Low Self-Esteem More Crippling Than Poverty

Retired UCSF Pharmacology Professor Nancy Ma and Internist Peter Lee both fled from China for different reasons. However, recently they created the foundation WuWei Harmony which does projects with China. 
Nancy was born in Shanghai during the 1940s. Her father worked as Asian General Manager for Colgate-Palmolive, a wonderful position...until the Communists took over in 1949.  He fled first to Hong Kong, a British territory back then. The rest of the family , however, could not get exit visas. (See post one.) After seven years of waiting, they finally managed to get to Hong Kong. (See post two.) 
Husband Peter fled from China for different reasons. His parents were part of the Nationalist Army that fought against the Japanese from 1937-45 and then the Communists from 1945-49. (See post three.) While Peter was safe from Communism, he realized upon college graduation that there weren't many job opportunities. Fortunately, he got a scholarship at the University of Texas. (See post four.) Meanwhile, Nancy struggled in Hong Kong. Her mother enrolled her in a Cantonese/English high school, two languages Nancy did not understand. Nancy only lasted three days. (See post five.)But she did well in college, and managed to get a scholarship to Southwestern University in Georgetown Texas. (see post six.) She started looking for a job, and ended up getting her Ph.D. (see post seven.) In 1981, when Nancy was a Professor of Pharmacology, China came knocking on her door. Would she come give some professional speeches to the Beijing Medical School and the Chinese Academy of Sciences? Although wary, she agreed. She and Peter then returned again a decade later. By then her old hometown was barely recognizable due to construction and modernization. (See post eight.)
 Upon retirement, they met a colleague working to build schools in China, and they offered to help as well. They received VIP treatment anytime they were in the country. But, as soon as they left, they couldn't contact anyone related to the project, a project which entailed putting computers in classrooms. (See post nine.) There was great resistance to computers, as well as many other obstacles. (see post ten.) They went on to work instead doing micro-finance in Sichuan. Eight years ago, while on a visit to ensure that their finances were being properly used, they stumbled on a new problem: children who couldn't afford schooling. They immediately extended their hands to help. (See post eleven.)

Quickly Nancy and Peter both realized that giving money was the easy part.

Known as "Ice Boy" for his frozen hair, following a 90-minute trek to school,
 this Yunnan child received donations of money, clothes, books, toys.

“What is not easy is that these kids—because of the environment that they’re in—they have very low self-esteem,” said Nancy. “They have no self-respect. They think they deserve to be poor, to be not important. They have no desire to get out of their destiny. In order to reverse that, we have to do a lot of things psychologically to help.”

The first thing they did was to change the focus of their program from that of funding the impoverished children to funding impoverished excellent academic scholarship.

“We told the kids, ‘The reason you’re in our project is because you’re academically excellent. And if you are, the two of us will see to it that you go to college.’ So they were given a boost that they were not just picked up because they’re poor.”

Still, once Grandma Ma and Grandpa Lee—as the children called them-- had opened their mouths and held out this “carrot” of college, they realized that they needed to make sure the kids got good enough grades to compete with city kids fighting for the same college spots. That’s when they discovered just how low the village education standard was.

(To be continued. Next: Pulling the Elderly Card)