Meet Betty Chinn, a hero who lives in Eureka, California. Betty is director the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation, serving the poor in her city. Her mission: ​To honor all of humanity by providing direct responses to immediate needs and helping the homeless achieve the dignity needed to return to society as contributing members. At age of 7 Betty was turned out of her family’s home in China’s Guangdong province during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Targeted because of her parents’ wealth and religious beliefs, Chinn spent four years homeless on the streets of China. After her mother and siblings were hauled off to labor camps, Betty found refuge in a garbage dump where she foraged for food. Mao’s Red Guard forbade Chinn from speaking to people and hung a wooden sign around her neck with a wire that read “child from the devil.” She was ostracized and beaten and years later would have to relearn how to speak. After four years living like this- family members tortured and killed in front of her- Betty and three of her siblings fled, hiking hundreds of miles before swimming across the Pearl River Delta to freedom in Hong Kong.

Now Betty is giving hope to homeless people in Eureka. It is a wonderful mission. Read about the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation here.