A true friend of the Sri Lanka Girl Guides
The Sri Lanka Girl Guides (SLGG) HQ had a VIP visitor last week. Chair for the Asia Pacific (AP) Region of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS,) Low Lih Jeng was on her third visit to Sri Lanka and made a special appearance at SLGG’s National Awards Day 2015 at Visakha Vidyalaya.
Sri Lanka Girl Guides Chief Commissioner Yasmin Raheem and Chairperson for the Asia Pacific Region of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Low Lih Jeng
She first visited the country in 2010 as the newly appointed Chairperson was accompanied by her mother, Chan Siok Fong who herself was no stranger to the Guiding world.
Her mother had been Chairperson for Asia Pacific from 1978-1981 and they have a record for being the only mother and daughter Guides to serve in this capacity.
Low Lih Jeng returned in 2012 for a regional gathering in the island and this year was invited to receive SLGG’s highest felicitation- the Hansa Puttuwa award. It was the first time the award was being made to a non- Sri Lankan.
Walking into the SLGG HQ has reawakened memories. “I’ve heard mum mention most of these names,” she says looking at the photographs of past presidents and chief commissioners on the walls. “I even knew some of them.”
Taking her first steps towards becoming a Guide at nine when she was enrolled as a Brownie, her interest was sparked by many after-school hours at the Guides HQ in Singapore.
On some particularly tiring days she remembers dozing-off while waiting for her mother to finish the day’s duties. On others she “would help-out at the shop” and aspire to own badges that looked fascinatingly “cool.”
Low Lih Jeng progressed from “dancing around the toadstool” to steadily rise through the ranks. During her final year studying law, she was a cadet lieutenant elected to chair a senior branch in council.
Each stage of service, she says, has brought not just different perspectives but different means of learning – making mistakes, she freely admits, but unfailingly learning from each of them.
Prior to her current judicial posting in Singapore, the AP chair has been a legal consultant working with the UNHCR, a teacher for 8 years, the first CEO of the Law Society of Singapore and an advocate for volunteerism on which she’s written many papers.
These however, she feels, are mere supplements to the calling each Guide undertakes with the Guide Promise. “You promise to do your best” she says, and that requires rising to the occasion and “serve your country” which asks for a life of service, in any capacity.
Universally understood among Guides across the globe, this way of life inspired by the Promise has always left her with the feeling that home wasn’t confined by the boundaries of Singapore.
With 3.5 million Guides in the region she chairs, her proudest moment as AP Chair was when the region unanimously went against the tide and “voted for the right thing” in a contentious issue. “We’ve always had good leaders and strong teams” she says, happily.
She has always enjoyed her visits to Sri Lanka, she says. Stories of Guides saving pocket money to construct libraries in other schools or cultivating sustainable herb gardens in their communities have been testament to the values Guiding instils. “This is why I love Sri Lanka” she smiles.
Trips on “the bone-shaker” – SLGG’s trusty means of transport for field visits, saw Low Lih Jeng taking steps to have the old rattling van, well past its days of smooth running replaced. The Trefoil Guild of Singapore has donated a more comfortable mode of travel to the SLGG.
Whether she’s raising funds to replace the roof at SLGG HQ, or just supplying a supportive word, Chief Commissioner of SLGG Yasmin Raheem feels the AP Chair is “what we would call a true friend of SLGG.”
It was a unanimous decision for the Chief Commissioner and her executive committee to honour her with the Hansa Puttuwa, an award usually given to former Chief Commissioners or Guides who have served the Movement exceptionally.