Students of the Tzu Chi Teenagers’ Class presented the sign language song, “Never be Afraid to Dream”, to encourage their peers downstage not to give up on their dreams. (Photo by Huang Da Lun)
“Go! Never be afraid to dream; never give up and continue on……”
On 20 June 2015, at the first Seeds of Hope (SOH) Character Development Camp held at the Jing Si Hall, students of the Tzu Chi Teenagers’ Class presented the upbeat sign language song, “Never be Afraid to Dream”, to encourage their peers downstage to follow their dreams despite the personal and family challenges they face. The 36 camp attendees, who were of different races and religions, were potential recipients of Tzu Chi Singapore’s Seeds of Hope (SOH) Meritorious Award.
A total of 51 students are being considered for the SOH Meritorious Award. They hailed from 32 different secondary schools across Singapore and were specially selected from the 1,519 beneficiaries of Tzu Chi’s Seeds of Hope Financial Assistance Scheme, based on the progress in their personal conduct and character development. Through six months of house visits, Tzu Chi volunteers will offer care and encouragement to the beneficiary students and their families, and an evaluation panel will select the final recipients of the award later this year.
Tzu Chi’s Charity and Education teams, the latter of which has experience in motivating youths, worked together to plan the programme for the camp. The first half of the day focused on motivating the participants and raising their self-confidence, while the afternoon was set aside for the parent-child bonding activity.
Dare to Dream
“I need two rubber bands, three pairs of glasses, four pens and five pairs of socks! The time starts now!”
The Jing Si Hall was bustling with activity as the camp participants hurriedly searched their pockets, took off their socks and untied rubber bands from their hair. They exhibited great teamwork as they worked to gather the needed items within the shortest time.
Though the participants did not know each other beforehand and were a little shy at first, they warmed up quickly after the ice-breaker games. They were accompanied by facilitators made up of volunteers and members of the Tzu Chi Teenagers’ Class. According to Dai Yu Mei, an experienced member of the Education team who was in charge of the programme, children nowadays generally lack self-confidence and willpower. Therefore it was important to motivate them and instil the spirit of perseverance in them. A clip of motivational speaker Nick Vujicic who was born without limbs was screened, followed by a presentation by Chen Yong Hua. Both the former and the latter though handicapped, were able to rise above their circumstances through having an unshakeable belief in themselves.
Vujicic’s courage and his firm voice brought the message across to his young audience that he would not give up even if he failed to stand up a hundred times. He viewed one’s personal choice as the most important in life ─ one could choose to believe in oneself or to believe in the opinion that others have of oneself. Chen on the other hand, lost his voice and the use of his limbs at 17 years of age and was bedridden for 3 years. His burning wish to return to school and his unwavering determination helped him overcome numerous physical challenges; he was finally able to stand up again and even graduated with a double degree.
Participant Joynta was struck by the fact that Chen was struck with misfortune at the same age that he is currently, and was amazed at the latter’s determination and resilience which far surpasses that of many people with healthy bodies. Expressing his gratitude for having a normal, healthy body with full use of his limbs, Joynta said Chen was a role model to look up to. He further hoped to achieve good grades and to get a well-paying job to support his family in the future.
Nur Sakinah lost her mother to cancer last year and she still feels the pain. Her lorry driver father has to balance the heavy load of his job and family. Wishing to alleviate his burden, Sakinah took on a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant, causing her studies to be inevitably affected. Reflecting on the stories of Vujicic and Chen, she said that she was blessed with a healthy body yet had not maximized her potential. She expressed that she would study harder to get good grades in order to have a bright future. Her dream was to enter the police academy and become a police officer.
Parents Never Give Up
In the afternoon, Dorothy Teoh, one of the camp facilitators, shared with the participants her experience as a mother. Her 15-year-old son, Dexter, who has mild cerebral palsy, only started talking at 3 years old. At 5 years of age, he moved about with the use of his knees and started walking only when he was 7 years old. Teoh and her spouse refused to buy him a wheelchair and wanted to see him walk by himself at all cost. That day, Dexter stood on stage and shared his joy and gratefulness in being able to volunteer with Tzu Chi despite his physical impairment.
As she recollected the past, Teoh has no complaints. She said, “As parents, we anxiously want our children to achieve as we see the potential in them. No matter how difficult it is, we do not have any regrets because this is the responsibility of being parents. “
Jagateesvaran, a 16-year-old participant gathered up his courage and spoke about his experience struggling with dyslexia. When he first entered primary school, he was unable to read, write, or memorise. His mother employed many tutors for him with no success. When he was diagnosed with the learning disability at primary three, he developed an inferiority complex. However, after years of hard work, Jagateesvaran achieved five distinctions and was first in his class.
“I am grateful to my mother who taught me with such patience and did not give up on me no matter how many setbacks I met with. She cared for me and encouraged me. Without her, I will not be where I am today,” he shared.
Jagateesvaran’s father had passed away from illness and he looked forward to the day that he could afford his mother a comfortable life.
Overall coordinator of the camp Hong De Qian revealed that during the house visits, the Charity team members discovered that some students have a strained relationship with their parents due to lack of care and communication. These family factors have a direct impact on their self-confidence, academic progress, and conduct. Hong said “We hope that our specially put together programme can inspire confidence in them and uplift their spirit, and that the filial piety activity can rebuild those parent-child bonds.”
A Meeting of Hearts
During the afternoon session, when parents and guardians arrived at the Jing Si Hall, they were shown to the multipurpose room and provided with coloured pens and cards. The 31 of them wrote down heartfelt words of encouragement and blessings for their children, such as ”You are the best!” and “I LOVE YOU” whilst in the prayer hall, camp participants were also intently engaged in designing thank you cards in preparation for the filial piety activity of washing their parent’s feet.
The volunteers also had a surprise planned for the parents before the feet-bathing segment: they arranged for the camp participants to leave the prayer hall temporarily and had the parents seated first. Then, guided by the emcee, parents were taken through the exercise to recollect the ups and downs of taking care of their child while camp participants were separately asked to recollect how much they had to be grateful to their parents for. Then when the parents opened their eyes after the exercise, the first thing they saw was their own child in front of them!
“When I saw my mother’s feet, l knew how much she had suffered for us; she has walked so much for our sake.” As he looked at his mother’s feet, camp participant Su Yong Tian could not hold back his tears. Madam Liang Jia Hui, as a mother to a family of five, shoulders the family’s burden solely by herself. She works in a market research company and goes from door to door everyday conducting different types of surveys. Yong Tian is the eldest child in the family, and his frame looks larger than his actual age of 14 years. Kneeling in front of his petite mother, he lifted up her feet and placed them in a small wash basin before using a small cloth to clean them repeatedly. With his head bent and shoulders trembling, drops of his tears splashed down onto his mother’s feet. Madam Liang wiped them away with some tissue and the pair tearily embraced in an emotional moment.
“I must study hard and not let my mother worry; I want to take care of her when she is old,” said Yong Tian as he choked back sobs. As for Madam Liang, who often worries for her asthmatic son, her hopes are the same as any other mother— as long as her children are healthy, she is content.
Cherishing One Another
Wang Si Jie is all of sweet sixteen, and she was the only SOH recipient to perform that day as she sang a song about the passing of time as parents take care of their children.
“The lyrics warm the hearts of people and inspire us all to love and cherish our parents. Since our birth, our parents have taken great pains to care for us, yet in the process of growing up I have hurt them through my immaturity and rebelliousness. Where has the time for treasuring our parents gone......” Si Jie held back tears as her words trailed off.
Madam Chen Mei Cai is the sole pillar of financial support for the family and Si Jie is the eldest daughter of three siblings. As Madam Chen is busy working to make ends meet, the mother and daughter seldom have the opportunity to interact. As Si Jie stood in front of her mother in preparation to wash her mother’s feet, it was evident how awkward they both felt, perhaps because they were not used to being so close. Yet as she knelt and bent her head to remove her mother’s socks, her emotions were released in a flood of tears and the knots in their relationship melted away as they warmly hugged each other.
The event concluded with the voices of 110 volunteers singing in unison, “One Family.” It was their hope that camp participants who had experienced the love from the big Tzu Chi family would bring the love back to their own individual families. Stepping out of Jing Si Hall, everyone wore confident smiles on their faces and coupled with gratitude in their hearts, certainly looked forward to welcoming more fortunate days ahead.
Note: In 2009, Tzu Chi Singapore launched the Seeds of Hope Financial Assistance Scheme, which provides students from needy families with meal and transport allowances. Since its launch, the scheme has benefited over 15,000 cases. The Seeds of Hope Meritorious Award was introduced in 2014, to recognize and affirm students who have made significant progress in their studies and who maintain good conduct.
The very first Tzu Chi Seeds of Hope Development Camp included a feet-bathing segment where children washed their parents’ feet in a show of filial piety. (Photo by Huang Da Lun)
Chen Yong Hua (centre) temporarily lost his voice and the use of his limbs at 17 years of age and was bedridden for 3 years. It was his unwavering determination in the face of challenges that gave him the ability to stand up again. (Photo by Lin Meng Cai)
Jagateesvaran (left) overcame the learning difficulties of dyslexia with the encouragement of his mother and eventually achieved five distinctions as the top student in his class. (Photo by Zhuo Jia Ling)
With the guidance of volunteers, parents wrote down heartfelt words of blessings and encouragement for their children. (Photo by Huang Da Lun)
Under the instructions of the emcee, the parents closed their eyes and recalled the events in the upbringing of their child. (Photo by Lin Meng Cai)
Su Yong Tian’s tears flowed when he saw how his mother’s feet were weathered by life’s grind and his mother tenderly dabbed at his tears with a tissue. (Photo by Lin Meng Cai)
Participant Wang Si Jie presented a song that sang of the hardships that parents face in bringing up their children, and are not aware how they themselves have aged. (Photo by Huang Da Lun)
A total of 110 volunteers who were involved in the camp sang the song “One Family” at the closing of the activity, in the hopes that participants would bring the love from the big family of Tzu Chi back to their own smaller families. (Photo by Lin Meng Cai)
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