Philippines is yet another example of plenty more heartbreaking, life threatening, multi-million losses disasters resulting from mother nature’s bad behaviour.  There is no guarantee that mother nature will stop behaving badly anytime soon!

The Philippines’ aftermath leaves another devastating awakening. Not only for the immediate victims, but also to the rest of the earth’s population. It’s strickenly true that many lives have been taken away ruthlessly by this monstrosity, but let’s not forget the rescued living. These victims need urgent aid.

The Lingua Franca Foundation is sensitive towards human suffering and would like to help ease the pain even for a little while. However, without the support and compassion from others, the Foundation’s fundamentals are not strong enough to stand alone. Therefore, Lingua Franca Foundation (founded Kids4Kids Club) reaches out to those with a heart of gold to help them help those affected by the disaster.

Once again, the Foundation is proud to annouce that AirAsia Cargo is sponsoring this project to help ship the donation directly to the Philippino victims.

The Foundation is also proud to announce that  two local schools – De Drossaert and De Blinker – which are located in Geleen, the Netherlands have agreed to participate and collect all sorts of donation on behalf of the Foundation. The collection of the donation is station-based at both schools.

The Foundation welcomes all types of donation from cash to clothing, kitchen appliances to tables and chairs. As long as they’re still in good condition and usable, the Foundation is honoured to receive such generosity.

For those who prefer to donate money, please feel free to click here. Those who wish to donate things directly, please contact the Foundation via email. The donations should be brought directly to the Foundation which is stationed in Geleen.

Inspiration

`Who am I to be blind… pretending not to see their needs…´

`If you want to make the world a better place… take a look at yourself and then make a change.´

Bless his soul for having such a caring heart! Bless his heart for having such a sensitive spot! It’s not usually common to find a little person such as himself – carrying that sort of personality and charisma at that tender age. My son has something most adults are lacking of in this modern world. My son has empathy.

I have a strong admiration for such charisma and powerfully drawn to his compassion and kindness toward others. Looking through a child’s lense make me realise how they don’t differ much from us adults apart from our mindset. They might be smaller in size but their capability to feel and love are no different from any of us. It’s miraculously flabbergasting to see how a child thinks even beyond our limited boundaries – pass the wall of segregation and hate, pass the painted coloured skins, pass the diversity in languages. I am, in fact, infatuated by his sense of innocence – wanting to ‘fix’ things if he is given the opportunity – even by means of heavy duty work after a few brainstorming.

I want it done

His passion and dedication drive him to want to give and keep on giving. Knowing how the world is not as perfect as most people portray them to be, his mind has a plan of its own. For him, no is simply not the answer, nor maybe. ‘I want it, and I want it done’ is usually his motto whenever determination kicks in. Stubborn as he is impatient, he longs for speedy results – which his lack of sense of the true picture of reality – being the child as he is, tends to frustrates him sometimes. Having to reassure the little one that sometimes good things come to those who wait and hard work does pay off at the end, seems not to be penetrating much through his skull. He doesn’t want to understand that not everybody feels and thinks the way he does. Such petit personage full of perseverance, he urges and urges if I can lean a hand. Not wanting to disappoint the little fellow, I just follow his instinct instead.

Such powerful drive pushes him to start his first collection of donations to the orphans. I have been participating – by carrying all shipment back to Malaysia on my own – twice (once with my husband!) last year. Our partner Hotel Abadi, Melaka has kindly enough volunteered to distribute this handful of collections to the needy.

Keep on going

This year is a different story. Since this is an on-going project, the little one – with the help of his older sister – keeps piling more stuff.. more toys, more clothing, more enthusiasm..! He wants to send more.. and more to the orphans. “I want them to have what I have, mom…” It’s disgraceful to see how an innocent child is able to open his heart endlessly to share to other children whom he has never seen in his life across the globe, whilst grown ups such as ourselves refuse to even share a half piece of bread with a starving neighbour next door…

Accumulating more than 110kg in the garage and up in the attic, I feel I am rather stuck in the gut – how on earth will I ever bring them all to Malaysia? Having the same determination and enthusiasm as my son, I keep on looking for sponsorships. Somehow along the dotted line, my best friend Norashikin Afifuddin (also the owner of Hotel Abadi Melaka) connects me to a circle of people who, at the end, produce an enormous pleasing result!!

A miracle….

With great honour, I am so pleased to announce that AirAsia Cargo has spread its wings and heart to sponsoring the shipment back to Malaysia this year!! However, their generosity goes beyond that. Not only they are sponsoring the shipment to be sent directly to Malaysia, they also arrange transportation for the donations to be picked up personally from our doorsteps to Schiphol airport for screening and re-packing. All this free of charge!

I am still overwhelmed by their prompt reply! Amazing how amaranthine determination can bring you a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

The shipment of donation will be in Malaysia in time for Eidul Fitr 2011

THANK YOU kind individuals who participated in this Project. Without you, this project will not be a success!!!

Jan 2010 : The Lingua Franca Foundation is proud to present a special club….

by the children for the children

Founder : Zacharia                             co-Founder: Maryam

“we want to make the world a better place for little people like us.” 

This one’s for the children

This tailored language course focuses more on the trainees’ Achille’s heel. As a trainer, I have constructed a special test to determine the trainees’ level of language comprehension. After the assessment, the trainees are then being drilled intensively according to their level of understanding and capacity to learn- taking into account their personal ability, character, background and culture. Each learning scheme is uniquely design to fit the dress of the wearer.

After two consecutive months of intensive training with two different trainees, I honestly discovered that all roads lead to Rome. It is not at the end of the road yet, nevertheless, so far as I can tell, it has been a very fruitful journey for both the trainees and the trainer. 

it’s time for us to reveal

 The Safety Net Project is a program associated between Lingua  Lingua Franca Foundation and Hotel Abadi Sdn Bhd (Hotel Abadi Melaka) to promote safe and harmonious ‘win-win’ international exchanges as well as diversity between nations. This project aims to deal with domestic violence against women from abroad and to help them to integrate in the welcoming country or to go back safely to their country of origin and to inform local authority, potential partners and contributors of the current situation and what plans for improvement. It is also a discussion platform for future collaboration from both sides to promote and maintain the durability of the project.

 “  Somebody you know may need these information badly. The speakers are people with first hand experience on the subject, and have worked with people with similar predicaments. The lesson from their experience is that some problems can be prevented, and it is best if you are prepared before making that big decision! Read the brochure to find out more! “

REGISTER NOW TO SECURE YOUR SEAT

Click here if you wish to pay with the credit card

To enable you to be from where you are  to where you want to be, you have move. Yes! Move. Move from one side to another, and one place to another. Just, literally…move.

Making contact is like building a bridge. It connects you from one end to the other. Once you cross the bridge, there is no turning back. Along the way, you will encounter little stops that either help you build a bigger picture of what you want to construct or just simply destroy what you hope to build. It’s as simple as that. If your journey helps you to build and contruct, then once you implement all the information, you are able to lay down some structure later. These structures will help you re-build your global-view plans so that you can narrow them down to more concrete measures and whence, you manage to see what you can and cannot accomplish.

Using this concept, I decided to extend the Foundation’s bridge to another continent; initiating new projects so that the Foundation can continue to pursue and develop its goals. Knowing I will find new territories, I packed my bags; along with the toys donated by the kids4kids club for the needy children, off I went to the country with the oldest rain forest in the world. The moment I touched down at the international airport, I realised that this country has a lot of potential. Upholding their slogan, Truly Asia; Malaysia is not only enriched with multinationals and culture, but also considered as one of the well-developed countries in the Asian continent.

During my stay in Kuala Lumpur, I have engaged with several types of crowd; from business to politics, and  journalists to hotel management. Between us, I could see that we have one thing in common: to make contact and to expand our bridges. We share the same vision: to expand our horizons and to globalize our mission. We want to reach out beyond our borders and we want (and hope) to do it together.

One of the main cores of the Foundation is education.  The Foundation wishes to establish an international learning network to connect and get the best out of both worlds. The Foundation strongly believes that education plays an enormous role in stripping the veil of ignorance and naivety, thus assist our evolving mind to be more responsible and productive. Connecting two worlds by creating a bridge and a platform would be a big project for the Foundation – such project can only be achievable through constant networking and getting international partners for full-time involvement.

Another project is to introduce one of our activities to the Asian audience – The Safety Net Project. This special project has been under experimental in the Netherlands since the middle of 2009 and we are hoping to launch it officially somewhere in Kuala Lumpur. The Foundation hopes that the meeting with a few relevant and motivated people will be fruitful and the project will be introduced to the public in the up coming months. The project is targeted mostly for women audience and how to exercise prevention and educating women their rights, responsibilities and capacity. The Foundation is promoting safe international exchanges between the West and East; and by trying to connect both worlds, women from all over are able to participate in a programme to learn to grow out of naivety and being motivated at the same time.  

Besides trying to make proper introduction about the Foundation’s activities, I have taken the opportunity to launch our first international exchange project. Kids4kids club (a club formed by the Foundation) has been active in collecting toys for the needy children since January 2010 and my journey to Malaysia has enable me to deliver the hard work the children have poured into to make this charity project a success. I have brought more than 20 kilos worth of toys to be distributed to several needy children from everywhere in West Malaysia.

Doing charity work is part of the Foundation’s establishment. I wish that this charity project will always exist and continue throughout the existance of Lingua Franca Foundation.

“  You give but little when you give of your possession. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give ”      

A truly beautiful and worthy quote. Something we all ought to carve onto our hearts indefinitely. Plenty of hearts out there are blackened by the stubborness of penurious and greediness. This is hard to swallow but true in reality. Most people take things all for granted. Plenty of us totally ignore, and some even forget that countless of people out there are so unfortunate, naked and beggared from all the necessities which we humans need to survive. Sadly to say, most of them are children.

 It is not easy to lean a hand, or even to part with some of your precious belongings and (worse!) offer them to anybody who truly needs it. The first thought that usually comes to mind is that: hey, this belongs to me. I worked day and night for this, why should I give it to someone else?  There is a lot of truth in that sentence. People who genuinely work day and night to support themselves and families, they too, deserve to have ‘something’  in life.  Who’s to say that they shouldn’t? However, everybody deserves to have that little ‘something’ too. Nobody deserves any less. After all, part of life is giving…

One thing that all hard working people have in common is that they tend to accumulate material things. Yes, they do. They start spending what they thought they need and most of these ‘stuff’ are all piled up somewhere, either in the attic, or closets, or in the basement, or garages etc. The point is: they collect, they accumulate, they gather. Up to a point where there is no return for some people !

But, seriously! Do they actually need all of these things? Some say, yes, some say, not really, and some even say NO. Imagine, collecting all those things just to say NO at the end. NOPE, I don’t really use it actually. I have no freaking idea why I bought the thing. Shocking, isn’t it? To think that people spent enormous amount of money to buy things they do NOT need.

What about toys? Is that luxurious goods or neccessity? To the ‘little people’, toys are considered as a neccessity. I am not referring to the luxurious, too sophisticated, high-tech toys that only the children of the Rich and Famous could afford. I am talking about the real simple toys. Toys help children to grow and to nourish. Toys also build bridges between children no matter where they are. I am saying this because two of the co-founders of the kids4kids club (created under the Lingua Franca Foundation) have decided that they, too, want to participate in the act of giving.

In order to promote diversity and international exchanges, the Lingua Franca Foundation has gone another step further with it’s activities.  This time, the kids4kids club have decided to part with their beloved toys and give them to other needy children who are at the other side of the globe.  Besides parting with their own toys, they have also collected toys from other children who share the same idea and philosophy  - help and give to other needy children. The children have been collecting toys since January 2010 and have piled up over more than 50 kilos worth of toys (soft, wodden, plastic etc).

Finally, the Lingua Franca Foundation is very proud to annouce that…

On the 10th of  May 2010, the Lingua Franca Foundation has taken it’s wings and flown all the way to the eastern part of the globe : a country called Malaysia. There, Lingua Franca Foundation has marked it’s first donation by giving away their first batch of toys (collected by the kids4kids club) to the director of  Hotel Abadi – a hotel which is located in the state of Melaka.

 This hotel is conducting a special on-going campaign to help distribute used toys and clothing to the poor and needy children in Malaysia. This is an on-going project, therefore, the kids4kids club will continue to collect more toys and also chilren’s clothing for the needy children.

We are also calling for more volunteers who are willing to help gather more toys and children’s clothing in their area. We are also hoping for more collaboration with schools and other institutions for more help.

 If you, your child, your family, your child’s school, your workplace, or anybody who you know, want to participate in this noble project, please contact us by clicking here,

and if you want to support our work by donation, please click here.

Lingua Franca Foundation also launches another workshop in Rotterdam for those who are interested in Mind Mapping on the 21 July 2010

Please read here for more information regarding this workshop

For immediate booking, please click here

ENTER THE WORLD OF CREATiViTY

 MIND MAPPING BASICS WORKSHOP

is now in Amsterdam on 20 July 2010

INTRIGUE ? Please read here for more info !

For immediate booking to secure your place, you can also click here

Because of this great interest, the Foundation has created a club for kids – which one of the objectives is – to also initiate such project among children.  It is also another approach to reach out to all types of children despite their nationality, race and religion. What more of a better way than children reaching out to other children? They can learn to encourage and support each other – giving hand to-hand guidance – while having fun together and getting to know one another more thoroughly and put aside their differences to find a common ground between them so that they can live in a more harmonious way.

So, there it is! It’s now OFFICIAL ! The Stichting Lingua Franca Foundation is now a member and supporter of the Piccolingo Campaign. For your information, the Piccolingo Campaign is an initiative from the  European Union under Education and Culture DG.

Marco Bertolini, the co-Founder of Lingua Franca Foundation, has been appointed as a supporter  for the Piccolingo Campaign for Belgium from PICCOLINGO.