Sylvia wins the Mu Lan “Community Woman of the Year” award

On Tuesday 20th October, 2009, Wai Yin’s Dr Sylvia Sham was awarded the Mu Lan “Community Woman of the Year” award. Sylvia travelled to the House of Lords in London, where she was given the award by Baroness Jay of Paddington. This award was given to Sylvia, but Sylvia has been very modest in her achievement, and has often said that the work she has done is not her work, but is the work of Wai Yin, and she is just a part of this. Whilst at the event, Sylvia met many important people, including Cherie Blair. Sylvia was even lucky enough to get a copy of Cherie’s book signed by her!

Sylvia said “I am so proud to have been awarded the “Community Woman of the Year” award.  This is thanks to the hard work of my team at Wai Yin – the management committee, the staff, the volunteers and the service users.  Without those people, this would not have been possible.  I would especially like to thank my fellow Senior Managers – Lisa Mok and Jenny Tsang.  They are so proud of my achievements and Wai Yin’s achievements, and are able to bear witness to the generosity and praise that Wai Yin is awarded.  It means so much to me that Wai Yin is recognised in this way.”

Sylvia was nominated for this award by Samantha Tran, who used to work for Wai Yin in our Youth Project before she left to work for Manchester City Council. Samantha still comes back regularly to visit Wai Yin, and still has a wonderful friendship with Wai Yin. Sylvia said it was a great honour to recieve the award and she was very touched that Samantha was the person who nominated her. Sylvia has done a lot of work for Wai Yin and the Chinese community, and we all think that this is an excellent accolade for her. Congratulations to Sylvia! We all hope her hard work continues for many years to come.

Photographs of Sylvia at the event can be found in our photo gallery.