PAWA Champions

Diana Chan, a PAWA Friend and former Chief Executive at EuroCCP, has raised almost £12,000 for PAWA. She organised a wonderful fundraising challenge around the Asian love of food. Every donor to her raffle received a collection of Asian recipes or could win a Chinese dinner for 6 people specially prepared and cooked by Diana.

She raised an incredible £7,532 in her first raffle, and an additional £4,340 in her second raffle in 2017.

Diana Chan was also one of the speakers at the FIWAL Conference ” Making it – against all the odds” and very kindly donated her £100 fee to PAWA. Diana spoke about the importance of education in her life and the challenges she faced growing up in China.

PAWA Benefactor Sybil Poon celebrated her Special Birthday in style. 

Husband Patrick hosted a beautiful lakeside lunch on the grounds of Brocket Hall. The sumptuous lunch was followed by a surprise music performance and disco dancing! 

Sybil donated her birthday gifts £1900 to PAWA.

Diocesan Old Girls’ Association (DOGA UK) is an alumni group for former students and staff of Diocesan’s Girls’ School Hong Kong who live or study in the UK and they raised £100 from their Chinese New Year Luncheon raffle.

Clare Muhiudeen, one of PAWA’s founding Charter members and Managing Director at Towers Watson, swam 2.2km in the Jax Sheko Challenge in Hong Kong and raised £1688.75.

Elizabeth Phillips, a 6th form student donated her prize of £250 for receiving the Westminster School Best Musician of the Year 2015.

Sir Thomas Harris, kindly donated his fee of £300 for a talk that he did at the Korean Embassy.

Sir Thomas served in the Diplomatic Service, notably as British Ambassador in Korea, Britain’s Consul General in New York, and the UK’s Director-General for Trade and Investment in the USA. He recently retired as vice-chairman of Standard Chartered but is still active in bodies encouraging trade with Pakistan, India, and other Asian trade partners as well as a Trustee of Asia House.

Paul Lau marked his 60th birthday on 12th December 2015 by organising a special Musical Soiree with several of his musician friends and raised £1192.50 for PAWA.

Yang May Ooi wrote and performed “Bound Feet Blues – a life told in shoes” at the Tristan Bates Theatre in 2015 and kindly offered an exclusive evening for PAWA supporters. The evening ended with a Q&A with Yang May and the director Jessica Higgs plus a Xmas supper reception and raised £450.

Roger Owen, our first male PAWA Friend, celebrated his 80th birthday on 6th May 2016 with a special fundraiser at Providores restaurant with a bespoke menu created by chef Peter Gordon and Roger’s wife, Sri Owen. The evening raised over £1600.

A huge thank you to PAWA Benefactor, Prithiva Navan who organised a delightful evening at Battersea Quarter Cafe in aid of PAWA and raised an amazing £1,300.

The evening was well attended with 44 guests who enjoyed a delicious Mediterranean menu with music by Jennifer Moxham.

Sri Owen, a freelance food and cookery writer, a cookery teacher, and a food consultant, celebrated her 80th birthday on 31st March 2015 with a special fundraiser for PAWA and raised £1877.50.

In 2014, Sri raised £80 for PAWA by hosting a delicious “Indonesian food demonstration and lunch” at her home for 6 PAWA supporters. Sri and her husband Roger have been PAWA Friends since PAWA first launched and are real PAWA Champions!

Sri acted as a PAWA Champion again in 2016 on 7th August at the Indonesian Bazaar at Wisma Nusantara, when she kindly donated the sales of her book collection to PAWA, amounting to £114.

In 2017, Sri raised £200 for PAWA from a Sale of her extensive library of culinary books as well as some of her special china and artefacts. Although she has already donated lots of books to various food libraries, she was keen to find homes for the rest of her collection. Sri and fellow Guild of Food writers member, Silvija prepared a delicious lunch which was thoroughly enjoyed by all of us. Sri also raised £100 for the Guild’s charity, Magic Breakfast.

Oakwood School in Surrey became the first PAWA School Champion in September 2016 when the children raised an incredible £177.40 from their own pocket money and piggy banks after hearing a talk about our work to help send impoverished girls to school in Asia.

Thanks to the children’s generosity, this is enough money to put seven girls in school for one year. The children heard about PAWA at a school assembly and showed great compassion. Many have written messages of support and decorated pictures for us to send to the schools we support. Headmaster Mr Ciro Candia congratulated the top four “givers” during fundraising week. The photo features Mr Candia with the winners, from left to right: Theo from Year 5, Raphael from Year 6, Melody from Year 3 and Caitlin from Year 5.

Mr Candia told PAWA: “We are honoured to have played a part in the education of these 7 girls.”

PAWA Chair, Zehan Albakri, said: “It was wonderful to hear the amazing response from the children and their kindness and generosity. We also thoroughly enjoyed reading the special messages written to the PAWA girls and we will arrange to send these off to the PAWA girls in each of our 7 projects with a special letter from PAWA.
Thank you again for all your help and support.”

Ruihua completed a duathlon (it was meant to be a triathlon but changed due to poor water quality) in aid of PAWA .

She raised £176.25 which will help support the education of 7 PAWA girls for a year.

A big thank you to Grace Lau for donating her £100 fee from a photography workshop, “Interpreting the Contemporary Portrait” that she held at the Battle Photographic Society.

Using her book “21st Century Types” which is of portraits of Hastings visitors and inhabitants posing in a constructed Victorian portrait studio, the 50 members will have two months to interpret their own versions of the contemporary portrait.

Congratulations to Theo for celebrating his 16th birthday by raising enough funds to support 16 PAWA girls for a year, a total of £384.

PAWA Runners, Jonathan Collyear and Harry Verden took part in the London Marathon to raise money.

Johnathan Collyear

Harry Verden

The cost of building the new ‘Floating school’ is just £8,163 so we just need to raise another £1500 to reach this target! If you would like to help Jonathan or Harry reach this target, you can still donate to them by going to:

JONATHAN COLLYEAR: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/jonathanmarathon

HARRY VERDEN: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HarryVerden

The PAWA supporter family ranges far and wide. Both women and men who feel passionately about supporting girls’ education across Asia are part of the Pan Asian Women’s Association, raising funds for this valuable cause. Wesley Masters is one of two PAWA supporters running the 2018 London Marathon to help PAWA create a floating school for the girls of the Haor region in Bangladesh.

PAWA Chair, Zehan Albakri, sets the scene for us of how this decorated soldier came to be involved with PAWA.

Zehan says, “Wes spotted the PAWA stand at the Super Heroes run at Regents Park last year and emailed us out of the blue to say he really wanted to do a challenge for PAWA. He had just completed a challenge for CALM – a charity for young men with mental health issues/depression.

“Phyllis Hatfull, our Vice Chair, and I met him for coffee and it was great to hear about the challenge he did for CALM and we spoke about what he could do for PAWA – he would like to do a much bigger ambitious challenge (ie travelling to Asia on foot with no money !) but is starting with the Marathon first. He has a young daughter so understands the need for girls to receive equal opportunities and also experienced, while in the army  in Afghanistan and Pakistan the discrimination that girls faced so he seems very aware of our cause”

Wes writes:

My name is Wesley Masters and I am a student in my third year of a sport science and nutrition degree, and I work part-time as a fitness coach for a company called British Military Fitness, which is run throughout a number of parks over the UK.

I am running London Marathon 2018 to help raise funds and awareness for PAWA. I approached PAWA to ask if I could fundraise for them over a number of activities this year, which I have had to limit to just the Marathon until further notice.

Making a positive impact for girls’ education and others

I believe women should have the same rights to education as men. The floating school project is associated with the Marathon. I hope to have a positive impact on the lives of others every day of my life, so it is hard to quantify that into a figure for you so I just hope to raise as much as I can, and to keep circulating gender inequalities to help bring about social change.

I would describe myself as an athlete with a high aerobic capacity but my sport is Rugby League. I have been running since I was 16. The marathon will be challenging as it is for most, but it will sit around a 5/10 in difficulty for me as it only lasts a few hours.

A Passion for Sandwiches

We asked Wes to tell us something quirky about himself and this is what he wrote: I would describe myself as quite unusual, as to how I process information and my perceptions on normality. It doesn’t make for interesting reading but people have often asked how I can easily do things they would typically find extreme, to which I would say I react to situations differently to most. But maybe the simplest thing to say about me is: I really like sandwiches.

Be part of the Floating School project

If you would like to support the Floating School project and/ or our marathon runner Wes Masters, you can donate to this great cause at  http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/pawalondonmarathon

Or you can donate direct to PAWA via the PAWA Donate page.

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Photos: PAWA archive and Wes Masters LinkedIn 

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Wes Masters has a background in the military, having been a soldier decorated with the Military Cross for his gallantry and courage, when he saved the life of his friend under fire. He is now a trainer with British Military Fitness.

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PAWA Magazine, is the online magazine of PAWA, the Pan Asian Women’s Association. The magazine shares news and stories of PAWA People and Projects supporting girls’ education across Asia.

Ref: fltgrun

PAWA’s purpose to raise funds for girls’ education in Asia inspires many far and wide. And it’s not just women who want to support the hopes and dreams of girls across Asia. Men are as much part of the PAWA family of supporters as women.

This year, Wes Masters and Irwan Mihat are running the London Marathon to raise funds for a Floating School for girls in Bangladesh. Meet Irwan in today’s feature article below…

Irwan writes:

I am 38 years old Penang-born chap but grew up in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. I am from Brickfield, Kuala Lumpur. I am a fund manager for a Malaysian investment house based in the City. Prior to London, I was attached to another international branch, same company, in Singapore for 9 years.

Friendship and PAWA

I knew PAWA through a colleague who is an active member and also one of PAWA board of trustees. I attended a few events hosted by PAWA, and from there I met its members and got to know more about their cause, activities and charity events.  

I aim to to raise funds via Virgin Media Money platform, utilising the social media space to reach my friends and colleagues.  So far, I have posted a post on my Instagram account telling my audience about my fundraising drive and inviting for contribution. I also Direct Message some of the Instagram contacts. I have made the same approach on Whatsapp platform. I want to reach as many people as possible.

My goal is to raise £2,000 if possible.

The Adventure of the Marathon

I love running, and it is my only sport now. I used to be very active in many sports since my school days and was an avid footballer until I had a knee ligament injury 5 years ago which meant the knee could not perform any abrupt turning movement. Running is a static movement, thus it suits.

I run 3 times a week with a total average of 23km/week. I have entered a few half marathons and half climbathon in Asia before, but the London Marathon will be my first full marathon.

I foresee nutrition, to overcome the muscle cramping during the race, to be my utmost challenge as I am still adapting to Western meal and diet. Another challenge is the cold climate as this affects your breathing strategy.

Nevertheless, I am excited and thrilled about this preparation adventure and the research that this entails.

A Cut Above Your Average Fund Manager

Most people don’t know that I can cut and style hair.

I thought it was nothing until my wife said it qualifies as unusual as my brain is capable of visualising and making logic of head contour and layering and sitting of hair. And she said it is quite an unexpected character trait considering my career and background has been around seriousness, formal and professional, and sports.

My wife’s favourite cut is short Pixie, always a bob style for my daughter and K-pop for my 2 year-old son. Once in a while, I cut my mom’s too. So far, this stays as a hobby. But sometimes I have had an eye and thought of owning my own one cool and classic barber chair 😉

Help Irwan raise Funds for the Floating School project

Find out more about the Floating School here.

If you would like to support the Floating School project and/ or our marathon runner Irwan Mihat, you can donate to this great cause at  http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/pawalondonmarathon

Or you can donate direct to PAWA via the PAWA Donate page.

Postscript:  Wes was ultimately not able to run the marathon, due to an injury one week before the event.

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Photo: from Irwan Mihat’s personal album and PAWA’s archives

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Irwan Mihat is a Malaysian fund manager based in London.

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PAWA Magazine, is the online magazine of PAWA, the Pan Asian Women’s Association. The magazine shares news and stories of PAWA People and Projects supporting girls’ education across Asia.

Ref: fltgrun

Jerome Cheung and Alicia Collyear ran the London Marathon to raise money for PAWA’s floating school in Bangladesh. They both put in a heroic effort, clocking in a running time of just over four hours. The PAWA team was on hand to cheer them on – as Jerome said, “The support along the entire course was phenomenal and absolutely amazing seeing the PAWA team along the way. It definitely helped me get to the finish line.” A huge thank you to Jerome and Alicia!