Founding Story
FLOMO is a well-known Taiwanese brand of stationery and gift items. Group founder Shen Kun-Chao started from nothing at the age of 17, travelling the globe with a single suitcase to build his own stationery empire. Once his business flourished, Mr. Shen followed his mother's spirit of giving—taking from society and giving back to society—and devoted himself to charitable work. Over the past thirty years, his donations have reached NT$130 million.
In 1997, Mr. Shen first established the Shen Huang Tzu-Hsiu Social Welfare and Charity Foundation of Tainan in his mother's name, awarding tens of millions of dollars in grants to elementary and junior-high students from low-income households. Yet Mr. Shen also saw that poverty tends to be passed down from one generation to the next. Money alone could not truly change a child's future—only education could break the cycle of poverty for good. Recalling the proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” and remembering the setbacks he had faced in his own early career for not knowing English, Mr. Shen resolved to pursue charity and education hand in hand. In 2004, he founded the FLOMO Education Foundation of Tainan, continuing the charitable work of awarding scholarships while also promoting free English education—giving underprivileged children the chance to learn English, transform their lives, and avoid falling behind at the starting line because of their families' financial hardship.
As Mr. Shen gained experience promoting English education, he came to believe that a job worth doing was worth doing fully. In 2011 he purchased an entire floor of a building, turning the whole 200-ping space into English classrooms and founding the FLOMO Academy. There he launched the “Dreams Take Flight” free English tutoring programme, helping underprivileged children of good character and learning attitude who could not afford outside tutoring. To ensure teaching quality, FLOMO hired its own team of outstanding teachers and produced its own seven-volume “I LOVE FLOMO” English course, available as a free e-book download.
The Foundation went on to partner with 50 elementary schools in Tainan and Kaohsiung, assigning English teachers to schools across these districts. Through lively and varied English programmes, it has nurtured in Taiwanese children the ability to take their place on the world stage, benefiting more than 5,000 participants.
Milestones
Established the Shen Huang Tzu-Hsiu Social Welfare and Charity Foundation of Tainan
Established the FLOMO Education Foundation of Tainan
★Charity★
★Charity★
Through the joint efforts of FLOMO and environmental groups, the government began to regulate the plasticizer content of erasers
★Charity★Partnered with Tainan elementary schools on an experimental “positive thinking” curriculum, cultivating children's capacity for positive thought so that, when faced with difficulty and setbacks, they could shift their mindset and create a better life of their own
★Charity★Established the FLOMO Academy. Beyond hiring excellent teachers, the foundation produced its own 7-volume I LOVE FLOMO English textbook series, giving disadvantaged children free opportunities to learn English along with free e-book downloads. The FLOMO Academy headquarters on Ximen Road in Tainan now serves students from 18 elementary schools, and also partners with about 40 elementary schools in Tainan's North and Annan Districts and Kaohsiung's Hunei District, teaching on-site at each school. Each year, around 800 disadvantaged students learn English for free under the FLOMO Academy program.
★Charity★Ran the “FLOMO Loves the Earth—Ten Million Great Erasers Given Away” eraser programme, distributing eco-friendly non-toxic erasers free for the public to request, in the hope that Taiwan would soon adopt eco-friendly non-toxic erasers everywhere and build a cleaner environment for all
★Collaboration★Commissioned Professor Chen Chao-Ming of the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at Shih Chien University to prepare a policy white paper on “English as a Second Official Language”
★Collaboration★Held the FLOMO Education Forum together with the Tainan City Government's Second Official Language Project Office, bringing together scholars, experts, the project office and the public to discuss the need for, and approaches to promoting, English as a Second Official Language
★Collaboration★Partnered with the Tainan City Government on the “English Fun Learning Workshop” reserve-teacher training programme, building a talent pool of English teachers
★Collaboration★Commissioned Bo'ai Elementary School in Tainan to conduct project research on the “Children's English Remedial Programme—Diverse and Fun Learning”
★Collaboration★Commissioned the Taiwan Local Governance Research Forum to carry out a “Public Opinion Survey on Tainan's Promotion of English as Taiwan's Second Official Language”
★Collaboration★Donated NT$10 million to the Tainan City Government to advance the “English as a Second Official Language” policy
★Collaboration★Commissioned Yujing Junior High School in Tainan to develop diagnostic test items on basic sentence patterns for junior-high students and to examine the results of their administration
★Collaboration★Donated to the Penghu County Government's island-wide "Hello, World's Most Beautiful Bay" English-speaking initiative.
★Honor★Chairman Shen Kun-Chao was honored as an “Outstanding Citizen of Tainan”
★Collaboration★Launched remote English teaching with the Chihkan Rotary Club (Shenkeng, Xinguang, Wenhe and Chonghe Elementary Schools in Guanmiao District, Tainan; Longci Elementary School in Longci District, Tainan; Dashe Elementary School in Xinshi District, Tainan; and Wutai Elementary School in Pingtung County)
★Collaboration★Donated to the Yunlin County Government to support the “Senior English Learning Class” programme
★Collaboration★Again donated NT$10 million to the Tainan City Government to advance the “English as a Second Official Language” policy
★Collaboration★Attended the Legislative Yuan public hearing on “Promoting English as a Second Official Language”
★Collaboration★Partnered with the Tainan City Government on the “English Fun Learning Workshop” reserve-teacher training programme, building a talent pool of English teachers
★Collaboration★Supported off-field activities at the 4th WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup — "Crazy for Baseball, Learning English" — sponsoring commemorative-edition Clean & Bright erasers and presenting bilingual picture books on the story of Tainan youth baseball to the participating teams.
★Charity★Sponsored the TOEIC Bridge testing program providing free tests for Tainan residents — Wenchang stationery set.
★Charity★Launched parent-child classes at the FLOMO Academy headquarters
★Collaboration★Helped the Tainan City Government compile English conversation materials for taxi drivers
★Collaboration★Partnered with the Tainan City Government on the “English Fun Learning Workshop” reserve-teacher training programme, building a talent pool of English teachers
★Collaboration★Helped the Tainan City Government hold the Tainan English Reading Season “Peppa Pig Story House” at district libraries
★Charity★Launched remote English teaching with Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Zhaigang Elementary School)
★Collaboration★Partnered with the Tainan City Government on the “English Fun Learning Workshop” reserve-teacher training programme, building a talent pool of English teachers
★Charity★Donated NT$2 million to Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages to run a multilingual teacher-training programme
★Charity★Joined Tainan Community University and Zhengxing Street shops to launch the “Come to Tainan and Find Taiwanese” campaign, giving away talking Taiwanese-language erasers to promote local culture
★Collaboration★Partnered with the Tainan City Government on the “English Fun Learning Workshop” reserve-teacher training programme, building a talent pool of English teachers
★Charity★Again donated NT$2 million to Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages to run a multilingual teacher-training programme
★Charity★Expanded enrollment for parent-child classes at the FLOMO Academy headquarters
★Charity★Continued working with Tainan Community University and Xinyi Street shops on the “Come to Tainan and Find Taiwanese” campaign, giving away talking Taiwanese-language erasers to promote local culture
★Charity★Shifted to running an “All-English Digital Learning Programme,” offering online English and bilingual character-education courses
★Charity★Partnered with the Shanlifang education team from the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Chi Nan University to run a "Programming Cultivation Program" featuring Scratch and Micro:bit courses.
★Charity★Offered a variety of free online courses: short-video editing, bilingual creative aesthetics, and learning English through world-famous songs
★Charity★Donated NT$1 million in disaster-relief equipment each year over three years to strengthen firefighting and rescue capacity
★Charity★Offered a variety of free online courses: appreciation of world architecture and design, and mathematics and logic
★Charity★Together with Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, used the remaining funds from the multilingual teacher-training programme to create the “Dreams Take Flight” bilingual platform, donating a further NT$2 million to enrich its content
★Charity★Donated disaster-relief equipment to strengthen firefighting and rescue capacity
★Charity★Collaborated with the Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau on the FLOMO Education Foundation art-education showcase, “A Taijiang Child's First Art Class”
★Charity★Donated NT$300,000 to Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages to sponsor overseas-scholar lectures, and NT$300,000 for the university's storm-damage reconstruction
★Charity★Collaborated with the Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau on “A Taijiang Child's First Drama Class,” sponsoring a public performance of the signature puppet play “Barefoot Door Gods” by the Puppet & Its Double Theater, the resident company of the Taijiang Cultural Center
★Charity★Donated disaster-relief equipment to strengthen firefighting and rescue capacity
★Charity★Donated to the Tainan City Government Social Affairs Bureau's 0121 disaster relief.
★Charity★Donated to the Women's Federation for World Peace, Taiwan, to advance women's education and social welfare
★Charity★FLOMO Education Foundation Executive Director Shen Ching-Jung travelled across the country to hold the watercolor and oil painting exhibition “The Original Heart of Art: Traces of Beauty,” fostering an awakening to art and nurturing creativity and aesthetic sensibility
★Charity★Sponsored the Wenzao STEAM Cup Minecraft-to-Reality competition, inspiring creative thinking and cultivating cross-disciplinary STEAM skills.
★Charity★Sponsored Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages' 60th-anniversary celebrations, supporting this major campus cultural event
★Charity★Donated to the private Stella Maris High School in Hualien County to strengthen educational resources and boost student activities and learning outcomes
★Charity★Held the "Drama Pop!" one-day English camp, using interactive drama instruction to boost students' English expression and confidence.
★Charity★Held the "Little World Explorers" one-day English camp, using theme-based exploratory learning to broaden students' international perspectives and language skills.
★Charity★Held the "FLOMO Christmas Together" one-day English camp, blending festive activities with English learning to create a joyful, educational experience.
★Charity★Sponsored a STEAM classroom at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, strengthening the cross-disciplinary learning environment and cultivating students' integration of technology and language.
★Charity★Held the painting exhibition “Soaring Through the Clouds: Virginia's Imagined Flight,” using artistic creation to express rich imagination and inspire the public's sense of beauty and understanding of history
Over 6,000 children helped to date
Roughly NT$150 million invested over the years
