In 2000, Yi Jiefeng’s son was killed in a tragic accident in Japan. She lost herself in grief — that is, until she discovered something she could do to keep his memory alive. While he was on this earth, her son wanted to devote his life to planting trees in the deserts of Inner Mongolia. Fond of nature, he wanted to do his best to protect it. So after he passed, Yi took up his work and founded Green Life, a project to reforest desert areas of China. “He was fond of nature since he was a little boy,” Yi said of her son. “In the beginning, I did this charity as a mother who wanted to realize her son’s dream. But later I realized that China has a really serious desertification problem … If the situation keeps getting worse, how can 1.3 billion Chinese people possibly survive? So we felt a sense of social responsibility. “”



**See more of Yi’s story in the video below.**