Mother Memorial Fundraising

Dear Madam or Sir,

It is my pleasures to write you and your Foundation, because I very much admire your charity campaigns, which bring so much hope to so many otherwise desperate people. I wish I were one of them. Originally I did not want to ask for outsider investors, rather I would like to develop this and all other projects myself alone slowly, however, now I want to try the other way around, by making them a little bit louder, even by making them known to everyone in the country, thus making them some kind of big projects. This way I may turn my ideas and expertise to the welfare of other people, rather for self-appreciation only. Therefore I would like to get in touch with your organization, in order to see if my project can be engaged with your strategy.

Now return to the subject.

My mother - a common countryside woman in Huzhou, Zhejiang province - quiet, clean, genteel, talented yet not competing with the world -all beautiful words cannot describe her nice personality and high morality. Mother has a beautiful name as well, which I cannot say because of the requirement of "evasion". Of course, like all other mothers, she was beautiful in look as well.

Mother was passed away more than four years since March 11, 2016, the darkest day of the human history. I miss her day and night, her image come up in my dreams uncountable times. As long as I think of my mother, I can't help but burst into tears and grief. Without my mother, even with brothers and sisters, my life lost its luster and motivation.

These years since mother's pass away, I have ever been willing to write her life, in order to remember her, and for our posterity to know her forever. However, I dare not to think about her, for once thinking her, my heart is like being cut by knife; once I begin to write that is to hit at the keyboard, my tears cannot prevent from rolling out, my eyes become blurred, thus writing cannot continue anymore. Only today, four years afterwards, I can kick off the writing again. However, whenever I think about my mother, I cannot refrain from my pains and cries.

Yet the writing cannot be postponed further, as I am now 58 years old (although I look ten years younger but my physiological age is there), thus writing will become more and more difficult (although I have the same or even much better learning capability as my student days, for I am studying many things everyday). Therefore I am determined to resume my writing project now at any rate (I have written something before). The writing will last for quite long years, thus cannot be completed in short run.

Unfortunately I am still alone, no jobs, no kids or family, and my brother and sisters are busying at their own businesses. Although I graduated from a top Chinese university, won PhD admission into well-known western universities, fluent in several languages, skilled in IT technologies, able to design some ICs and chips, yet strangely enough, I am offered no jobs, and no business opportunities as well.

Since late 2006 I have been dived into the domains of academic career, out of my own interests, without any affiliation of any research and academic organizations. And during that long period of time – quite 13 years or so – I have almost had no time to do my business, as a result of this, my earnings have been stopped and my financial resources are being drought out.

Therefore I have to raise some fund for this project - writing of mother's biography in Chinese and later on in English - for my English writing is almost as good as my Chinese and almost at the same level as the native English speakers - via the web. This bio will become my only post mortal heritage. This bio will surpass all other similar bios in human history and will be read for ever and ever. The great image of my mother will be remembered thus forever and ever as well till the last day of the world.

In addition to the mother bio, I will also develop and operate a website and the corresponding mobile app called "Mothers" in English, with both a Chinese and an English version - other language versions will be considered later on. The English website and app will be developed slightly later. On this site and app,

1)except the memorial activities of my mother, all memorial activities of all other mothers will be created and managed,

2)spaces will be created for honoring and caring for all mothers who are still alive yet with some kind of inabilities in life or health problems, or who have no family members to take care of. How they will be cared of can be developed later;

3) in addition, a channel called Mother Fundraising will be set up where people can raise money for various uses for caring their own or others' mothers in urgent needs, such as medical care, basic living, daily care etc.

Details about mother bio, website and app development and operations can be deepened and detailed later on in the process of the development itself.

During the initial development and operation days, there is not much need of fund. It is enough just to maintain the living of a single person like me and to support some accessory capital needs for the website and app establishment and development. According to the living cost in Hangzhou, China, if living under extreme thrift, it is enough to raise a found of about100 000 RMB (about USD 15 000) a year. If employment of personnel or expansion of business is envisioned, a 2nd fundraising will be initiated.

Capital for initial development and operation of website and apps will be provided by fundraising of donation. The capital thus raised will not be paid back to donors, rather, they will be considered as donations. However, if there is profit in the operation, we may consider to pay back some or all donations, or give out some shares to some donors. Of course if fundraising fails, I have to support the development myself, with my own possible money from my services as a freelancer, such as language services, IT services (web development, SEO consulting, app development), IC design etc. Then the entire development will be slowed down like all my other projects.

In addition, after the website and app are in operation, money can be earned through sales of advertisement, mother memorial or caring products etc, provided that the site and app can attract enough visitors and thus produce large volume of traffic.

Right now the website and app are still at their early stage of planning, the main reasons being that the relationship between the PC website and the app and their synchronization is not yet decided. A couple of technologies are to be considered. Their framework, architecture and key contents are also not yet finalized. Of course the core structure is there already, yet it must be improved as well. As such, domain name and hosts are not yet acquired. Development is a hard working process, and only with me, the process will be slow.

The project execution also needs to respect the national and regional laws, regulations, therefore, if operational, it might need to be under umbrella of a registered organization, say an NPO (Non Profit Organization) or charity organization. This is a non-profit project, not a commercial project, therefore I have to weigh on whether a new or an existing NGO can be founded and borrowed to operate this project when time is matured. Details of operation mode will be clarified later on. This is not yet the right time to decide this.

About myself and the above information, you may prove them through many channels and people, such as my brother and sisters, relatives, friends, classmates, former colleagues or bosses etc. If necessary I will provide you with detailed contact information. I myself can also provide you with more data and information such as ID, CV etc.

Sincerely hope to gain support from you, in order to speed up the development and operation process, in order to put the site and app online as soon as possible, so that people can honor and remember their mothers as soon as possible, not just me alone.

Thank you for your time reading this letter and your kind considerations of my request.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Chen