Thoughts
The following article was to be posted yesterday but my Internet service provider lost service. In the Philippines, teleco providers have a major on-going problem with people cutting cables to get the copper wire. They then re-sell the copper to different firms. Now, to make the problem worse, most telecos have converted to fiber optic cables and once the cable is cut, it is 10 times harder to repair than copper. Of course, once the thieves find out that it is fiber optic they are really pissed off and double their efforts to find copper wire in other locations.
Anyway my Internet provider spent the last 24 hours doing the repair work knowing that it is only a matter of time before it happens again. So goes life in a country racked by poverty.
Opinions
With all the negative news around us, I thought, today, I would write about something positive and rewarding that truly benefits mankind.
Many times too often, We end up donating money to huge charities that never get the bulk of the money to the people that need it the most. For almost 50 years, The Pearl S. Buck International Foundation has been the exception to that rule.
First, lets take a look who Pearl S. Buck was and how the foundation got started.
Pearl S. Buck (June 26, 1892 - March 6, 1973), was a prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning American author. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.”
Pearl S. Buck was able to discern the importance of “globalization” long before the rest of the world knew what the word meant. She dedicated much of her life to promoting cross-cultural interchange and support in the pursuit of a more peaceful world.
Many of Buck’s life experiences are described in her novels, short stories, fiction, and children’s stories. Through them she sought to prove to her readers that universality of mankind can exist if man accepts it. She dealt with many topics including women’s rights, emotions (in general), Asian cultures, immigration, adoption, and conflicts that many people go through in life.
Buck was an extremely passionate activist for human rights. In 1949, outraged that existing adoption services considered Asian and mixed-race children unadoptable, Pearl established Welcome House, Inc., the first international, interracial adoption agency. In the nearly
five decades of its work, Welcome House has assisted in the placement of more than five thousand children. The Pearl S. Buck Foundation was started in 1964 to address the issues of poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries. In 1965, the Opportunity Center and Orphanage in South Korea was established to serve Amerasian Children. In 1967, a branch office was established in Thailand and in 1968, an office was
opened in the Philippines. Children in Vietnam were served before the War, but operations shut down in 1975 and then reopened in 1989.
In Asia, Buck said, “The purpose…is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children.”
PSBI supports international programs to alleviate the impact of discrimination, intolerance, and prejudice on the quality and condition of children’s lives. Together with families, communities, and partner institutions, PSBI programs combat the effects of the injustices suffered by certain target groups. These are children who, because of the circumstances of their birth and their lives, do not have the same rights or access to services enjoyed by others. Pearl S. Buck International is committed to facilitating self-reliance, self-help, and sustainable human progress and development so as to avoid dependency. We believe that we can best serve our target groups of children through programs which facilitate capacity building among families, communities, and local institutions.
“Okay,”you say,”that is really great to hear but do they really make a difference?”
I have personal experience of their fine work. My wife is an Amerasian child of a single mother. If it wasn’t for Pearl S. Buck Foundation, she would have, most likely, ended up a “street child”. Early on, her mother applied for help to PSBI for education assistance for her. My wife was sponsored at a private school during her growing years and then was sponsored by PSBI for her university schooling. She graduated with a BS Degree in business and is, currently, pursuing an MBA at one of the most prestigious universities in the Philippines. She has held many high-level positions in business and has been successful in two start-up businesses. During all her years of education, PSBI was always in the “picture” assisting my wife, making sure that she was getting enough assistance in her schooling and seeing that her needs for school uniforms and books was met. My wife wrote letters every month to her sponsors telling them how she was progressing and to thank them for their help. My wife will always remember the PSBI local staff as kind and understanding of her family situation. She was never led to feel ashamed of having to take help from them.
I have placed a Pearl S. Buck International logo “button on my right sidebar. Please take a few minutes of your time and visit the site. Learn more about the program. There are so many good and decent children in the Philippines that need our help to get an education. It is as simple as the old Chinese proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” All people want is a chance to have the necessary tools to take charge of their lives and prosper.
In closing, I will allow Pearl S. Buck’s own words best describe what I want to say:
“Whatever way you choose to help, let it be now, I beg you. The years between birth and adulthood are swift and few, the earlier a child can be helped, the better his chance for a normal life.” - Pearl S. Buck
Thanks for taking time to visit.
——————————————————————————Disclaimer:
All comments made within this post are my own thoughts and opinions. I have not been compensated in any form. I wrote it as a “labor of love.”
Technorati Tags: Charities, Nobel Prize, Pearl S. Buck, Pearl S. Buck International, Pulitzer Prize
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