Helping others seems her life calling
Print Edition
Ten years ago, a despairing mother with a thin frame came to Michelle Teope-Shen’s office in Shanghai seeking help. Her 8-year-old son, Zhang Yong, had congenital heart disease. The child was at death’s door unless he got an operation very soon.
His father, a construction worker, had already given up since the fee for surgery would be prohibitive. As the only source of income for his family, he earned merely 800 yuan (US$129) a month.
Supported by the Filipino community in Shanghai, Teope-Shen helped provide financial assistance for the operation, which was a success.
The last time she saw this boy, he could dribble a basketball, something he could never do before the operation. The mother found a part-time job and the whole family was better off.
“This was my first case helping a child with congenital heart disease,” the Filipino tells Shanghai Daily. “It opened my eyes to what the work meant. It’s not just the child that you help but also the family because you lighten up the burden of the parents.”
Teope-Shen is now chairwoman of Beacon of Love, a non-governmental organization dedicated to public awareness of children suffering from congenital heart disease in Shanghai. The group, which was established in 2002, has about 25 members, most of them expats. All speak fluent Mandarin.
In partnership with the Shanghai Children’s Health Foundation, the group has financed 221 life-saving surgeries and raised millions through its annual Charity Carnival event.
From the time she was a volunteer, it never occurred to Teope-Shen that she could become the chairwoman of such an organization. “I just followed the flow of the water and it led me to do more charity work,” she says.
In 2000, Teope-Shen moved to Shanghai with her husband and two children. At first an architect who was the project manager of the construction of the Grand Hotel Beijing in 1987 and later a housewife, the woman started to involve herself in charity to enrich her life.
She joined the Filipino Community Association in Shanghai, which led her to participate in her first case helping a sick child, cooperating with Beacon of Love. Now she is president of the Filipino Community Association.
Residing in one of the city’s most international communities — the Gubei area of Changning District — Teope-Shen recently became a chamber counselor at the Gubei Civic Center, representing expatriate views in the community.
“My passion for bridging Eastern and Western cultures led me to become a counselor for the residents’ chamber,” she says.
Teope-Shen’s life is very hectic. Taking care of the family and all of her volunteer obligations fill her life with various tasks, and her enthusiasm keeps her dedicated.
“There is passion in my heart in helping people,” she says. “I find being helpful to others very enriching for me. I know it’s a thankless job. Without the passion, I would never stay this long. But I do more — there are things around me that inspire me to keep continuing.”
Teope-Shen still remembers the emaciated figure of Zhang Yong, who was 8 but looked like a 5-year-old boy. Unlike other normal children of his age, Zhang had not lost his baby teeth due to his disease.
To take care of the child, the mother could not work. She carried him on her back to school every day, climbing up and down five flights of stairs because the child was too weak to walk or climb stairs.
“The saddest part was when the mother told me that the father blamed her for the condition of the child. She was in tears. And he says ‘I have been trained in the military and I work in construction. I am such a strong man. Why do you give me such a child’?” Teope-Shen recalls.
After the child’s surgery and recovery, even though they still lived in a ramshackle small apartment with no room for a sofa, things were so different when Teope-Shen visited again them. And the relationship between the parents was better, as well.
In the last 10 years, Teope-Shen and her team members also have helped children with congenital heart disease who have been abandoned by their parents and are in an orphanage.
“A child’s operation requires about 30,000 yuan and it is not easy to raise funds,” Teope-Shen says. “But I think you have to be realistic about your expectations. If you can raise enough money to save just one kid — it’s just as good enough.
“And each year the number has been rising. Today we can save 30 to 45 kids in a year,” she adds.
Today, the group is expanding their efforts to western and southern parts of China including Yunnan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region. Yearly they make a trip to visit the children they have helped and select some cases to bring to Shanghai.
“We do the follow-up work to see if the child recovers, but after one year it’s beyond our mission and objective and resources to do more. We have to concentrate on helping other kids,” she says.
As president of the Filipino Community Association, Teope-Shen organizes events during Independence Day and Christmas each year.
“My role and objective is to get the community together,” she says. Together with the Filipino consulate, she has initiated many charitable activities, including raising money when a big typhoon hit their country and funds to help the orphanages in Shanghai.
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