Page 56 - Arts Management Magazine Future Issue

Small Steps Make the Difference

“It’s the small steps that we can all take that really add up and move us forward.”
– Raymond Faulkner

A Chinese proverb says that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (千里之行始
于足下), and for Raymond Faulkner, it’s the “little bit we can all do in our own communities that
when we look at it together really makes an impact.” He serves as the President of the Hangzhou
Rotary Club, whose 17 members volunteer three times a month to help teach local children who
are receiving cancer treatment.

AMM: How did you get involved with helping these kids?
Raymond: We work with a local NGO, New Sunshine Charity Fund (NSCF). NSCF was founded
by Liu Zhengchen, a former leukemia patient. He and the members of Beijing University Sunshine
Volunteer Association, the predecessor of NSCF led by Liu, tutored a leukemic child called Zuoyan
and realized how eager children like him were for schooling. From this small beginning, the program
has expanded across multiple cities involving a number of community support groups. One of their
programs is Hospital Schools, establishing hospital schools in high care hospitals for children who
can’t attend school. This program has expanded in just 7 years to include over 30 schools across 16
cities in China. In Hangzhou the program is supported by the Teachers College, providing a train-
ing base for teachers and at the same time providing the much needed teaching resources for the
hospital school programs. Rotary supports the program by hosting classes with foreign volunteers to
add cultural lessons, and English tutorials. We just love supporting and working with them to bring

56 Arts Management Magazine I www.ArtsManagementMagazine.com