Chalks and Charity

Doubling as a diamond dealer and an innovative hobbyist, Lilian Lo chalks it out to Kathlyn D’souza about her groundbreaking ‘Chalkapella’ and work in charity

What started off as a love for shiny crystals and running a diamond wholesale company called Bludiamond with her husband for the past 15 years, proved just to be the beginning for Lilian Lo. This jeweller had a rather interesting hobby; a hobby which she described, was inspired by “the great migration of Myanmar refugees fleeting down to Malaysia in boats”. Struck by the disheartening pictures of children hanging onto the corners of the boat, in filthy clothes and wearing sad expressions, Lilian decided to do something about it. Driven by her love of creating, discovering and having fun, Chalkapella was invented. It means ‘The Singing Chalk’, but its other meaning is something more profound. Going back to the Myanmar refugees, Lilian thought to herself, “It would be great if I can invent a piece of clothing that they can draw on, and once they wash it, the artwork would be gone. And so, they can create another masterpiece the next day.” After a whole year, the ‘Chalk-a-tee’ finally materialised— Wear, Wash and Repeat serves as its tagline. Unlike traditional chalks, Chalkapella does not smudge, plus uses non-toxic, food grade materials and the artwork lasts the whole day until it is thrown into the washer. Upon the success of that, the first 400 pieces of ChalkA-tee were donated to the PRIDE Foundation to raise funds for breast cancer patients. But that was not all for Lilian as she has also been donating the T-shirts to Myanmar refugee camps, orphanages, child cancer patients, orang asli settlements and the Charles Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s patients. “Words cannot describe the happiness I feel at seeing these unfortunate children enjoying their own creations,” Lilian enthused. Fortunately for Lilian and Chalkapella, more was coming her way. After successfully launching her campaign, ‘Chalk for a Good Cause’ (where you buy one tee and Chalkapella will also donate one to a child in need), Books Kinokuniya had noticed her product and was keen to sell it in their store at KLCC. Three months later, Chalkapella was seen in Times Bookstores, Isetan, Hamleys and is now internationally available in Singapore, Australia, Japan, Germany, Canada and Hong Kong. She is a very busy woman, but diamonds and art are her source of energy, so it has proven to be fulfilling to her. “I am happy if anyone enlists Chalkapella for corporate CSR projects, so we can donate more to the kids. The smiles on the kids’ faces remain my greatest achievement,” said Lilian. “But people laughed at me—being a diamond dealer who was rolling chalks and ironing tees at home with my mum and my children! I had to try to get my orders fulfilled at home since it was a hobby, and I didn’t have the right tools until it became a consumer brand.” There were plenty of challenges, however; she was thankful being a diamond jeweller made her a perfectionist, as the work requires a lot of grit and hard work. Lilian’s fondest memory of Chalkapella was when she was in Pahang to deliver 200 pieces of Chalk-a-tee to the orang asli children. The kids were then asked to draw their dream, and a few of them had drawn KLCC, but had never seen it up close. Shortly after, some NGOS were able to fulfil their dream when they took them to KL (with their Chalk-a-tees) the following week. “It was so sweet, realising dreams and adding colours to someone’s life. But I have a million dreams to fulfil. The team is growing and we are here to stay to bring more fun and colour to the world,” added Lilian.

“The smiles on the kids’ faces remain my greatest achievement”