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Winter 2008 Newsletter is now online. [8.1 Mb PDF] Highlight of activity from local Zigen chapters across the U.S Zigen Boston
Chapter Concert Donations for Disaster Victims On February 23, Zigen Boston
Chapter organized a music concert in Though Dawen Pang was over 70 years of age, she made great efforts to send out a large number of invitation letters. She and Lily Lawn also hurriedly marketed tickets by telephone, and only the participants could understand the nature of the tasks. On
the 22nd,
The pianist discovered that the piano was out of tune, but fortunately Ms. Catherine Chan was there to help, and introduced a piano technician to tune the piano. However, the piano was originally flawed, and the pianist felt there were still some imperfections.
On
the morning of the 23rd the sky cleared, and the audience gradually appeared.
As the empty seats began to be filled, we breathed a great sigh of relief,
knowing that we would not lose our principal. The beautiful sounds of the
musicians won the warm applause of the audience, and we very moved by the
reaction of the audience. Although the donations were not large, they
reflected the returning gifts from overseas Chinese. Following
the end of the concert, not only did the Chinese audience make enthusiastic
donations, many non-Chinese were also extremely moved and spirited, and
applauded without stop, expressing their willingness to donate. Some were
also willing to join Zigen for a tour of http://www.worldjournal.com/wj-bo-news.php?nt_seq_id=1678421 Zigen Snow Relief
Concert in (Abstract from
World Journal Coverage) In joint effort of San Francisco
Guzheng Music Society, The Program Director, Winnie
Wong, designed diverse art performance to promote Chinese Culture,
considering the preferences of various age groups, and dedicatedly invited
unique Bay Area artist groups, like Red Panda Acrobatics, Patty Chu's Chinese
Folk Dancing Troupe, Folk Singing Champion Yang Hua, Erhu Award winner Lynn
Ngai, etc. This event was made
possible due to the loving and committed artists and volunteers of all
participating groups. Yang Hua,
Diana Ding and the little Guzheng player Garyan Wong all took the challenge
of some health situation and participated. Based on the principles of
doing real work with small money and "equality, participation and
respect", Zigen enjoyed the collaboration with passionate artist groups,
businesses, media and volunteers in the Bay Area, contributing fund, goods
and services, in a joint effort to promote Chinese culture and support rural
development in the underprivileged areas of China Blessed Imelda's
High School Alumnae Association Charity Party Blessed Imelda's
High School (Jingxiu female School) Alumnae Association held a charity party
on Zigen's exhibition
in Berkeley China Initiative's China Environment Conference On December 7-8, 2008, Pat Yang,
Wujing Harrison and Victor Saberi attended the Berkeley China Initiative's
China Environment conference and exhibited Zigen's environmental work in
remote rural Zigen Board Meeting Passing 2008 Budget, Program Priorities and New
Board Candidates The semi-annual Board meeting
was held in Sophie Chen's house on March 8, 2008. Board members, present in person or
via telecommunication, included Sophie Lo, Shih-Chang Lu, Andy Pao, George
Yu, Pat Yang, and Bik-Lam Lee.
Members and volunteers included Wujing Harrison, Monica Yu, Chuck
Chan, Dawen Pang, Ningyu Li, Terry Li, Sol Tung, Xiaomei Wong, Vivian Chen, Ø Voted for the addition of
Board candidates, Monica Yu and Chuck Chan. The list of Board candidates will
be voted by voting members later and the elected Board members for 2008-2009
will be announced in the annual member meeting on Ø In addition to the
Executive Committee, the Board decided to form four sub-committees:
Organizational Committee (coordinated by Bik-lam Lee), Program Committee (Pat
Yang), Finance Committee (Shih-Chang Lu), and fundraising and Public
Communication Committee (Wujing Harrison acting). The sub-committees will
develop its own task force and teams for its functions, gradually building up
a healthy rotating organizational infrastructure. After 20 years of development, we are
focusing on keeping the legacy of Zigen's mission and the spirit of
"equality, participation and respect", strengthening the
organizational development and team building. Ø Passed Zigen 2008 annual
budget and program priorities: the total budget of $635,000, with Ø Discussed the schedule
and possibilities for the Zigen 20th anniversary events from Oct. 2008. From
the beginning of the year, Zigen members have been coordinating various
fundraising or public education events in their communities. There were students' Chinese New Year
Gala in New York Rochester Tech led by Shengchao Yang; P.H. Yang's
documentary photo exhibition in D.C. by Monica Yu; Snow Relief Concert in
Boston by Lily Lawn; Snow Relief Show in San Francisco by San Francisco
Guzheng Music Society, China's Spirit Music Ensemble, and World Stars Entertainment；Documentary movie screening and discussion in Taipei by Xiaoding Yang
and friends... More events are in
planning in After
the Board meeting, the participants watched the newly finished two
documentary movies, "No Fifth Grade" and "Healthcare Log in Latest
News on snowstorm affecting Zigen in Leishan area Since January 11, 2008, The news from Leishan is as follows: Countywide electricity and water outages In the county town, only
a few generators supplying important departments (e.g. hospitals) are
operational. The freezing and rupturing of water pipelines has cut off the
water supply to residents, who must rely on fire rescue hoses to supply water,
which they carry to their homes. Complete suspension of communications As
a result of the paralysis of the telephone network and the electricity
blackout preventing the recharging of mobile phones, we have lost communications
with the project site villages. We are only able to access the Leishan office
telephone line, which is our only means of communication with the office. Road transportation has
been suspended completely, and goods are in short supply. Leishan
is situated in The Zigen small-scale
poultry-raising loan project has suffered losses. Collapse of electrical towers and houses The
collapse of electrical towers in Leishan county is widespread. The damage to
houses in Leishan county town is not great. However, we are aware that in Reference: http://news.sohu.com/20080201/n255010504.shtml Actions and special arrangements are being taken for Leishan area by Zigen: The temporary closing of
the Leishan office With
staff members from outside the region having left Leishan and returned home
for the Chinese New Year, this will reduce travel for the local staff members
and prevent falling injuries. For the Zigen staff members to return home,
they must walk on foot for one day to To ensure that the Zigen-supported
high school students remaining in county town can have their basic living
needs met and to pass the New Year in safety and health: A
large fraction of Zigen-supported third-year high school students have
remained at school, where they lack water, electricity, candles and there is
a shortage of supplies. Our staff will coordinate with the government and
school in guaranteeing their health and lives, and enabling them to safely
pass the New Year. Preparing for
communications with project sites and carrying out damage estimates: Following
the New Year, we need to contact various project sites, estimate disaster
losses and the needs of restoring production and livelihoods. On the basis of
requirements, we will accept new
project applications and make appropriate project adjustments. Based on
government agency estimates, the various villages of The We
need more financial support to be used for compensating the great losses of
the poultry raising project, as well as to support the restoration of
production and livelihood (e.g. the expansion of scholarships, the repair of
school classrooms, dormitories and drinking water facilities). At present,
some Activities
in progress and coming months: D.C. Area Exhibition: The Rural Heart of Documentary photography on Zigen's
projects in rural Lakeforest Mall ( (Hwy Feb 4 - Artist's Reception with
Refreshment: Feb 9 (Saturday) 2-4
pm Contact: PH
Yang, 650-521-4323, info@phyang.org 50% of sales proceeds will be
donated to Zigen projects. Zigen
Fund Concert San
Francisco Guzheng Music Society Benefit Concert In
early April, time and location to be announced. |
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