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Jerry Yan brings his warm smile into the freezing winter of Mongolia.
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Singer and actor Jerry Yan has spent the last two months talking about World Vision in a whirlwind tour of eight Asian countries.
In early November Yan took a trip to Mongolia to visit his World Vision sponsored child and learn more about the issues of poverty in Asia. Since that visit, he's appeared in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, encouraging his fans to become sponsors too.
The only disappointment came in the cancellation of a Philippines appearance as Typhoon Durian threatened several provinces across the nation.
As a true trans-Asian celebrity, Jerry Yan was an ideal choice to become World Vision's first Asia regional ambassador. He first caught the public eye while acting in the popular Taiwanese television series Meteor Garden, then cemented his fame by forming Taiwanese boyband F4, along with three of his co-stars.
His relationship with World Vision began when he sponsored a child in Mongolia; he now sponsors three children.
In a Bangkok television interview towards the end of his Asian tour, he said that meeting these children had given him a better idea of what happiness meant.
“When you are there, you see those children, their joy shines through from their hearts. You can see them happily running along the streets. And then you see them, say at an empty field, playfully dragging a bucket behind them as they run all over the place. Then you really understand their kind of pure happiness. It makes you envy them.”
Although the tour is over, Jerry Yan will continue to play the role of ambassador throughout 2007, inspired by the ability to make a difference.
“Previously, I never thought that there would be a day where I have the means to personally help these children... when I was young, my family was quite poor, so we too used to receive help from other people. Because of their help, I can be what I am today. Therefore, I feel that it is really great to help others. It's a kind of happiness that most people don't normally get to experience. When you help others, you realise that you gain a lot of insight and it's really touching.”
Read about Jerry's trip to a World Vision project in Mongolia
