It’s amazing what you can do with 2 shirts. At the FWC Club Christmas Dinner we raffled a cycling shirt and a children’s funky t-shirt. This raised £438 for Aspyre Africa. Co-founder Savina Geerinckx who trains at FWC Covent Garden & West End with Chief Instructor Dennis Ngo has sent an update on how the organisation has used the funds to buy “The Tools of Peace”.
The young students make a start with their training.
“At the beginning of January a first cohort of 14 disadvantaged young people started Horticultural/ Agricultural training in Saint-Louis, Senegal. The course will take a year and will equip them with all the skills they need to either find employment or set up their own business.
With the money raised from the FWC Kung Fu Christmas Dinner raffle, we were able to buy all the toolkits for the 14 young people. The toolkit contains everything they need for the training including: gloves, masks, wellies, rakes, watering cans, shovels, & pitchforks.
Thank you so much for the support and for continuing to spread the word, as we can really use all the help we can get!”
“The Tools of Peace are precious indeed.”
So says Chief Instructor Dennis Ngo who recently finished his lecture series on The Art of War for Students, and he comments, “Do not forget that extended, secure peacetime is the ultimate aim. Although The Art of War teaches us how to deal with conflict it nevertheless upholds the truth that the greatest victory is never to go into battle. The Emperors of Ancient China always held farmers in high esteem, above merchants and even scholars. Farmers used their ability to work with nature to feed the population and create times of prosperity so that peace reigned in the nation. The Emperors rightly regarded them as a national treasure.”
Very true, but let’s not forget that the monks of China use the tools in their fighting patterns (but only for – ahem –protecting the crops). Three section staff pattern anyone? Honestly, officer, I was just on my way to the rice barn for flailing practice.
If you bought a ticket at the raffle, please accept the thanks posted on Aspyre Africa’s Facebook page and check out the post on their website.
Not a monk in sight.