Tina Bow, founder and executive director of the SimplyHelp Foundation, made a life-changing decision to help those living in poverty. Her goal was to help them gain access to the basic necessities of life through charitable donations and to provide educational opportunities to empower them to succeed on their own.
Born to an impoverished military family in a Taiwan still suffering from the scars of World War II, Tina emigrated to the United States in 1980 after completing her degree in business administration. After several lucrative careers in real estate and local politics in her new home of Los Angeles, Tina became disenchanted with the trappings of wealth. Seeking spiritual growth, Tina traveled to remote villages in Burma and Cambodia, avoiding the once familiar creature comforts of five-star hotels, and instead lived and ate amongst the indigenous peoples. These experiences had a profound effect upon Tina, and led her to the conclusion that material success was not the key to personal happiness.
It was during this time that Tina met Mario Rivera – a maintenance worker and pastor – while building a church for a congregation that valued helping the poor. Tina and Mario soon found themselves working together on an outreach project that focused on the poor communities of Mario’s roots in Central and South America. Making good use of Mario’s familiarity with the people of this region, the two managed to collect and deliver second-hand goods to poor families. When the project resulted in tears of joy from the villagers, Tina knew what she was destined to do with her life.
On July 6, 2000, Tina and Mario founded the charitable organization Simply Help, Inc. SimplyHelp started out small but grew quickly, building a circle of committed volunteers and donors. Inspired by the joy that its charitable activities brought to men, women and children living in developing countries, Tina broadened and expanded SimplyHelp’s objectives. She established relationships with leading government officials and responded to requests from the First Lady of El Salvador, Dona Elizabeth Calderon, to create a vocational training school in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. Tina also answered the call of local pastor Jose Soto to build a senior center for the many homeless elderly living in his community.
In 2001, Tina was introduced to the Cambodian Ambassador to the United Nations, and together they established a SimplyHelp branch in Cambodia. A computer and tailoring school was opened in the capital, Phnom Penh. Both schools continue to provide free training classes for those unable to learn productive skills elsewhere due to abject poverty.
Following these successes, SimplyHelp went on to build and establish new training schools in Panama, Nicaragua and China; three senior centers for homeless elderly in El Salvador and Panama; and distribution of disaster-relief donations in 22 countries around the world.
In 2005, the United Nations acknowledged Tina and SimplyHelp’s work by granting the Foundation UN ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) consultative status. Additionally, SimplyHelp has developed strong partnerships with The County of Los Angeles, the First Lady of Nicaragua, the former First Lady of El Salvador, the Minister of Foreign affairs in Cambodia, and with Lehigh University’s graduate program in evaluating international projects.
Marking its 10-year anniversary in 2010, SimplyHelp has served hundreds of communities in 22 countries, over 26,000 people with vocational training courses, 4 centers for the homeless elderly, and thousands of people in need of relief after surviving natural disasters.
Tina’s vision of helping people in developing countries has become a reality. But her mission is far-reaching, and her tireless efforts and dedication to SimplyHelp’s work in impoverished countries will continue on for many years to come.
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