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Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

The Value of Every Single Life


 One of the principles within every religion in the world is that we do what we can, by working with what we have, to make the world a better place. The speed and complexity and the constant change of the world, pushes some people, the world over, to stop seeing their own value and with that, believe that no one else sees their value either. Suicide is often the result.

Enter Chen Si of Nanjing, China.


Chen is a fruit seller who lives near the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, a place notorious for suicides. In 2003, Chen watched in horror from his stand as a woman prepared to leap from the bridge to kill herself. Chen intervened and talked the woman off of the bridge. Then, as the days and months went by, he saved another and another after that.
He now spends every weekend (when most suicides from the bridge occur) patrolling the area looking for people who might be contemplating suicide. When he finds one, Chen approaches them, respectfully, and talks to them, but mostly he does something few others have done for these people; he listens to them. He listens to them talk about their failures, their loss of family or a job, the debt they have, the problems they can overcome.
Then he helps them find a solution. Chen has called creditors on behalf of the people he’s saved to try and work it out. He finds mental health counseling for them. He does what he can do to keep them alive.
In all, Chen Si had stopped over 300 suicides at the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.