Singapore American • May 2014
T h e A m e r i c a n A s s o c i a t i o n o f S i n g a p o r e ’s
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MCI (P) 178/01/2014
May 2014
Since 1958
The Badi Library Project By Angel Corrigan
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hen I was raising my children we would daydream about what they wanted to be when they grew up. For the boys, depending on their age at the time, fireman or policeman were popular choices and my girl thought about being a teacher or lawyer. It was fun to think about what they were destined to be. Destiny is a word that carries possibility and hope, but what if you were born a Dalit? The lowest caste in the Hindu caste system, Dalit or “untouchable“ means subordinate to all. Even within this “untouchable” designator there is a hierarchy. In Nepal the Badi are the lowest tribe of the Dalit. They are the lowest because of their dependence on the sex trade for income. From an early age girls in the Badi tribe know that the sex trade is their destiny. Born into extreme poverty, without education and with the social stigma of being an “untouchable” a life of sexual exploitation for Badi girls seems inevitable. As many as 250,000 Nepali girls and women are slaves in the brothels of India with an estimated 10,000 more sold each year to feed this industry. Approximately 30-40 percent of the underage girls in the brothels in India come from Nepal. Girls as young as 10 are sold into fake marriages by their families. Sometimes their families sell them to brothels; sometimes their services are sold right from the home, as this may be the family’s only income. Some young women are lured with the promise of work. Others are drugged and kidnapped and brought to the brothels to be sold by their kidnappers. The average age of these girls is 13 years old. The stories from those fortunate enough to survive the inhuman, brutal treatment are simply unimaginable. Sex trafficking and sexual exploitation is the paramount human rights issue of our time. The tragedy of sexual slavery is being played out all over the world. We hear about it and think, “How terrible! I hope someone does something.” It seems too big a problem to tackle. But people are working to rescue and rehabilitate the less than one percent that actually escape and many are working toward preventing it from happening. Many organizations are coming at this problem from different angles and it will take them all working together to drive change.
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Daniel Teo: A Passionate Patron philanthropy
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By Jim Tietjen
hilanthropy is defined as “an altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.” Enter Daniel Teo, a well-known Singapore property developer and investor. His family roots take him back to Fujian, China. According to Daniel, this is where and how he “inherited” his ardor for helping people, and other diverse interests, from his father and uncle. His architectural training at the University of Melbourne and his subsequent study of art sharpened his eye and passion for fine art and the universal well-being of people.
With this in mind, I want to share the vision of The Badi Library Project. You might be wondering how a library can be part of this equation. The recent documentary film, Girl Rising, notes that when you educate girls you break the cycle of poverty in one generation, and that “educating girls is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do.” In 2011, Nepali Pastor Raju Sundas, a member of the Dalit himself, started Christian Community School (CCS) in Kathmandu to educate Badi children. The school’s living and educational facilities are rescuing children from the very real prospect of being sold into the sex trade and equipping students with the skills that will help them break free of the cultural stigma of the caste system. With English as the global language of trade, CCS is preparing them for work in the global marketplace. The school has grown to more than 600 students, with many more waiting to enroll and is in need of a library. As Special Project Manager for the NGO, Out of Ashes, www. outofashes.org, I am spearheading The Badi Library Project from Singapore. Visit www.books4thebadi.blog for information on the project. New and used books are being collected and will be shipped to
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Though he would not personally characterize himself as a philanthropist or benefactor, Daniel is truly a passionate patron of human welfare and advancement. With his many and varied interests, mainly focused on people, art and architecture, Daniel is a new-age renaissance man with a passion for philanthropy. Over the years Daniel has endeavored to support the local community in many ways, directly and indirectly, monetarily and morally. He has served on boards, like the National Heritage Board and Preservation of Monuments Board. He is Honorary Chairman of the Singapore Thong Chai Medical Institution, which provides free medical consultation and Traditional Chinese Medicine to the public regardless of race, religion or nationality. He has participated in raising funds for charities and public institutions and has been a generous donor himself. He often rallies friends, colleagues and fellow businessmen to support good causes. For example, to raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Foundation Daniel will bring award-winning pianist Zhou Tian Yu to Singapore for a charity concert in mid-May. On the rare occasion ticket sales lag for his charity events he will bulk-buy them and give them to his friends. continued on page 18
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