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• October 12, 2007: One Foundation International Cooperation
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  Friday, Oct 12, 2007 2:11PM / Standard Entry / The One Foundation / Members only
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  On September 25th, the One Foundation and the "To be Number One" Foundation developed by Thailand's Princess Ubol Ratana Ratchakaya Siriwattana Pannawadi, officially became international partners to work together in China and Thailand on charitable causes.  Those interested friends can find more information here:  

  
  Hand to hand in Thailand "To Be Number One" Foundation.
  
  On September 26th, I arrived in New York to attend the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference.  This is an event sponsored by President Bill Clinton to discuss global education, poverty relief, environmental protection and health issues.  I'm extremely happy that such a young organization like the One Foundation was invited to participate in discussions aimed to benefit the entire world.  There were 1,500 participants in this conference, including many Fortune 500 companies, world-renowned charities and heads of states.
  
  During my childhood, I traveled to over 40 countries in the name of martial arts; as an adult I traveled the world again through my work in movies; I often joked that the remainder of my life will be spent travelling the world to promote Chinese charitable ideals.  My sincere gratitude to President Clinton for this great learning opportunity.
  
  On September 26 at 4:30 p.m., I arrived at the hotel in New York and listened to the first plenary session at 5 p.m.  First, President Clinton introduced the topic of global education development.  After that the Chinese foreign minister discussed China's national educational policy.  Then Afghanistan minister of education, His Excellency Mohammed Haneef Atmar, the founder of The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation , and movie star and philanthropist Angelina Jolie each expressed their opinions on the subject of education.
  
  His Excellency Mohammed Haneef Atmar mentioned their postwar reconstruction efforts in their education system.  The schools often receive frequent terrorist attacks; under such difficulties it's most difficult to give the children proper educational opportunity.  Many female teachers have sacrificed their lives to promote education. I am deeply moved by this.  There are many children from poor areas in China that lack educational resources, but in comparison to the chaos caused by the war in Middle East and Africa, we're very lucky.
  
  Actually, education is extremely important; I did not have the opportunity during my childhood to receive a standard education, and I did not receive even receive an elementary school diploma.  But I dare not to ever forget to study and learn.   At the CGI meeting, I learned that everyone was in attendance with the attitude of a student -- to learn from one another, to discuss the development of global solutions and share their concern for global human issues.  Although, this is only the third year for the annual meeting, it's great to see that so many people are willing to take individual responsibility and duty to discuss how to help humanity as a whole, as one big family.  This family concept is what the One Foundation is based on: living on this planet, we are one big family.
  
  In the past, I didn't have the opportunity to participate in activities outside the world of martial arts and movies, and my English proficiency is also limited.  So I truly treasure this chance to study with such world renowned enterprises and charities.