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.)
Nancy and Peter were feeling less-than-enthused about their ventures into China. That's when they met Casey Wilson, the niece of
Oakland Mayor Lorna Wilson. Casey had set up a foundation doing micro-financing
in Yilong County, Sichuan (ironically also the birthplace of Marshall Zhude, the founder of Communism.)
Nancy and Peter offered to help with the foundation.“Our money funded 31 farmers and village people,” said
Nancy.
 |
| Marshall Zhu De with Chairman Mao |
She explained that the foundation had a website which listed how well the farmers were doing,
and at what rate they were repaying the loans. The stats from China showed that
all the borrowers were paying their loans back. But, after Nancy and Peter’s experience
with the HOPE schools, they were wary of trusting county stats. So they took a trip to see for themselves.
While they discovered the statistics were indeed accurate, they found another problem--extreme, heart-wrenching poverty. On their return trip from visiting a couple of the farmers, the woman charged with leading them around, Ms. Gao Xiang Jun, asked if she could make a quick stop to speak with some other families. In
both of those families, Ms. Gao explained, the children lived with their
grandparents, as the fathers had gone to cities to work and died in accidents, the mothers had left. Ms. Gao said that now the children—three
girls-- were in school, but soon would no longer be as the grandparents were unable to pay the school
fees.
“What do you mean not go to school?” Nancy recalled, her
eyes brimming. “We immediately took money from our pocket to make sure those
three girls stayed in school.”
From that moment eight years ago, they began working with Ms. Gao to fund impoverished children in Yilong County of Sichuan province, one of the poorest spots in the country.
From that moment eight years ago, they began working with Ms. Gao to fund impoverished children in Yilong County of Sichuan province, one of the poorest spots in the country.
(To be continued: Low Self-Esteem More Crippling than Poverty)
No comments:
Post a Comment