“It started with a portrait.”

At a Saturday market in Thailand, I drew an old woman, Granny Thuy. The video of her went around the world and gathered millions of views. Later I found her again. Life was not easy for her: she had debts, and when she wasn't working at the market, she collected bottles to get by. Everything in her home was old and worn. Together with my audience, we raised money to help her. She became the first grandmother I ever helped.

Then I flew to Cambodia.

There I met Granny Seng. For the last two years she had been collecting rubbish every day, from morning till night, to pay back nine different lenders. The $5 a day she earned didn't even cover the interest, though she didn't realise it. We raised $2,000, a huge sum in Cambodia, and paid off her debt. Then we gave her a monthly pension and set up a tiny shop so she could sell drinks to her neighbours without ever leaving her house. She started a new life.

And then I couldn't stop.

Soon I was helping a whole village: grandmothers and grandfathers living alone, without family, pensions or regular meals. One basket became ten, ten became a hundred.

Today, two years later, we care for more than 30 elders. We have delivered 450+ food baskets, village by village, several times a month. We bring medicine when it's needed, help in hard moments, cook together and share long dinners full of music and laughter. We even built a house for one of our grannies.

To keep it going, we created Art of Kindness Tours: small groups who travel with us, meet the grandmothers and help with their own hands. 100% of tour profits go to the Food Program.

And now we dream bigger: a home and a community in Siem Reap, where elders who can no longer live alone will be safe, fed and loved.