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North East Chinese School B30
Mrs Kew Lim Awarded CIAC “Woman Volunteer of the Year 2014”
Mrs Kew Lim, the head teacher of North East Chinese School, was awarded the "Woman Volunteer of the Year 2014" at a ceremony held in the House of Lords on Monday 20 October 2014. This award was organised by Chinese Information and Advice Centre. It is our privilege to be able to report here her achievements through her long years of selfless service to the community.

Kew Lim was educated in Malaysia and was a trained teacher before coming to the UK where she undertook nursing training, became a midwife and then a Health Visitor, working for the NHS in Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, until her retirement.

Throughout her adult life, she has been actively serving the local Chinese community, and supporting young and old. In 1985, she was asked by the then Chairman of the North of England Chinese Association to take over as head teacher of the North East Chinese School, a community language school of ca. 100 pupils aged 5 to 16 years and based in Middlesbrough. The Chinese community in Teesside were keen to have the Chinese School so that their children can be taught and learn about Chinese language, culture and traditions and to be able to communicate with their elders. She has worked quietly and industriously to nurture young people and lead a team of volunteer teachers to keep the Chinese school going. She has promoted the school and encouraged non-Chinese to attend classes in Mandarin. The school has achieved excellent results in GCSE with A grades being attained by all candidates entered over many years.

Since her retirement from the NHS, Mrs Lim was able to devote more of her time and resource as a virtually full-time volunteer worker for the Chinese community. For many of the elderly, she is their first port of call to interpret their mail and helping them to complete their forms. She also transports them to visit their Health Clinics or to the local hospital as many of them need an interpreter and one with a medical background is particularly useful.

For many years, she has headed a small committee which carried out a survey to find out the real needs of the local Chinese elders. She then helped to initiate and actively promote the efforts to build a home for Chinese elders in Middlesbrough. After gaining the help of Middlesbrough Council and the Tees Valley Housing Group, this building, called Tai Hua Court, went ahead and was completed in 2006. This home provides secure accommodation for 20 couples and has been fully occupied ever since.

The next project has been many years in the planning. It was for a new community centre to be built next to the home for the elders which they could visit. The centre has to be large enough to hold large functions/ annual celebrations and also to provide a permanent home for the Chinese school. This involved applying for funds from several organisations including The Big Lottery, the European Regeneration Development Fund, the raising of monies by members and working with the Middlesbrough Council and Tees Valley Housing Group. After sustained efforts, the community centre was completed and opened in 2007 by the Mayor of Middlesbrough, Mr Ray Mallon. The main hall of the centre can hold over 200 people in a cabaret format and over 250 in a theatre format.

The Tees Valley Chinese Community Centre (TVCCC) is, of course, open to the wider public and not exclusively to the Chinese community. It has been used for various functions, including seminars, training courses, meetings and school classes. This helps to promote better integration with the wider community.

Since opening of TVCCC, the members have enjoyed coming to the centre to participate in a number of activities such as Tai Chi exercises, Health Promotion talks, Healthy Luncheon Clubs and social gatherings. Mrs Lim trained to be a council- qualified Walking Group leader and has organised and led many outings to a number of locations in the attractive countryside of the North East. She finds that the members are a very law-abiding and co-operative group but many are at risk of being socially isolated in their twilight years. To counteract this, she has arranged ESOL (English for Speakers of Overseas Language) classes and Computer lessons so they can surf the web, send and receive emails and ‘SKYPE’ with their families and others. This should help them to interact with the wider community and feel less isolated. Mrs Lim is also the co-ordinator for networking with the Middlesbrough Black Minority and Ethnic (BME) Group. Through attending meetings organised by the council and by the Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Association (MVDA), she has helped to widen the scope and vision of the TVCCC.

Over the years of quiet service to the local community, she has put the benefit of others first and has never asking for any reward in return. Her caring spirit to young and old and her willingness to help others has gained her some recognition, including awards from the Middlesbrough BME (Woman of the Year in 2009 ), and from the Mayors of both Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough Councils.