Employees in Singapore, Australia assist victims of Cyclone Nargis

When Cyclone Nargis ripped through Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - earlier this spring, killing more than 10,000 people, badly damaging infrastructure in the largest city of Yangon, and destroying tens of thousands of homes, Leonard Lip Seng Ng immediately felt the need to assist.

Photo courtesy of Leonard Seng
A kind gesture - Rockwell Collins Account Director Lip Seng Ng (right) presents a donation to one of several families affected by Cyclone Nargis, which ripped through the small village of Khan Su in the country of Myanmar in southeast Asia. The majority of the individuals were rice paddy field farmers.

An account director for airline sales at Rockwell Collins in Singapore, Ng once lived and worked in what is reportedly the 40th largest country in the world. Following the storm, he contacted friends and former colleagues in Myanmar who helped him identify those in dire situations.

"I felt very sad for the people of this country," said Ng, once an engineering manager for a start-up airline in Myanmar. "There were many, many small villages damaged in the storm, and those are the places we helped."

Shortly after the storm - which occurred on May 3 - Ng began working with his Rockwell Collins colleagues in Singapore and Australia to organize various fund-raising events. He also obtained immediate support from members of our senior management team, including Woody Hogle, senior vice president of International Business and Washington Operations, and Bruce Laird, director of sales and services for Rockwell Collins in the Asia Pacific.

"We all agreed our main objective was to get assistance to the country as quickly as we could," said Ng. "Because of my background and my knowledge of the language, I knew I would be able to get it done."

In addition to about $7,000 (USD) - which was collected via employee donations and fund-raising events - Ng transported food, clothing, books and stationery for children. He also made a personal commitment of $20 (USD) to each of the 200 families in Khan Su, a small village badly affected by the storm.

"Twenty dollars is equivalent to one week of hard labor in Khan Su," said Ng. "It also should supply one family with a week's worth of food."

The largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, Myanmar is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, and India on the northwest. The Bay of Bengal is located toward the southwest. The country has been under military rule in one form or another since 1962, and the help our company provided made Ng extremely happy to be one of our employees.

"I've enjoyed working for Rockwell Collins since my first day on the job," said Ng, who came on board in April 2003. "I'm very proud to work for a company that would allow me to do this type of thing. It says a lot about who we are and what we believe in."