From September 18-24, more than 70 students and teachers from Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS) served with CWEF as a part of the CISS TrIBES (Transforming Individuals By Education and Service) program.
CISS sent three teams, with two serving in Yunnan Province and one in Guangdong Province. The teams served in a variety of capacities, including teaching English, helping to build a village water system and hosting a sports camp at a primary school.
The CISS YEP English team taught introductory English lessons to primary school students in rural Yunnan province, as well as enjoying simple and joyful connections with the local students after class. They jumped rope, played sports, drew together with sidewalk chalk, played cards, did magic tricks, played on the monkey bars, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company. Back in Kunming, the team spent a day at a community service center for migrant children. It was very enlightening to be able to get a small taste of life at both a rural primary school with many ‘left-behind kids’ and also life in an urban migrant slum. Many of the kids at the community center in Kunming have migrated with their families from places very much like the rural village the team had just visited.
In Yunnan Province, the CISS YEP WASH team worked with villagers to help dig trenches and bury pipes for the clean drinking water system CWEF is installing in the village. The team spent mornings interviewing village families to learn about their lives and to gather baseline health data. They spent one morning teaching health lessons about the importance of hand washing and dental hygiene at the local elementary school where they also distributed hygiene gifts to the students and sports equipment to the school. After an evening celebrating with the village through song and dance, the YEP WASH team also had the opportunity to learn about picking tea leaves.
At the sports camp in Guangdong Province, the CISS team not only provided new and gently used equipment for the school, but they also worked on team and individual sports skills with the students. The team helped build skills for badminton, table tennis, basketball, soccer, jump rope and they also introduced floor hockey.
Other than sports, the team painted and updated murals at the school, visited homes in the village and taught English and hygiene lessons.