Susanna's lunch project

Last spring, Susanna and other students collected money to start a healthy lunch program for a small, rural elementary school.  They raised 1800 Yuan which is about $300 and that bought 600 meals for students.  The program has been so successful that they are going to continue to collect funds and provide lunches for these children.

 

Below is a correspondence I just received from her.

 

 

 

10/7/2012

My dear friend,

I am Susanna, an advanced member of the World Academy for the Future of Women.
I would like to give you an update on the efforts of the Free Lunch for Children team, bringing you up to speed on what we've been able to accomplish.

We received 1800 yuan by this August and donated all the money to the NGO "Free Lunch for Children". It means we offered 600 meals to the poor children who have no lunch in Henan province. In September, Dr. Shawn Chen graciously matched the amounts of funds that we'd raised so far, meaning that a lot more children will enjoy a free lunch.

We launched this project last semester in April to support the Millennium Development Goal, ending poverty and hunger, in order to feed the poor children who have no lunch in Henan province. We planned to raise money at the Honoring Women Awards Show during the Women Symposium in May originally. The minimum donation we would ask was 3.00 yuan (47 cents) per person and try to raise a total of 7000 yuan. It means we could offer the whole year's lunches for 35 students.

However, we got sad news on the day, 4 hours before the Awards Show. The board office advised us that we would not be able to solicit donations, and so we've had to be creative in our fundraising efforts. I would like to show you the process and how we collected money.

Breakout forum --- 227.2 yuan
The WAFW party --- 524 yuan
Donation across the Pacific Ocean --- 13.6 yuan
Donation from the Internet --- 52 yuan
Friends --- a lot
…………
…………
Total 1800 yuan

Already, we have 1938 yuan in donations for the second round, thanks to Dr. Chen's generous match. That means with just an additional 162 yuan ($25.62) in donations, we will be able to provide 700 further meals, or if we raise another 1062 yuan ($167.93), we'll be able to provide a further 1000 meals.

I would like to call upon everyone, including you, who has heard of my project to help the poor children who have no lunch, no matter you want to donate or offer other kind of help.

Enclosed is a copy of the receipt from China Social Welfare Foundation which shows the amount my team contributed. With your donation, more children will have lunches.

I look forward to receiving your responses and thank you for your generosity. Thank you on behalf of my team members and the poor children in Henan.

Sincerely,
Susanna Ma
Team captain, Free Lunch for Children
Member, Advanced Academy for the Future of Women
Team members: Valerie Wang, Molly Meng, Claudia Xu, Talia Lee, Kerry Kong, Miry Xu, Wency Zhang, Annalee, Lisa Mao.

P.S. Please feel free to forward this update to anyone who may be interested in helping us.

 

0fddc367-5c70-4eed-8465-4f41cf43f5b2

Y2:0fddc367-5c70-4eed-8465-4f41cf43f5b2

 

 

0fddc367-5c70-4eed-8465-4f41cf43f5b2

Y2:0fddc367-5c70-4eed-8465-4f41cf43f5b2

Gabrielle is coming to the USA in January

Bridget E. Kelly bkelly327@gmail.com	3:23 PM (21 hours ago)
to 空白thinking

Gabrielle, who worte the piece on the Dali Lama, is coming to the USA in the winter.  Below is an email Ijust got from her.

I am hoping that we can connect when she gets here.

On Sep 25, 2012 9:46 AM, "空白thinking" <1367993031@qq.com> wrote:

I just wanted to give you surprise .Here it is how this happened. Sias has a cooperation with Arizona Southwest counseling center and every year Sias will interview some students who are qualified that they can get a phychological training there. I took the first turn interview last semester, and fortunately I passed that and my classmaster told me I will have a interview from Shawn and Jeff this semester. This summer vacation I stayed at Sias and met with Dr. Bob who just came from that counseling center and I did the translation job for him.Then last week I had the interview from Jeff and Shawn and they chose me. I feel so excited and I can go to America this winter for one month~! The first two weeks we will have the training and the last two weeks we will travel and see what Ameica looks like.

I know you live far away from Arizona, and I still don't know out route in that last two weeks.If we have any places to go that near to your house,I will let you know.Can't wait to see you~~~~~~~~

Gabby

Selia resigned from the WAFW today.

I just got an email from Selia.  She quit the World Academy.  Her academic workload, her focus on the GRE and her need to find a part time job are all piling up on her.  So, she had to quit the Academy today. I am sure this was a hard decision for her.

 

 

 

Dear Shirley and Jerrie,

It was nice talking with you today, I looked at my time management sheet and my 6 priority things, I feel like I have to really focus on my most important things for me so far otherwise I would mess everything up. So I am determined not to get back to the World Academy for the Future of Women though I so much want to.

I appreciate everything the World Academy has taught me and the strong support everyone in the Academy has given me. I could not be any luckier.

I am not leaving the Academy because I think I've learnt enough.I always get inspired every time I come to the Academy class. But now this moment, I am very pressured by supporting myself, getting my grades higher and preparing to pass the GRE Test.

Wherever I go, I would always see myself as a member of the World Academy for the Future of Women.

With Appreciation and Admiration

Love

Selia

Follow Up to Selia's presentation to a rural village

Selia got back to China late Saturday night.  She started class early Monday morning and by Wednesday had secured an opportunity to give a presentation to a group of high school students in a rural village for the following weekend.  Here is her latest email.

 

 

 

Hi, hope you are enjoying the rich life.

First of all, I would like to thank all of your support and interest of the project I am doing and responding my last email. I am sorry that I didn't get back to you right after I came back from home about how the speech went.

The high school in my home town were planning to give us (Me, Jerrie Ueberle, Pok Nanda) two hours to talk to the entire student body on campus as they don't have any meeting room that is big enough to host 3000 students. When we got there, it was raining so that we didn't get to make this happen. But the vice-president finally decided to let us give our speech in their biggest meeting room that host 200 students, which I appreciate a lot. I gave an 1 hour speech and Jerrie and Nanda did one hour. We had a very active interaction with the students. I shared about my experience about how to study English, my college life and my project Illegal Marriages. I asked them to sign my agreement sheet if they agree that there is something wrong with illegal marriages and they would like to continue school or look for other life opportunities instead of getting married. What turned out to be is 179 students out of 200 signed it!!!

It was really a lovely weekend that I finally got to meet my family after the long summer. They are so wonderful, generous and fabulous people that have given me so much that I can't appreciate more. I am proud of being my parents' daughter and fortunately, I worked hard to make my parents proud of me and I did it.

Thanks to Jerrie and Nanda, they helped me to find out some issue that has been around my village but I never thought about. There are trash everywhere in the village. We have no trash can so that everyone throws out trash. We are so used to it. One funny thing is Jerrie picked up some trash on the ground and had it in her hand for a while but finally had to put it back to the ground as there is nowhere to put it. And the place that the trash lies in could be planted beautiful flowers. We have very good soil in the village that you only need to put flower seeds into then it will give you a beautiful garden. Now I really understand why Jerrie keep saying that people are in poverty not because of no money but lack of leadership. We have lots of mosquitoes and diseases because of the trash. If we could put trash cans in the village and train the villagers to separate the trash and plant flower along the road where the trash is. What a difference it would make`!

I thought I was brave enough to put posters in my village. But now I feel shamed of myself. I am never enough to challenge the tradition that girls could talk in public and take the lead to educate my people in my home village to start to change our life to be better. We do need money to do that. But there is something more than just money.

There is long way to go and lots of challenges. Life is full of choices, changes and challenges. I chose to make a change then I have to take all the challenges. I am proud of coming from the village, being abandoned by my parents but adopted by the most wonderful parents in the world , being an advanced member of the World Academy for the Future of Women, and being a Chinese that can go anywhere in the world.

Gloria has started her junior year

Dear Bridget,

Today is a new and long day! As a new member of the junior year, I’m so excited and happy. I found I’m fond of learning so much. First, I attended the first class and got to know the new teacher who teaches us advanced English. She is a hard-working woman, obviously trying hard to impress us. I’m willing to discover more from her! The second class is about British and American history. Our teacher is Gary Todd a He is such a humorous and excellent person, telling us the truth in a fun way! He has traveled plenty of places and known so much about history, by the way, he is a doctor in history. I know I’m gonna love him and the history!

The next is French, which I almost forgot. However, I began to get familiar with it as the teacher taught. But I kept doubt about his pronunciation since I had heard a class on ITunes. Anyway it is an exciting start!

Then I had a conversation with Jerrie before our World Academy class began. Days before I told Susanna I gave up the dream of studying abroad, shortly and calmly. Then Susanna told Jerrie about it.

I had worked almost two years and could have had no opportunity of entering university without my parents’ insistence and generous offer. I figured out I had gained a lot and I shouldn’t be a burden to them. They have already suffered so much for my brother’s severe brain health and my nephew’s Willims Syndrome. Without me, they can have a relatively lighter and happier time, traveling some time. They worried so much about the tuition and me staying abroad alone. And I suppose my scores are not good enough to earn a scholarship. Then why not stop thinking of this and give them a relief? Why not be brave to tell yourself your bubble dream is broken? I struggled all the summer vacation. But when I made up my mind and hadn’t gotten enough time to tell you people I love, Jerrie talked to me and encouraged me. I couldn’t stop crying.

Then we went to the class and saw the new members. One year ago, I was just like them, sitting there and staring at Joyce and Judy with curiosity and uncertainty and desire. When I recalled the friends I’ve made, the leadership I’ve learned and precious lessons I’ve gotten, I became very emotional again. All the things seemingly happened just yesterday. I believe I’m blessed to be a member of the World Academy and an advanced member again!

I know you have difficulty in getting internet, but you might be kind to send a letter to the ones who care you and you care, including me please, telling us you're enjoying your life!

Love you!

A message sent to many of us in the USA from Selia

A message to many of us from Selia.  She returned to campus very late on Saturday night and started classes very early on Monday  morning.  Within the week, she had all of the arrangement (below) made and in place:

 

How are you doing?

I am doing ok, busy first week of school.

 

Missing my family so much that I am going back home this weekend. I was thinking of giving a speech about my project Illegal Marriages and my trip to America in the primary school in my village and high school. I called a director of my high school to ask him if he could give me one hour and 80 students to give a speech, he said they have a busy schedule and don't have time for me.

 

 I was upset but this is not what I want. So I didn't give up and I called another director of this high school, he was so excited to hear about my idea. The result is not only he said yes to me, but also he gave me two hours to give a speech to the whole school, which would be 3000 students!!!!!!!

 

I am so excited about this and more excitingly, Jerrie Ueberle, the founder of the World Academy for the Future of Women and Pok Nanda from Cambodia who is helping Jerrie to start another World Academy in Cambodia are coming with me as well.

 

Thank you so much for your strong support to me.

Best regards

Selia