Ben Shum is a professional makeup artist, hair stylist, and photographer with a background in fine art located in Victoria, BC, Canada.

Whether you are wanting a new look or style, personal portraits, professional head-shots, wedding photos, or even complete makeovers, Ben is your one-stop complete personal image service.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Attention everyone.
On Sunday, April 17th, I will be offering haircuts by donation with 100% of the proceeds going directly to one family who lost there home and all their worldly possessions in the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
I will be asking for a minimum donation of $10 per cut, starting at 10am. I would like people to call ahead for appointments for this fundraising event, since I'm only one person and I want to make sure I can fit everyone in who would like to contribute.
If you or someone you know aren't able to make an appointment but would like to be a part of this, come by any time during that day and I will try to fit you in anyway. And for anyone else who can't be here that day, but would like to donate to this family, please contact me and I will pass on the information for where you can send money directly.
Below is the story of this family from my friend Nikolai.

Dear friends,

As some of you may know, I have a personal connection to Japan (where I lived for three years before moving to Victoria) and to some people there who have been recently effected by earthquake and tsunami.

I am currently in the process of trying to help my friend whose family and community were devastated by the tsunami last week. My friend Alexey, whom I’ve known for 20 years, his Japanese wife Makiko and their two little children, Kaisei (5 years old) and Takumi (1.5 years old), lived in town of Shichigahama, near the city of Sendai.

Alexey was on his way home when the earthquake hit the city; he received a message from home from his wife that she was on her way to the tsunami shelter with their children. Shortly after that tsunami hit their town, and Alexey lost any contact with his family. Because of paralyzed traffic, he couldn’t get to their town until next day only to find that his home and the whole neighborhood were gone (see photos below). He spent many terrifying hours looking for his wife and children.  Eventually, next day, he found them in one of the shelters – miraculously, Makiko had managed to take their 5 and 1.5-year old children to safety before their house was washed away by tsunami.

I was finally able to contact Alexey on Monday and learned that they “lost everything except clothing [they] were wearing at the time of tsunami”. They are very grateful to be alive, but they are facing many challenges including very limited resources and uncertainly, in part due to spreading radiation after the explosions on Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station.

I will be sending money to Alexey and his family. If you would like to contribute, I would greatly appreciate any donations. If you prefer to send money directly to Alexey’s family via bank (banks in Sendai seem to be working again), I will provide you with the family’s bank account information in Japan. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you,
Nikolai Lanine

Below is a picture of what used to be Alexey’s family’s neighborhood. Arrow points at the place where their house used to stand.

Alexey standing on what used to be his street.

Tsunami shelter where Alexey found his children and wife Makiko.  After re-uniting, family stayed here for few days.

View of Alexey’s town from his “home”.

Makiko looking for family things.

Alexey's family's possessions.

Alexey's family.

Alexey's children.