Building schools..

There was once a couple of years ago, i am not sure how it happened exactly but i ended up at the frontseat in my dad’s friend’s car, heading towards a school in pantai cermin. When i reached this ‘school’ turned out to be very different from all the schools i went. There is a main hall, which is about half the size of a normal hall in sg schools, and the four corners were ‘converted’ in four classrooms with wooden planks, thats it. I still remember vividly, sitting side by the side with some of the rural mothers of the area, listening to a young teacher preaching about the two silver coins that were offered to God. I still remember myself walking from ‘classroom’ to ‘classroom’, judging by the old textbooks on the shelves i was trying to comprehend how is it possible to squeeze primary one to six into one class, secondary one to four into one class, tertiary education into one class..

Couple of months after that divine trip and incidents/revelations, i began to discover my life calling to build schools, i consider my life wasted if i die without building them. It seriously doesnt take long for me to notice in Medan how people (including women and children) are trapped not just in a poverty cycle, but are also in what i call a ‘society-class’ cycle. Taking an example, one of my dad’s most capable employee, who handles all his major accounts, earn a pay of sg 200 dollars per month, it is considered to be a good pay in the local working society. But think about this, there is no way that this employee will be able to send his/her kids to study overseas, to strive to have a better future, many working class people are ’trapped’ in their class because of bad governance and pathetic education system. (As a comparison, in Singapore the son of a tax driver can possibly be a student of one of the top schools, and strive to lift his family up in society for a better living in the future)

There is a plan in my heart, and it is similar to www.friends-international.org.