In June 2009 our Rotary Club donated S$52,500 to the Compassion Education Foundation (based in Taiwan) to enable 33 students to attend the 3-year high school programme at Bozhou No. 1 High School. It was a project spearheaded by PP Johnson Tan and Billy Lee, and we had long wanted to visit the school and meet the students.
On 27 Sep 2010, we finally made the visit. Johnson, Billy, Chin Koy Nam and Vincent Chen flew from Shanghai to Fuyang in Anhui Province where we were met by the Foundation’s representatives, Mr & Mrs Tsai Ching Chiang, who had been responsible for selecting the students. We then travelled by MPV for 1-1/2 hours to Bozhou, a town in a rather poor agricultural region best known for growing Chinese medical herbs.
Arriving at Bozhou No. 1 High School at 3 pm, we were welcomed by the Principal, Mr Shi Lei, and his senior staff, as well as Mr Sun Jinlun from the municipal government. China has compulsory free education up to grade 9 or junior high. High school is not free and can be beyond the means of poor families. We learnt that while our donation provided our students (who live in the school) with money for food and incidentals, the school also did its part by waiving school fees and providing free lodging.
Next we set off to visit the homes of two students to give us an idea of the family background of the students we were assisting. In the end, because it took so long to travel on the bumpy rural dirt tracks – almost 2 hours each way – we managed to visit the home of only one student, Huang Ya Nan. Her father was a construction worker and her mother a farmer, and their rural home was small and had only very basic amenities. Clearly they were very poor and Ya Nan could not have gone to high school without a scholarship. But what was impressive was their emphasis on education. On the dimly lit walls of their small living room were neatly pasted the many certificates of scholastic achievements awarded to Ya Nan and her younger brother in primary school and junior high school.
It was 8 pm and very dark when we returned to the school. However all the classrooms were still buzzing. We were told that students typically studied in class until 10 pm each night. After a quick and simple meal in the school canteen, we finally got to meet our students. They were in a class of 50 named the Raffles Pearl Class in recognition of our sponsorship. Johnson and Vincent addressed the class in Mandarin and English respectively – telling them about Rotary and Singapore and encouraging them to study hard and do well in life. What impressed us in the Q & A session was the students’ eagerness to learn about Rotary and Singapore and their English language proficiency – all their questions were asked in English. After the exchange of gifts – Johnson had brought a 4 Way Test plaque for each of them – and a group photo session, it was time to take our leave. As we walked to our MPV, each of us was surrounded by students who actively sought our attention. We were touched by their enthusiasm to learn and their eagerness to engage us in conversation and we were sorry we could not stay longer.
The visit affirmed our belief that our project served a very good cause. The Raffles Pearl Class accounted for more than half of the top 50 students out of the 500 students in the school’s 11th grade. Despite their humble backgrounds, our students have achieved excellent academic results. Clearly our students are very intelligent, diligent and motivated and they certainly deserve the opportunity we give them to attend high school and further the development of their potential.
RCRC Chat Corner
“I’m a doer and worker. I serve leaders well to get things done”
Corina Lai
In an exclusive interview on 31st August 2010 with RCRC Director of Communications, Tengku Indra, Corina Lai who has just celebrated her 10th year as a Rotarian with RCRC, talks about her passion with Rotary work and the joy of service as a veteran Rotarian. This is the first in a series of Chit Chat with RCRC members profiling Rotarians of the Club to capture their thoughts and philosophy about being a Rotarian to build communities and bridge continents.
Profile: Corina Lai
Hon Secretary 2010 – 2011 Rotary Year
Classification: Education
Date Joined Rotary: June 2000
Profession:
Chief Financial Officer
Dyslexia Association of Singapore
Tengku: Q. How do you feel about being a Rotarian especially as a member of RCRC?
Corina: I enjoy it! I enjoy the hard work. When I first joined the club ten years ago, I had no idea whatsoever about Rotary. Through the encouragement of PP Jimmy Daruwalla I took this leap of faith to become a Rotarian believing that I could find an avenue to serve the community. It has been ten years now and I have gained so much insight about Rotary. This spurred me to develop a “Welcome Kit for New Members” when I first became the Club Service Director in 2002. I am glad this kit has become an important inducting tool for our new members-unlike me when I started.
Tengku: Q. Rotary is about service to others. Share with us some of the highlights you experienced in serving others so far.
Corina: I get a “real kick” every year when we visit the homes such as the Jamiyah Old Folks Home during Hari Raya and the Red Cross Home at Christmas. Visiting these homes constantly gives me the opportunity to empathise with the residents there. They look innocent and they probably are enjoying the simplest things in life to the fullest – no hand phone, no internet; no face book-simply the basics. And when we visit them we could feel the glow of joy in their faces of being appreciated and cared for. The pleasure of giving - the Zakat, Oranges, Goodie Bags, the sing-along session led by PP Ron and the Rotaractors – all goes to say that we can find the joy of building communities even at the old folks and spastic children homes.
Tengku: Q. Rotary is made up of leaders of leaders. How would you interpret leadership in the context of Rotary?
Corina: To be a leader in Rotary you have to be extra sensitive to others. I am glad –in our club, we respect the leader – no rank. We look at the position of The President as an office-we don’t look at the person holding it. It is just like when you are a passenger in a plane. How the pilot looks like- tall or short -big size or small size- does not matter. You know whoever occupies the cockpit – he has the command and you put the trust in him to take off and land and give you the joy of the flight. It’s the same in Rotary. You put your trust to the office bearer irrespective whether it’s the President or Club Service or International Service etc.etc. You have been elected – we trust you will deliver during the Rotary Year. And it’s a full year flight. So for this year I would say...Great take off Captain David Lee!
Tengku: Q. This year’s Rotary theme is “Building Communities, Bridging Continents.”What is your opinion on this theme especially in the context of multi racial, multi lingual, multi culture and cosmopolitan Singapore?
Corina: I knew you are going to pop out this question sooner or later. Well I was amused when I saw Aravinth all dressed in the Arabic Sheikh Gear, Rtn Karen Tan all dressed in the Japanese Kimono, Richard and I tried to portray a Nepalese outlook at our recent 30th anniversary dinner at the Hilton. It’s not just the costume we wear –it’s more than that-it shows our willingness to embrace change-accept the diversity of this world - look and feel good about it. Building bridges makes sense. Living in a diverse society such as Singapore, we must be culturally sensitive to others and make efforts to learn about other cultures and habits. The fastest way to connect with others is to show your willingness to learn about other cultures and avoid being enthnocentric. Our club is pretty diverse. We have people from different cultures and continents. The best way to attract new members to our club is to demonstrate the richness of our cultural diversity. We need to get new members accepted very fast especially those from a different country or continent. In this sense I would suggest that we adopt a kind of buddy system. Perhaps we could start off a culture where we sit with a different people at different meeting. This would ensure faster integration of our club and prevent the common practice of “the inner circle” and “outer circle” within clubs.
Tengku: Q. what is your wish for RCRC to have greater impact on the community?
Corina: DAS is a very good model of how a Rotary Club could have an impact on the society. It jells the club-gives us a focus and instil that sense of pride for a “Project Well Done!” I wish to see an initiative in our club to do an eco-green project such as “Save the earth campaign”. Recycling...or may be tree planting. May be we can start initiating a tree planting campaign this year with Pres. David Lee to plant a fruit tree under his name ...this practice goes on every year....and ten years from now we can all be proud of the fruits of the labour...a real contribution to eco-green.
Tengku Q. How do you see the future of Rotary?
Corina: Rotary is here to stay. Any organization that has survived more than 100 years will go on. We just need constant infusion of new blood into the organization and ensure we embrace change all the time. As for our club RCRC, I believe we have a good membership size – very diverse with good leadership platform. We have been around for thirty years and we will continue with this journey into the future.
Hari Raya Celebration at Jamiyah Old Folks Home
The Last Call !
20th District Conference
3-5 December 2010
