang
This was my first trip to London to assist in a fundraising event there, and one aim of the activity was to raise the profile of Care for Children in the UK. For me, London is not a very strange city as I had spent two years there, but going to Mansion House to work for an event made me excited.
The reception was hosted by Sir David Brewer, the Lord Mayor of London. The site was grand and we received great support from the business community. When I led in my little media team, which was formed from a group of reporters representing the Chinese media in London, the venue became quite crowded.
Sir David gave a short speech to start the reception and this was followed by a presentation from our executive director, Robert Glover OBE. Then people started to mingle and talk of people, and I joined the crowd. When I told people that I worked for Care for Children, everyone showed great interest and soon I received many questions on what, when, and how things needed to be done. I could tell that people really loved to get involved and to help. And when we exchanged business cards I saw that most of them were successful businessmen and senior executives.
As I waited in the empty hall for my colleagues to get ready to leave at the end of the event I had mixed feelings. I thought about the children I had met in the countryside in China. The little primary school next to the green field in Guizhou when we visited a girl who lived with a foster-care family for two years; the village near Xi' an in which over 100 families had become foster-families; they all seem to relate to there. It seemed as if we were linking the rich and the needy, the adults and the children, in such a magical way. People in different culture can be so close.
Speaking personally, that was a day when I had the feeling that my work was well respected and worthwhile.
