fund raising is a very very very humbling process. in dialect terms, i guess it can be said as very "pai seh ah!"...

gosh..

as some of you know, i'll be headed to shanghai this coming friday for the continuation of the qian qian shou project ("thousand linking hands project").

ok, let me explain a little bit what this whole project and fund raising thing is all about.

this QQS project started in 2006 by TCSI (Touch Community Services International). it is a 3-yr project and those who joined since the first year is expected to have a 3-yr commitment with this project. this is the 2nd yr in running. we will be going to shanghai to meet the needs of the people there. in the first year, the team went up there to access the needs of the community there. this second yr there is really to meet the needs of the community. we would be partnering with the local volunteers in shanghai and move out together in teams to serve the people of shanghai.

the objectives of this project are two-fold. first, the volunteers can learn from one another because we'll be working together and our team staff would be teaching them skills so that they don't run dry while serving and they can find themselves continually learning through the process of serving. and of course, the next objective is to meet the needs of the community there.

you see, though we learn that shanghai is a very developed state in china, there are also parts of shanghai that remains needy and somewhat poor and undeveloped. shanghai has a population of abt 14 million and the land area is abt 3-4 times that of singapore. shanghai is split into 2 regions one east of the huang pu river, pu dong, and one west of the same river, pu xi. pu xi is the area where the financial hub is. that's where we hear abt all the business things and economy stuff is happening. pu dong is still being developed and the further away you go into pu dong from the river, the more underdeveloped it still remains.

so the community we'll be serving are mainly people in the pu dong area.

looks like i've digressed quite abit from the topic of fund raising. back to the topic...

for this project, the volunteers are allowed to fund raise for the cost of their trip. costs would include air ticket, accommodation, the basic meals and project material costs. and i assure you that the food we eat, the things we use and the places we live in is not at all fantastic.

the humbling part comes in when you meet very generous people and when you meet people who're probably not as well-to-do as you are but want badly to contribute to the project you serve in. you see, it's not that i cannot afford to pay for this trip myself. the objective of fund raising is really to create awareness, allowing others who cannot be there physically to play a part and also to humble the hearts of the volunteers.

just because i am a "foreign aide" doesn't put me in a higher level than the local volunteers. it doesn't make me more capable and it doesn't entitle me to be more proud. it serves to remind me that i am there because there are people (the funders) here who care for the people in china and we volunteers are just representing this group over here back home. it also reminds me to give my best in terms of my effort, not to laze or waste. because i fund raised, i am laden with a greater load of responsibility. i don't think forking out the full amount out of my pockets can serve the purpose of humbling me.

i guess this experience will always put me in a position of surrender and humility. this feeling is really hmmm.. can't find a word to properly describe it. it's just humbling that's all. helps me sees things through people's eyes.

anyway, i'll see you all next thursday. i'm leaving on friday morning. ciao!

{ Wednesday, July 11 }