Building the A.R.K.

When I started brainstorming, a few ideas came to mind, one of them is to provide online tuition to underprivileged kids. As I have been teaching tuition for a number of years, this is one area which I feel confident in contributing, through coaching of fundamental, mentoring of progress and sharing of study methods. There are a few hurdles to realize this concept and the questions I asked include: How do I reach out to these needy students? Online/ face to face? How can I afford the time amid my busy schedule? How many students can I coach? Where to look for more volunteers when the need arises? How do I sustain this project in the long run? How do I inspire others to do likewise? I thought of setting up an online forum to let these underprivileged students interact with volunteers online, that should save the hassle to having to travel to student's/ tutor's home. It is likely to be safer as the activities could be monitored by moderators. However, to kick-start the project, it involved a lot of planning and coordination work, like finding the beneficiaries, educating about the program, getting volunteers to join in, creating topics in the forum and so on. However, the most important question that I asked myself is that is this going to be effective? I couldn't convince myself that this concept would work so I KIV the idea.

On one particular night before turning in, a random thought hit my mind as I suddenly recalled this movie that I watched previously. The movie is called "Evan Almighty", in which God instructs politician Evan (who previously prays to God to help him change the world) to build an ARK because a flood is coming.

In the above scene, Evan asked God why was he chosen? God replied that it was because Evan wanted to change the world. God told Evan that many people want to change the world but don't know how to begin. God then enlightened Evan by telling him that in order to change world, he will just have to do one act of random kindness at a time.

That is a simple yet powerful statement which had enlightened me deeply. Indeed, we do not need mega projects or huge amount of funds to do start something to change the world. All we need is to start off with doing simple acts of random kindness, one at a time, and soon the world will be a better place when everyone started giving and spreading kindness around. I can be doing what I like and yet helping someone along the way (sharing the knowledge, providing advice) and this can also be an act of kindness. I do not have to define what activity constitute a kind act because the person embracing this philosophy will choose to do the activity he/ she is most comfortable with and at the same time spread kindness around. If more people can embrace this mission, then the world will definitely be a better place for all to live in.

Towards the end of the movie, God explained to Evan that the word "ARK" stand for "Acts of Random Kindness". Thus, that is how I got my inspiration for the name of this project. I added a "P" in front to make it P.A.R.K., which also means Project Act of Random Kindness. I hope more people can come on board the ARK and be a PARK member. It is through these small acts of random kindness, one at a time, that we can all change the world and make it a better place for our future generations.

In the movie, the ARK was supposed to be ready on 22 September because the flood would come on that day. Coincidentally, Project ARK was started on 22 September 2013, an inspiring Sunday.