Sharing Opportunity with Eighty Grandchildren

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.) They soon discovered that poverty wasn't the only issue. Children whose parents had disappeared and who had no money had very low self-esteem. So, Nancy and Peter decided to exact academic excellence from the children they supported, promising them a future in college. It was only then they realized what a impossible promise that was. (see post twelve.) So they worked at raising the level of the village schools by skyping in lessons from a better school district. (see post thirteen and fourteen.)

So, Nancy and Peter started an excellent student scholarship program, to date with 80 students. They started televised teaching. They succeeded in getting computers in the county schools. Surely, they could sit back and relax now.

“We’re starting a third project now.” Nancy laughed. "While the students can all read English pretty well, they cannot speak or listen. "
So, again in order to make these village children competitive in the education system and in the world, Nancy and Peter are going  enlist the help of native speakers of English to skype lessons to the classrooms. 

“No textbook. No curriculum. Just conversation," Nancy said. "No religion. No politics. Just talk about daily life.” 

Nancy spends her afternoons composing e-mails to her kids. At midnight she often gets back the responses.  I said it was like she had an enormous extended family.

Grandma Ma and Grandpa Lee with their 80 grandchildren.

“I do,” she said. “I have eighty grandchildren.”

The children call her "Grandma Ma." They call Peter, "Grandpa Lee."

And these grandparents are vigilant, keeping track of all the ups and downs of the children’s lives. From the shy one who is now “like a bird out of a cage,” to the young man who failed his college entrance exam the first time and , upon Nancy’s insistence, tried again. (He got in.) There are heartbreaks upon heartbreaks—broken families, disinterested parents/grandparents, a lack of financial and emotional support. The Lees are always there to provide a gentle but firm guiding hand. 
“We’ve been very lucky,” said Nancy. “This country (the U.S.)  gave us opportunity. We want to give it to others.”

With gratitude to Nancy and Peter, this concludes this interview. 
By the way, if you can volunteer your English abilities, contact Nancy or Peter at  WuWei Harmony