A Christian entrepreneur, Ms. Cai Shiyin, has recently received letters of thanks from local communities and hospitals in Italy and New York for her efforts in raising donations for them.
Inspired by her Christian faith, she believes that God’s love can extend to wherever there is a need for help and support. This is especially important since the coronavirus has become a global threat.
The latest donation made by Cai, the founder and CEO of Dialogue in Dark (China), went to Biella, a province in northern Italy. Ms. Cai visited Ms. Laura Gorni, a senior partner at Dialogue in Dark (DiD), an organization dedicated to changing society’s prejudices against blind and deaf persons and all other marginalized groups.
On March 28, Cai noticed a post on Laura’s Facebook page giving information on needs in the local community, and that Laura was also volunteering to help people with their daily needs. She contacted her fellow friends and believers immediately and raised a donation totalling 2,700 euros. Two days after the funds were transferred to Laura, Cai and her friends received letters of thanks from Tiziana Pasquale, the mayor of Netro, a village in Biella. Local public organizations such as Amici dell'Ospedale di Biella and Istituto Chiossone also expressed their appreciation.
According to a CNN report on March 19, the coronavirus death toll in Italy reached 3,405, surpassing China and becoming the largest number worldwide at that time. This caused concerns and worry for Ms. Cai, who became ready to give a hand to her acquaintances in Italy.
In the meantime, other countries were also experiencing a rapid growth in diagnosed COVID-19 cases. Before March, Ms. Cai and her team were dedicated to raising donations from abroad to support Wuhan and other severely infected areas in China. But recently, they began to work in reverse order, arranging donations of medical supplies from China to Japan, Germany and hospitals in the Bronx, New York, where the doctors were in great need of masks to take care of patients not infected with COVID-19.
Although the efficiency of logistics and customs clearance was jeopardized by the pandemic, she and her team insisted on the mission, trying their best to help, big or small. She said, “We need to continue helping each other, whether in small or large ways.”
In fact, this has not been the first time Ms. Cai reached out to those in need. After being abroad for 14 years, when she completed Christian studies at Regent College, she dedicated herself to helping the blind. The volunteer work in a blind school in Tibet and the experience in the Atlanta exhibition of DiD, intrigued her passion in mission work and social work to eliminate injustice and discrimination of marginalized people in her home country. In March 2011, she brought DiD to China officially and opened the first office and training center.
