Peggy
Liou and Tenny Tsai: A Tale
of two big-hearted friends (Part I)
Posted on March 22,
2013 by Patty
It is prosperity that
gives us friends, adversity that proves them.– proverb
When
Peggy Liou, 58, was diagnosed with Stage III, Triple-Negative
Breast Cancer in December 2010, her friend Tenny
Tsai, 59, accompanied her to nine of her 10 rounds of chemotherapy the
following year. [The only round Tsai missed conflicted with her son's
graduation.] During her treatment, Tsai promised that she would accompany Liou to China on a volunteer mission once Liou recovered. In July 2012, the two close friends, who
met as programmers for a Silicon Valley company in 1979, traveled to a poor,
mountainous region in China, where Tsai encountered what she called a
“life-changing” experience and Liou returned to the
children who, she says passionately, needed her – and whom she needed. ‘Walking
the walk’ Since
2001, Liou has been involved with the PEACH Foundation
U.S.A., which stands for Promoting Education, Arts and Community Harvest. The
Foster City, CA-based nonprofit organization’s main project is to help
children from the poorer regions of China stay in school. In China, education
is free up until middle school. Finishing middle school is a challenge for
students in remote regions, however, because their families can’t afford the
room and board. The PEACH Foundation sponsors economically disadvantaged
students, but they have to be motivated to stay in school, Liou explained. Thus, students nominated by the local
middle schools must be among the top 20 in their class. Sponsors donate 125
USD for middle school students and 250 USD for high school students. A
sponsor for 10 years, Liou became more involved in
2006 – “walking the walk,” as she refers to it – by traveling to China three
times a year to conduct interviews and home and school visits. |
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Peggy
Liou and Tenny Tsai, in Los Altos, February
2013. |
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“We
don’t just give them the money; we care about the kids,” Liou
said, which distinguishes the PEACH Foundation from other organizations.
Every summer, the foundation sends volunteers to China to teach in summer
camps. “The purpose of the camp is to care for those kids,” she said, which
includes developing self-esteem, something the children lack because of the
stigma of their socio-economic standing. Liou, who
translates the children’s autobiographies from Chinese to English to post on
the organization’s website, said that many of their stories “break your
heart.” |
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Volunteer teachers
for the first session of the PEACH summer camp in Yunnan, China, July 2012
(Photo courtesy of Peggy Liou). |
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Liou recently
translated the story of a girl who had started school at the age of seven but
quit at age nine at her parents’ request when her father became very ill.
While her mother took care of her father and the household, she was
responsible for taking care of the family cow, which meant taking it to the
mountains, even in inclement weather. “I couldn’t help but cry when I saw
other children attending school because I wanted to go back to school so
badly,” the girl had written. Within a span of four years, her father was
hospitalized and underwent two surgeries. When her father’s health improved,
he told her she could return to school, but she thought it was “too late” and
that people would laugh at her for going back to third grade at the age of
13. She came to realize, however, that if she didn’t go back now she would
never have that chance again. On her first day of school, she wrote how
excited she was to return and resume her education. The girl, whom Liou called “brave,” is now in the ninth grade. Changing
lives and being changed Students who are
accepted attend a new student orientation in the summer, which is run by up
to 40 volunteers from the U.S. and Taiwan per section, with 400 students in
each section. The orientation packs English and Chinese language lessons,
music, and other activities into nine-hour days. Tsai had been a sponsor for
the PEACH Foundation for four years, but eschewed volunteering for the summer
camps because it wasn’t her “cup of tea.” Although Liou
had asked Tsai to join her a few times in the past, Liou
noted that it was Tsai’s over-commitment to other volunteer activities that
kept Tsai from going. |
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Liou and her students
at the PEACH summer camp, Yunnan, China,
July 2012 (Photo courtesy of Liou). |
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Teachers
and parents mold their students for years and their children for a lifetime,
respectively, Tsai said, but after the 10-day camp, volunteers come away
having changed somebody’s life – as well as their own. “You build a
relationship with them,” she said. While volunteers can’t solve the
children’s life problems, Tsai pointed out that these children, who often
have never had people care about them, experience the generosity of strangers
who have come into and made a difference in their lives. |
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For
Tsai, the experience also made her realize the tremendous scope and amount of
work that Liou had accomplished in the last 10
years with the organization. “I was speechless,” she said. She also witnessed
the tenacity and passion of her good friend when Liou
badgered her doctors after each round of chemotherapy, wanting to know when
she could return to the mountains of China. At first, Tsai was frustrated
with Liou because they had discussed going to
Europe when she recovered. With her lymph nodes removed as part of the
treatment, Liou was advised against traveling and
being in high elevations, but still she persisted. “Somebody else is up
there!” Tsai scolded Liou, referring to other
volunteers running the camp. |
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Tsai teaching her
students at the PEACH summer camp, Yunnan, China, July 2012 (Photo courtesy
of Liou). |
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Tsai
grew to understand and appreciate the bond Liou had
developed with the children she knew and those she had yet to know. “It was
almost the purpose, her goal for living,” Tsai said. In 2012, Liou participated in a cancer support group as she fought
to recover. For her type of cancer, the recovery rate is two years and the
survival rate is 50/50. “I’m the lucky 50 because I have a reason to live,”
she said. “I have a mission waiting for me to do. I have kids who need me.
They keep me going.” Liou said that the kids at the
foundation saved her life, which motivated her to get well. “I have to do it;
I have to go see them,” she added. Liou spent 2012
recovering from her treatment and learning how to take care of herself and
preparing herself for when – not if – the cancer comes back. “I’ve come alive
again,” she said. When she wakes up every morning, Liou
says she is grateful: “I learned how to live as if each day is a blessing.” |
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Liou after her second
round of chemotherapy, February 2011 (Photo by Dee Lee). |
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