本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Dear Pyramid,

Thank you for your response to regarding Yoke Kennedy's Letter.
The K-W YMCA fully understands the inappropriateness of Yoke's words. Please
be assured that our Association does not condone the tone nor the content of
the email.
The K-W YMCA's Cross-Cultural and Community Services division has been a
leader in providing newcomers with the emotional, spiritual and physical
support needed to adapt, contribute and prosper in the K-W community for
over 15 years. There has never been any expectation of a donation in return
for our services. Although we do conduct an annual giving campaign each year
to help raise money for children to access Y programming, we wish people to
give willingly and only if they are in the position to do so. In February of
this year, letters requesting a donation were mailed to recent users of our
Immigrant Settlement Services and we greatly appreciated all of the help we
received. We, however, do not expect a donation nor do we wish to "harass"
anyone into giving to our Association.
The Letter went out without the knowledge of any other Y staff and certainly
does not reflect our values or our methods of soliciting donations. We thank
you for responding to this unfortunate situation and assure you that such a
solicitation will not be sent out in the future. The K-W YMCA's vision is to
be a valued community leader in making a positive difference in the lives of
children, adults and families by expanding services and building
partnerships. We fully recognize that correspondence such as the one you
received do not further this vision.
Thank you,
Louise Jessup


Louise Jessup
Communications Supervisor, K-W YMCA
Telephone: (519) 584-7479 x 207
Fax: (519) 571-1721
Email: ljessup@kwymca.org
The K-W YMCA Builds Strong Kids, Strong Families, Strong Communities

=================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Pyramid
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 6:05 PM
To: ljessup@kwymca.org; malvarez@kwymca-cccs.org
Subject: Settlement Counselor Yoke Kennedy

Dear Ms Alvarez,

I was surprised by the letter created by Yoke Kennedy which is full of race
discrimnation and narrow minded ideas and that letter really hurts many
Chinese Canadians.

Although I never have the chances to enjoy the great settlement services
provided by the government of Canada like LINC, ESL and even YMCA, I also
never hesitate when the chances raise for donations. As one of stingy
Chinese of what Yoke Kennedy said who never speak Cantonese but only English
and Mandarin from mainland China, I donated my GST tax return to the
government two times since I landed in this new country in 2001. Forthemore,
I and lot of my friends helped a cancer patient in Toronto in the past and
we really happy when we help others.

Donations should be collected by the consent of the person who contribute.
YMCA and many government services are free because tax payer already paid
most of the part I believe, and many new immigrants from China have no job
and their economy condition is not very good, and I think it is normal for
new comers and that why YMCA is standing there for help. Why Ms. Yoke
Kennedy ask them to donate so desperately when most of them have no capacity
for a donation cheque?

I am stunned by the attitude Ms. Yoke Kennedy to our Chinese new comers.
They came to YMCA for asking help, and Ms. Kennedy was asking them to
donate. If they are so capable to donate, why should they bother to ask help
there? Maybe Ms. Kennedy has the right to ask, but the person she asked also
has the right to refuse, anyway she is not a begger! If she think it is so
hard to get money from the people visited YMCA, why don't she directly open
an attorney office and the customers will pay her in that case.

As a goverment worker especially in YMCA, be open minded and fair to
everyone not judge a person by his/her race and origin, I believe this is
the basic requirment. From her letter I believe she is unqualified for this
job and it is a shame for WK YMCA.

Sincerely yours,


Pyramid

TEL: 1-416-xxxxxxx
Mailto:xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
xxx-xxxxxx Ave., Apt. xxx
Mississauga,Ontario, Postcode, Canada


========================================================

Attached: Letter from Yoke Kennedy

It has been almost three years since I am a settlement worker with the
KW-YMCA. No words can express the level of satisfaction I get from helping
my clients, 80% of whom are of Chinese origin. Working with you all has also
helped me get in touch with my Chinese roots. However, there is one part of
my Chinese origin that causes me great embarrassment--take and no give,
unless you are a family member.

KW-YMCA is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, but some of the
goods and services come from donations--like subsidies for camp, trial
memberships for 3 months' use of the recreation facilities ($120 each),
English lessons, toys, funeral expenses for clients, etc. Many of the staff
here, including myself, work more than full-time hours but we do not get
paid full-time. There is not enough money to go around.

In the last year I have heard some embarrassing stories about the Chinese
newcomers in KW. The manager of a social service agency said that at each of
his workshops, participants would be given generous donations of gift
certificates for food and clothes. At the end of the workshop sessions, all
participants would be invited to help themselves to free brand-new clothes
for their kids. Some people would rush forward to grab two or three sets of
clothes leaving those behind with nothing. These people were assured that
there would be more clothes to give away the following week and to take one
set only. The story did not get any better the following week. The same
people appeared and behaved in exactly the same way. This manager approached
me for an explanation after the workers in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo
told the same story over and over again. "These people" are "the Chinese".

I have also heard from the car salesperson, the insurance agents, the real
estate brokers that the Chinese are the most difficult customers to close a
deal. The Chinese expect a whole lot of service for free. Service requires
time, and time is money. Why do real estate brokers usually require chinese
home-buyers to sign a contract? A Chinese man would very likely have an
agent show him 50 houses and then when they together found the perfect
house, the Chinese would make a secret deal with the seller so as to help
the seller (who is now his best friend) avoid paying a commission to the
agent. Guess who benefits the most here.

Another agent asks his Chinese customers at the first meeting to choose
between service and price. For the lowest price go straight to Company ABC,
for the best service come to me, but don't expect the lowest price. Before
long, the person who went to ABC and eventually got cheated and got no
service at all will come to me to get his money back. Then when I stick out
my hand to ask for a donation to the Y, he said to wait till he has paid off
the mortgage.

One Chinese woman received no lessons at all from her driving school after
paying $400. I helped her get back her $400 plus $300 of compensation for
the loss of her time and energy. I sent her a letter for a donation to the
Y. She said she never received it. I sent her another letter. She said her
son took care of all her mail. I too lost time and energy on this case
because this was not really settlement work. I had to do it at my own time
just because this woman had a language problem and is new in KW.

Job search is the biggest challenge for my Chinese clients. As a settlement
worker rather than an employment worker, I can't afford to spend a whole lot
of time helping with job-search. But when I see that a newcomer is about to
give up, I will some how find more time to help this newcomer in the
job-search, with the request that a small donation be made to the Y upon
getting the first paycheque. So far, I have received one donation of $10 and
another donation of $20. Where are all other tens and hundreds of people who
have got jobs with my help?

My friend offered me two bicycles for $60. I did not need them. She then
said she was going to give it to the thrift store. I asked if she would like
my help to sell them to my clients. Her reply: I would rather give the bikes
to the thrift store so the workers can get a decent pay. The Chinese who
came to my garage sale offered me $5 for both bikes. This friend is a
Chinese who has lived here for 20 years.

A family requested help in getting subsidized childcare. They received ten
weeks of free childcare, with a lot of team work from other agencies other
than the Y. Then they requested subsidized counselling. Each hour of
professional counselling costs $85 and after untold hours of phone calls
during a two-week period, I got them the best rate at $10 per hour. This was
not good enough, said the family. I tried harder and this time it was $5.
This was still not good enough. Guess who else needs to put food on the
table?

Of course I will never forget this Chinese woman who, without prompting,
offered a donation $10 after I helped her recover child support payments
from the ex-husband. I returned her $5. I served her at my own time. She was
a citizen and she spoke Cantonese only. No other agency can serve her.

Another Chinese donated $10 to the Y after I helped him with his divorce
application forms--not exactly settlement work. It took me four hours on the
weekend doing work that should be done by a lawyer or a paralegal. The Y
received a $10 donation. Thanks.

A woman worked for years in Tim Hortons supporting her son and husband. She
could not make ends meet and finally decided to return to China. Her parting
gift to the Y was a $20 donation. To me, that $20 was worth 20 thousand
dollars.

This last story really breaks my heart. Besides working for the Y, I also do
piece-work for the KW-Multicultural Centre, doing written translation and
oral interpretation. Each document to be translated and notarized costs a
minimum of $30. Sometimes, through my connections with employers and
agencies, I can have an educational certificate translated but not notarized
by the Multicultural Centre and would thus cost nothing to the student or
job-seeker. The only cost is the Y's time. Of course, I would then not
receive any payment through the Multicultural Centre for that piece of work.
Recently, I translated four Chinese documents for a woman who lives in
Guelph. I tried to convince her to translate just two, instead of four, to
save on time and money. She insisted on all four documents. Wow, $120. After
numerous phone calls to the agency that wanted the English version, I
managed to convince the agency to let me do it through the Y rather than
through the Multicultural Centre. This way the unemployed newcomer would not
have to spend $120. The agency too had earlier failed to convince this woman
to translate only two, not four documents, to save on her money. Wow, she
insisted on spending $120. When I handed over the original documents to the
newcomer, I explained how, through trust and connection, I managed to help
her save $120. However, since she lives outside of Kitchener-Waterloo, she
is not qualified for service by the KW-YMCA. So the time I spend working on
her documents has to be counted as my own time, not the Y's time. I then
requested a $2 donation to the KW-YMCA to help cover the cost of ink, paper
and the fax service. Her reply: Wait until I get a job. The KW-YMCA got no
$, the Multicultural Centre got no $. I lost my time. I still need to put
food on the table for my four girls who have only one provider. This story
has only one winner.

In the last two years, I have sent out 30 letters of donation requests to
clients whom I believed had benefitted the most from the Y and have the
financial abiltiy to donate a few dollars. In all the follow-up phone calls,
all I hear was that you never received those letters even though I
personally put a 48-cent-stamp on each of those letters.

In the next few months, I will be requesting donations from friends,
relatives, community workers and private companies--and this takes TIME.
This money will go towards helping you newcomers. If only each of you can
donate a few dollars to the Y, I would be able to put that TIME back into
helping you newcomers get more "free money".

Please do not expect me to have dinner at your house.
Please do not expect me to give you another three-month membership because
you were too busy to use the first one.
Please do not expect the Y to pay for your abortion because you are a
visitor/student and can't afford $350. Didn't you just return from a visit
to China to celebrate your grandpa's 60th birthday? { 枫下论坛
rolia.net/forum }
Please do not expect me to interpret on-site at your home when the
air-conditioner service-man arrives.
Please do not expect me to believe that a donation will be made when you get
a job, when you have paid off your mortgage, when your children are finished
with university, and when your funeral costs are covered.
Please expect to be shocked and mad at this message.

Each donation to the KW-YMCA will be recognized with a thank-you letter from
the head office, including a 48-cent-stamp on it. On your envelope, write:
attention to Yoke.



This letter goes to all my Chinese clients. No names, gender inaccurate.

Yoke KXXXXXX
Settlement Counsellor
Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net