Thursday night at a function room at RACV City Club in CBD was crowded with suit-up people and young professionals. One of them is Roslyn Foo, an ambassador of the charity organization called Opportunity International Australia(OIA).
Opportunity International is a nonprofit organization which focuses on investing in mothers living in poverty in developing countries such as India, Philippines and Indonesia so that they can start their own business to support their families, community & break the poverty cycle. Every year, supporters of OIA organize and host various events to support people who hope for better life and educational opportunities. OIA held a friendly gathering this Thursday at Melbourne CBD, where Roslyn shared her experience at OIA as one of the presenters for the night.
She has been running events in fashion industry until 2014 when she realized that the true art of giving is contagious in the food industry. Then her passion towards good food as well as good deed has led her to start the “Dining For Charity” program in 2015. She directed two charity dinners last year called SakaI in SA (featuring Ironchef Hiroyuki Sakai), and Asia in SA 2015 (featuring 3 Michelin Stars Demon Chef Alvin Leung), both of which featured carefully selected ingredients of Asia such as Japanese Yuzu citrus fruits from Kochi prefecture, & Australia premium produce such as the Nourifarm wagyu beef from Cape Grim & Robbins Island, Tasmania. Her husband, Daniel Lim, a director of Residential Projects Australia (RPA) also contributed to the success of these events by creating the vibrant and welcoming dining atmosphere as a program director & an emcee. His interaction with chefs has brought a lot of laugh to the participants. Through the two events, she successfully fundraised over 30,000 Australian dollars for donation to OIA in 2015. She is currently working on up to five dining events for this year, covering Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, even expending further to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Bali, Indonesia.
What drives her for an active participation of her project and breaking records as an ambassador for OIA is that the value of entrepreneurship & friendship. “What OIA does is helping families, especially women and children to start a new lease on life & grow together. Therefore, what OIA offers is not handing out, but handing up – as per the saying, “Don’t give a man fish; teach the man how to fish.”
Roslyn is often called a “gun” by chefs, sponsors & volunteers, but she humbly replied “What is a gun without its bullets?” She would like to thank all her bullets (sponsors, volunteers, supporters & donors) & keeping her arms wide open ready to hug new bullets who would like to participate in her Art of Giving via #DiningForCharity. Follow her on https://www.facebook.com/roslynfoo
