Learning To Serve

My name is Bok Hoon and I recently joined PeopleStories Team as an ongoing volunteer. While donating my time and skill for a good cause, I explored my motivation to help others and more importantly the purpose I personally serve in education. I didn’t have to look much further than the history of my family and in particular the story my grandpa that I would love to share with you... ​

The current schools closure around the world due to COVID19 has got me wondering about how students are coping when no structured learning is in place. Not all countries are fortunate enough to have online learning accessible to the majority of their learners. This was even more so true when my grandfather grew up in very modest circumstances but he found a way to teach himself to read and write. ​ 
 
My maternal grandpa, Zhi Yan, was born in China in 1920. He had to help with farming during the day and attended classes conducted by a village teacher at night. He came to Singapore with two brothers when he was nineteen, a year after he got married. Having no formal education, he could only work as a rickshaw rider and at times, a coolie.  

He would lift the rickshaw with his bare hands and ran barefooted under the scorching hot sun or the incessant rain to the destination of his passengers. After a hard day’s work, he would meet all his fellow villagers from his hometown. Most of his fellow villagers were illiterate and needed help with reading and writing letters. He continued to learn how to read and write from the newspapers and his fellow villagers. ​ 
 
While life was a struggle, he not only helped his fellow villagers to read and write letters, but also to write the addresses whenever they needed to send parcels home. All of this was done for free. ​

I believe he understood how everyone was homesick and sought solace in every bit of news from the loved ones back home. He had to live oceans apart from my grandma and his young children. 
 
Grandpa’s purpose was to stay as close as possible to his loved ones back home and he knew that reading and writing was the only way to realistically achieve that at the time. This is the power of having a purpose and all of a sudden every little step in writing letters was a step closer to fulfilling his purpose!  
 
Who would have thought that me starting to support a charity and education would lead me to reconnect with the story of my family! Every good journey begins with the first step. ​​ ​​