Newport Beach teen donates to Los Angeles Rohingya Assn.

A Newport Beach teenager has decided to use his personal savings to make a difference.

Michael Zeng, 13, presented the Los Angeles Rohingya Assn. with a donation of 1,000 masks and $5,000 on Saturday in Inglewood.

The young philanthropist came to the United States from China just two years ago. He learned of the struggle of the Rohingya people through an article shown to him by his private English tutor, Dr. Simon Chan.

“I’m just worried about the children and the women, that they don’t have home, they don’t have water, they don’t have food,” Michael said. “My teacher gave me the story about this, told me the story about this, and I feel really sad for them, so I decided to donate some masks.”

The Los Angeles Rohingya Assn. considers itself to be a nonprofit advocacy group for the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar. It focuses on human rights and social issues.

Ko Ko Naing, 35, the president of the organization, said that the Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim group, are being removed from their homeland by the government in the land previously known as Burma.

“Moving forward in the future, we would like to get back our human rights,” Naing said. “The United Nations and the U.S. can play a key role. We really appreciated the United States government giving us shelter here, a refugee status here, but in the long run, we are thinking about our future for our people back home, back in refugee camp. We want them to live in a [dignified] manner.”

About a dozen refugees joined in and held some of the donated masks as Michael presented a $5,000 check. They walked outside their front doors at an apartment complex the Los Angeles Rohingya Assn. uses to house its members.

Brenda Song, 65, a family friend, said that Michael, a seventh-grade student at Corona del Mar Middle School, had been saving the money for years. She said that most of the money had come from traditional gift-giving occasions such as birthdays and holidays.

Tim Lu, 59, of Irvine, Michael’s uncle, said that his nephew has not donated on this scale before, but his heart bleeds for women and children in need.

“When he felt he had the route to help out, especially related to women and children, he has a connection to them,” Lu said.

Naing expressed his gratitude for Michael’s gift.

“No words can describe how much this donation meant to us,” Naing said. “We felt gratitude, very thankful. We are so appreciative, especially during this pandemic, it shows that people have some compassion, so we felt very happy.”

Bashir Ahmed, 17, and his brother Sheikh, 16, came to the United States as refugees after fleeing Myanmar for Malaysia.

“When we were in Malaysia, we don’t have any school to go,” said Bashir, who attends Inglewood High School. “It was difficult to go to school because we don’t have any passport or anything like that.

“When we came to America, we have everything. The government gave us everything. We have ID … so we can go to school with the kids and then learn there. We have a good education in America. Thanks to America.”

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