Say amitofo


  • Photographer
    Peikang Wu
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    Aug 2008 to Aug 2009

(1)ACC nannies and orphans, in Buddhist outfit, took part in the Buddhist ceremony held on Sundays. The nanny tried to cover the bright curlers on her head with a scarf but gave up at last. (2)Two kids tried to stick back the Chinese phonetic cards on the wall in the alphabetical order, which had been carried away by a wind. It’s not easy for them. (3)Most children had got used to chopsticks and vegetarian diet. (4)David, 7, received a stretch training from his coach. Although he had practiced Kung Fu for about one year, painful tears were squeezed out and slipping through his fingers. (5)In the backstage, kids waited to take the stage in the traditional outfit of Kung Fu monks. A performance usually took several hours. Props and costumes were scattered around in the backstage. After each show, the kids and staff all flaked out.

Story

Amitofo Care Centre (ACC), located in Blantyre suburb (southern Malawi) and sitting on a hill surrounded by Macadamia nut trees and bushes, is the only orphanage founded and sponsored by Buddhists.
Amitofo is a major and well-known mantra of Chinese Buddhism, which contains lots of Buddhist philosophy. Generally speaking, it means “infinite life and infinite light”.
ACC, now, accommodates about 250 Malawian orphans aged 5 to 16, most of whom lost their parents because of HIV and malaria.
This care centre provides not only living necessities but medical and educational services. To our amazement, ACC is also the only organization in Malawi capable of Chinese teaching, Kung Fu training and Buddhist practices.
These children are required to get up at 4am amidst deep darkness and then join the morning religious practices. The daily Kung Fu training takes more than two hours, while Chinese is the mandatory course. All of these come from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China’s monks, coaches and, mostly, volunteers.
To maintain Buddhist disciplines, ACC, therefore, is vegetarian and children are taught to do the meal prayers in Chinese and use chopsticks.
Every summer and winter vacation, ACC organizes teams (about 20-kid strong) for fund-raising performances, mainly in Chinese-speaking areas of South Africa and Asia. Every year, for more than eight weeks, these kids intensively impress and entertain the audience amid loud applauses in the concrete jungles one after another in different continents.
This hill watches the children’s unique life in Malawi. They are kept away from diseases, illiteracy and distorted sexual relations. Walking on a multi-cultural path, ACC kids are still in the search of tomorrow’s possibilities.
This photo journal witnesses ACC from August 2008 to August 2009.

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