WRITING FOR A CHANGE
By Christopher Quah
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword, a popular saying, which has much truth. The power of the written word is more than just making up words on the pages of some blank sheets. Done correctly, it can help change the world or impact the lives of the readers.
Just ask Andrew Chia, an experienced writer of more than 10 books. Most of his books are related to financial planning, but one is about Pastor Alvin Tan of Yayasan Sunbeam Home in Taman Mawar, with the title, Lost Boy: A child finds his place in the sun; a book written to impact the reader and is written specifically to help raise funds for the home.
In a recent interview with Asian Beacon, Andrew shared his journey as the author of that book and his motivations and passion for writing that book which was outside his scope, in a series of questions and answers.
Q: What genre of book do you write on?
A: I am a financial writer. I write for CENFIS (Centre for Financial and Management Studies) which is based in London. So, basically I write financial books in regards to financial planning and mostly for young people.
Q: So how did you end up writing this book about a Home for Lost boys?
A: Well it was as a favour which I wanted to do for Pastor Tan, the founder and principal of Sunbeam Home. The home was tight on cash. Pastor Tan was my school teacher. He saved my life, once in school when I was very sick and he was the teacher who rushed me to the hospital. So as a favour when I found out that Sunbeam Home was financially tight, I decided to do something about it.
To be honest I didn’t intent to get involved in this way that is through writing a book. I was just going around asking donations or funds for the home.
But one day, I approached Mr Ho Chin Soon, the founder of Ho Chin Soon Research Sdn Bhd which produces maps widely used in the property industry. He is also the President of the Authors Club which I was a member. The Authors Club is an NGO for budding Malaysia authors. They meet regularly to encourage one another among other things. During one of the meetings I told him about Sunbeam Home, hoping he would contribute some financial aids.
It was there that he challenged me to write a book about Sunbeam Home and Pastor Tan. I thought that it was a great idea, and agreed without thinking much about it. I got more than I bargain for. Soon I discovered how challenging it was for me to write such a book. Although I have authored many books before but they were all financial books, so to write this book was a different ball game for me.
I had to spend one and a half months interviewing Pastor Tan. It was very challenging as I was also working part time as an English Lecturer in Sunway Monash, and writing for CENFIS.
To add to this, I had agreed to a two months dateline to finish this book, before Christmas that year. After a month or so of struggle, I felt that I could not complete writing it on time. I broke the ‘news’ to Mr Ho, the person I made the agreement with. Mr Ho, is a very good motivator. He forced me to keep to my dateline but in a humorous sort of way. I supposed, he had expected that I would ask for an extension and he was prepared to say no by informing me that he had already raised RM 20,000 fund for the cost of book’s publication. I remembered him telling me that I would have to pay for the full cost of the book myself if I couldn’t have it published by that date. Of course, this gave me plenty of motivation, and by God’s grace I finished the book. Even with the RM 20,000 fund I did the graphic layout myself before passing it to the printer as I wanted to save cost. In the end I managed to complete it on time. With the fund money, I managed to print a few thousand copies. Mr Ho printed another additional 500 copies.
Q: Wow that seems like a very difficult journey. What do gain at the end – after completing the book?
A: I found it very satisfying. In fact, it impacted my life a lot. While writing the book it helped me to get very involved in the details of the lives of Pastor Tan and the children in Sunbeam. The kids here are quite lost. Their parents are either gangsters, kaki botol (alcoholics), or drug addicts. Pastor Tan has been in this ministry for over 20 years now. Every year they need over 2 million ringgit to survive. When the economy is bad, sponsorship will slow down, and cash would be tight. So, they will pray hard, and by some miracle someone will come along to give them the needed money. God has never failed them. But as the number of kids increase, they need more and more funding. Probably by next year they might need 3 million ringgit. Pastor Tan keeps taking in more and more kids because he pities them. These kids are not actually orphaned or abandoned but at most times Pastor Tan has to rescue them from their parents because they are being abused by the parents. This is very depressing.
This book helped Sunbeam to raise funds and to create public awareness. The home has a lot of sponsors throughout its 22 years history. People who supported their cause, and some of the newer ones who wanted to donate money would like to find out how it actually started. So instead of telling the story over and over again, they could just read the book. I have donated some of this book to the Authors’ Library and one of the members of the group brought a book to Penang to let his sister read. It impacted her so much that she actually called up Sunbeam. She was so touch by the story, that she donated RM 1, 000 to the home. Hearing such testimonies gives me extreme satisfaction as a writer. I don’t need a million readers. Even when I find one person who enjoys reading my book and being impacted by it, it really gives me much satisfaction, and if it makes them change their lives, it gives me much joy. If I could help even one or two lives like those in Sunbeam for the better through my writing is enough to satisfy me. Writing Lost Boy as I see it is part of a charity work for me. Even though, I was paid a nominal sum for writing which Mr. Ho thought was fair, I would still have written it even if I was for free. Through writing it, I see myself using my talent to make the world a better place. It also gives me the passion to write. Writing is a skill that must come with a passion, without it you end up dragging to yourself to complete the work.
