Motherly touch: Mariatu Kargbo with Chinese disadvantaged kids (COURTESY PHOTO)

Mariatu Kargbo stays with disadvantaged Sierra Leonean kids. Back in Sierra Leone, she set up the Mariatu Kargbo Foundation to help the needy and support 680 war orphans COURTESY PHOTO

Beauty with a purpose

Once there, she served bravely in the local hospital for over three weeks, before succumbing to illness herself. "Because some people [had] lost their family and houses, they were giving up [on] their lives. I talked to them and sang to them and tried to retrieve their spirits again," she said.

Huang Meihua is a 15-year-old Chinese girl who lost both legs during the earthquake. Kargbo met her when Huang wanted to give up on her life after the operation. Kargbo sang songs to comfort her and encourage her not to give up. Later she paid tuition fees for her to learn guzheng, a traditional Chinese instrument.

She also supported four other children who suffered from the earthquake. From 2008 to 2011, every time she went back to see the kids, she kept diaries. Last year, she put the diaries together and sold them at the price of 450,000 yuan ($71,429). She donated the money to pay for the living and education costs for five children.

"I suffered a lot of hardships in my childhood. I know the way I went through. It's like hell. When I see these kids, I want them to have hopes and be happy," she explained. "They're clever and want to learn. They just need courage and a little bit of support."

Back in Sierra Leone, to help the needy and support 680 war orphans, she set up the Mariatu Kargbo Foundation, to which she donated most of her personal savings. In April last year, the foundation donated school materials, facilities and paid teachers' salaries for the Polio Victims Association and the International Pentecostal Orphanage Primary School at Grafton.

She also hopes to build housing facilities and help the children to learn skills that will help them find jobs in the future.

Singing Sensation: Mariatu Kargbo performs traditional Chinese opera (COURTESY PHOTO)

Cultural ambassador

Kargbo not only uses her talents to help kids, but also to bridge cultures.

Her breakthrough came on CCTV's hit Super Star talent show in 2007, when her spirited African fire and snake dances captivated a country where most know little about African culture.

Two years later, Kargbo won the qualifying rounds and semi-finals to reach the finals of the 59th Miss World Contest in Johannesburg, South Africa. There she became the first contestant to win two awards, for Best Talent and Best Dress Designer, and the first to perform in the final show.

She was also the first foreigner to perform bian lian, the ancient Chinese art of "face-changing" in Sichuan Opera on the Miss World stage. (Bian lian performers change masks back and forth in the blink of an eye.) The secrets of this art have been passed down from one generation to the next, but foreigners and women are traditionally forbidden from learning bian lian.

"My bian lian teacher said he taught me because I love China, as I went to Sichuan and saved a lot of lives in the earthquake, and also because I would bring Chinese culture further on the Miss World [stage]," she recalled, adding that it took her several months to learn.

Kargbo has a strong interest in Chinese culture. Two years ago, she was admitted as the first African apprentice of a renowned Sichuan Province kungfu master, Liu Suibin, who is a well-known practitioner of Qingcheng Sect, one of four Chinese major martial art forms.