June 2013

REACH + Air Products

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The second semester of the 2012-2013 school year saw a successful pilot of CWEF’s REACH program at Shanyang Middle School on the outskirts of Shanghai.

REACH (Resiliency Education: Advocacy, Collaboration & Hope) is a student development program geared toward building up students’ resilience, leadership ability & life skills. REACH develops students and educators who understand the value of a broad education and who become confident leaders empowered to create harmonious community by cultivating communication and life skills, teamwork and participatory learning.

From February 21-23, 2013, two CWEF staff and one REACH teacher advocate provided training for three teachers at Shanyang Middle School. The training covered participatory teaching methods and the REACH curriculum. The REACH teacher advocate was chosen because of her experience and enthusiasm for facilitating the REACH program at her school in Guangdong province, as well as her psychology education and counseling experience. In addition to providing training, the CWEF staff members and REACH teacher advocate led a live demonstration class to provide practical understanding of how to facilitate REACH lessons. Since the initial training, the REACH teacher advocates at Shanyang middle school have facilitated two of the regular REACH lessons with their ‘learning circle’ of 30 students, all of whom are children of migrant workers, an underserved segment of the population in Shanghai. The dates and topics of these lessons were: March 29, 2013 – Self Image ; April 26, 2013 – Emotion Management.

Air Products, a large gas and chemicals company, has come alongside the CWEF team to provide financial and volunteer support for the REACH pilot program in Shanghai.* During the second semester, 27 volunteers from Air Products supported the REACH program with their planning and participation in two Air Products staff-led enrichment activities on April 11, 2013 and May 9, 2013. These activities have effectively developed and broadened the topics covered in the monthly REACH lessons, and provided support and encouragement for the Shanyang teachers and students participating in REACH. …

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MEET: Soniya

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赵嫦燕 Zhao Changyan (“Soniya”) serves as health director in China’s Yunnan province. Soniya’s responsibilities cover everything related to CWEF’s health projects within the province, which she plans, manages, and evaluates together with our local government and school partners.

Soniya grew up in Dali in Yunnan’s northwest and completed her university degree in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan and the province’s largest city. She is familiar with the significant disparity between the health situation of people living in the city when compared to those who live in the countryside. Soniya’s previous work with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) has given her a wide range of practical experience that she brings to her work with CWEF. In the past, she has worked with World Vision in Shangri-la, Yunnan and with Help in Hand in Gansu province, where she served as a special education teacher. Soniya says she “prefers to work with local people and benefit them.”

Soniya has been with CWEF since February 2012. Prior to that, she was working with a research association, but she found she desired a position that gave her more of an opportunity to ‘give back.’ She began to look for such an opportunity and discovered that CWEF was looking for a new health director, which fit her desire to “join projects in rural communities and schools.” The CWEF team is grateful for the value that Soniya brings to the organization through her energy and professionalism, as well as her sunny disposition and ready smile.

Soniya hopes her work with CWEF’s health programs can serve as a model for future development in other areas, and that the impact of CWEF programs can continue to grow.

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