PENANG, Dec 16 (Sin Chew Daily) — Despite her age, 13-year-old student Jenny Ooi has a very big heart, and has organised a team of volunteers to raise funds for Dolpo Tulku Charitable Foundation (DTCF) so that remote villagers in Nepal can gain access to medical support.

Beginning last year, Jenny started to sell biscuits to raise almost US$10,000 and some 170kg of toys for DTCF, along with T-shirts donated by a manufacturer.

While sharing her experience and feelings with her schoolmates at Penang’s Straits International School (SIS), she said she used to follow her parents to get involved in international charity events since she was young, and discovered that people in Nepal’s Dolpo were living in abject poverty and did not have ready access to medical attention as they had to walk for at least 20 days to the nearest town in order to see a doctor.

She said while education is very important, putting a smile on everyone’s face is even more meaningful, adding that she felt contented seeing the smiling faces of impoverished Dolpo residents because of the team’s works.

She hopes to pursue a course in law in the future and join a UN international aid platform.

Also present were SIS principal Karlie Walsh and Sungai Pinang assemblyman Lim Siew Khim.

Meanwhile, Ooi’s mother said she and her husband had never allowed themselves to spoil Jenny, their only child, and wanted her to be more independent.

She said Jenny had started raising funds for DTCF by selling biscuits since she was 11.

DTCF is a charitable, non-profit, secular and humanitarian organisation providing free healthcare and medical assistance for the less fortunate in the remote regions of Nepal.