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High school students in China spend nearly every waking moment preparing for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, commonly known as the Gaokao. This includes Saturdays, long school days and almost no breaks from the end of junior high through the test date. What happens when they leave high school is determined by this test, which is mainly memorization-based rather than applied knowledge. What our REACH program does is try to provide social skills and knowledge that are not rote, but give the students confidence and joy in themselves outside the realm of  studying and school. Below is a story provided about the recent trip CWEF university students made to go back to their alma mater and encourage CWEF scholarship students to have hope. (Note: a grade 3 student is equivalent to a high school senior in the US.)

“A blur of green and white uniforms set against a grey sky makes its way uphill toward Xiangshan Middle School.  On this cool and rainy first of March, moisture is not the only thing permeating the air; tension bigger than any raincloud billows above these students.  The Gaokao is just 100 days away and a large, red banner hung across the entrance of the school leaves no doubt: the biggest test of their young lives is around the corner.

In a classroom on the second floor of the school however, the clouds of anxiety are dissipating and making way for rays of light in the form of smiling school girls.  Amongst the murmuring, laughter is heard and hope rises from the ranks of these Grade 3 EMBER scholarship students.  Seven EMBER University Scholarship recipients, and veterans of the Gaokao, are volunteering their time to come back to Xiangshan Middle School to counsel current high school scholarship recipients and REACH participants before the big exam.  Not only have these seven returned, but included in the girls’ counseling packets are scores of letters from almost every former scholarship recipient.  Some of these former recipients are in university and some are in the working world, but all have given advice and encouragement to their ‘sisters’.

And while the girls are excited to share in the insight of their counselors who have ‘been there, done that’, the seriousness in their faces does not waiver for long.  The difference, however, between these girls and a hundred other their age is clear: hope.  There is life after the Gaokao.  This life may be in a university or it may be in the working world, but wherever they happen to be these things they will remember: they are loved, their ideas are worthy, their lives are important.”

To have students come back to offer encouragement to those about to take the test is encouragement to us that we can help young students have confidence in themselves. To learn more about EMBER visit their website. To learn more about the pressure of the Gaokao test you can visit our Facebook page and find articles linked there.

Li Yuyin (Maggie) is the newest addition to our CWEF team. She serves as education director in CWEF China’s Kunming office.

Maggie is responsible for working with various government and school partners in Yunnan province to facilitate CWEF’s education programs. Her responsibilities include connecting with current scholarship students, helping to select future recipients, coordinating and executing the REACH program, and hosting service learning teams focused on teaching.

Maggie’s background in non-profit and education-related work is extensive and spans the globe. Most recently Maggie volunteered with World Vision and provided translation services part-time. Maggie has additional experience translating for a Chinese government aid organization in Ethiopia and working for Christopher Blind Mission (a German non-profit).

Maggie grew up in southern Yunnan and attended university in Kunming, graduating with a degree in English teaching. She put her degree to good use in local secondary schools as a teacher for eight years. As she settles into her new position, Maggie is excited to put her experience and knowledge of the Chinese education system to work with CWEF. She shares, “I want to contribute to this position and improve upon our work so we can help the most students.” We are excited to welcome Maggie!

Partial donations are gladly accepted. Every dollar counts. 

CWEF began partnering with Wheat Ridge in 2010, to provide animal gifts to a specific group of women who needed supplemental income and aid. We are so thankful for their partnership. Below is a final report done by the group looking back over the project and its goals.

“The project leaders began with an ambitious and clear plan to provide hope and health to Cambodian widows through gifts of animals. The plan included provisions for sustainability of the project beyond the grant term, and was formulated based on a similar successful chicken gifting project in the area. Animals for Widows aimed to gift 40 women with animals in its first year to help increase their income and improve their family’s overall health and life situation. Plans were made to ensure that the widows who received the first 40 gift animals would be able to pass along the next generation of animals to another 40 widows in the second year.

The project leaders formed an outcomes measurement plan at the beginning of the project and continued to use it throughout the grant term. The three outcomes for the project were:

1. Establish and train a local animal program committee for each gift community,

2. Increase the income of 40 widows by $25/month within 6 months of their animal gift, and

3. Ensure project sustainability by implementing plans to gift the next generation of animals to 40 additional widows within one year of the initial gifts.

Semi-annual visits were made to the women who received animals. During these visits it was determined if additional training was needed as well as the impact of the animals on the lives of the women and their families. If there was a change in the women’s lives or the animal(s) had died from disease, the women contacted their local leaders who in turn contacted the project coordinators.

The project made significant progress on all three outcomes. The local animal program committee was established and trained on how to select and give animals to eligible women. However, there were issues with ensuring that all recipients met the eligibility requirements of the program. Leaders have since resolved these issues and have measures in place to ensure that only those women who are eligible will be properly identified and receive gifts in the future. As of this writing, 31 widows have received animals, and staff is working to identify nine more eligible recipients to reach the goal of 40 widows receiving animals.”

The report card is in and Guangdong Province’s REACH volunteer teachers get an ‘A’!  These hard-working teachers put the “A” in Advocacy. They are the core of CWEF’s REACH (Resiliency Education: Advocacy, Collaboration & Hope) program.

What happens when these teachers get together for a retreat? Team-building, mountain-climbing, and a new outlook for REACH’s curriculum. This January, teachers from REACH partner schools in Guangdong province gathered for a two-day retreat in Renhua, Shaoguan, Guangdong led by CWEF’s Dolphin Liu and Lynn Lin.

To kick off their time together, teachers from the different schools got to know one another better by participating in some of the team-building activities which they use with their students! During the retreat REACH teachers also shared experiences, advice, struggles, and activities with one another and CWEF staff in order to enrich the program for the benefit of the participating students.

One teacher shared, “Many students want to join the class. The students were very engaged and involved in the activities. They showed creativity and enthusiasm in the activities, especially when we played games such as ‘guessing emotions’.” Not only did the teachers share their experiences and class ideas with one another, but they also went on an outing to Danxia Mountain for some fresh air and relaxation. CWEF staff enjoyed this special time talking with these kind-hearted teachers.

A main goal of REACH is to involve local teachers who will then cultivate meaningful relationships with students and instill in them hope and confidence for life that traditional subjects and college entrance exam preparation do not cover. This past semester, topics covered in REACH classes included: team work, emotion management, communication skills, and self-image. While at the retreat, teachers shared these student comments on the semester’s topics:

• Team work:

“Before I thought group members caring for each other and helping each other was something that happened only on TV and not in real life. Now, I am so lucky to be a part of a team. I know that working as a team is very powerful; everyone has a good heart, and we can work together to solve our problems and create a miracle.”

• Emotion Management:

“Everyone will have time to be sad and down and we have to develop a good way to manage our feelings. We have to think, ‘Calm down. Why do I have this unhappy emotion? Why am I stressed? How can I solve this problem?’ Then, we can be more effective to adjust our emotion and keep a positive attitude to face our life.”

• Communication skills:

“Now I know how to make friends with others. I know how to better understand what others say. For example, during communication you should listen carefully to understand others meaning well, but we also need to make sure we totally understand—we should not just hear the words they say; you should LISTEN to what they say and understand the purpose.”

• Self-Image:

“Image can be inside and outside. We can learn and educate ourselves. Our image being good or bad should not depend on others’ opinions or how I feel sometimes. Now we know how we can know more about ourselves and what is a good or bad self-image so that we keep the good things in mind, and improve the bad things so they become better and better.”

Oh yeah, and the students give their teachers an ‘A’ too!

“I would like to say thank you to CLA teachers. You spend a lot of time with us and when I see your happy face I also feel happy.” – REACH Student

 

This is an interview with American International School of Guangzhou teacher Eric R Little, who has led several groups of his students on trips to work with CWEF scholarship girls. They are planning another trip for later this spring.

How did you hear about CWEF/begin volunteering?  “We heard about the program at a Global Issues Network conference at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong. We contacted HKIS and then invited Dolphin and the director at the time to come to talk to us.”

You have now been on 4 trips personally; what keeps you coming back? “I love the fact that we can actually get to know personally the people we are helping. The girls are wonderful and it always motivates us to return and work hard to find more sponsors.”

Do you feel a relationship is being built between the students of AISG and those of Renhua Middle School?   “Yes, definitely. It is still a little difficult to maintain contact between visits, but this is mostly because the girls at  Renhua do not have regular access to email etc. But I regularly get letters from the girls for our students and I have known all of them since or work with the program began three years ago.”

Are there any moments from your time volunteering with CWEF that stick out to you?  “The visits to a few of the girl’s homes stick out. It is a good reminder of how much they really need our help. Also, all of the goodbye’s. There are so many hugs, smiles and tears between the two groups of students from ‘different worlds.’ They build such a bond in less than 24 hours!”

How have these trips enhanced the overall educational experience of your students? “Our students live in China, many for many years, but they don’t live in the ‘real China.’ They live in a privileged bubble. This is a great opportunity for them to meet people who are not privileged and to get a sense of the reality in China. It also is a wonderful opportunity for our students to develop leadership and interpersonal skills. This is very much a student-organized and led project. Although it might be more efficient at times if I do things for them, they would not learn or grow so much.”

Do you have any ideas for future relationship-building with Renhua students?  “I would love for all of the Renhua girls to visit Guangzhou, come to the school and attend classes on Friday, see Guangzhou, maybe visit a university and/or meet with a female business or community leader who is a successful role-model for them.”

 

CWEF has been partnering with Target International since 2009, to provide scholarships to impoverished female students in the Guangdong Province of China. In 2012, they were responsible for funding 50 students; in 2013, they have pledged funding to 56 students. We are grateful not only for their donations, but also for the time they volunteer with the girls they sponsor during our REACH activities. Below is a speech given by CWEF Director of Advancement and Service Learning Persephone James at Target International’s annual ceremony recognizing the NGOs that work with the corporation in China.

“It’s my great honor to represent Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation at this ceremony hosted by our partner, Target Corporation in Guangdong. Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation is a Hong Kong foundation dedicated to improving lives in rural Asia through education and health programs.

CWEF began partnering with Target International in 2009 to support the education of high school women in Guangdong. These young women are students who have achieved entrance to the top school in their county; however family situations make it difficult for them to attend. The high school expense is a heavy burden and brings much pressure to these young women. In many cases, this financial burden causes the student to drop out of high school. Target has generously seen this need and stepped in to support schooling expenses for 50 young women annually. We are pleased to work together to improve education for low-income and impoverished families, so their children can complete three years of high school education.

In addition to financial support, Target also focuses on providing services to these young women. Most recently in June 2012, 10 Target volunteers went to the Heshan No.1 Middle School to conduct a graduation counseling workshop. A survey from this event shows that 100% of the participants gained useful information from the workshop and feel it is necessary for grade 12 students. We really appreciate the service Target provides to the local community.

We are very excited to report that 16 of the 50 scholarship recipients are grade 12 students and 100% of them graduated from grade 12 and applied to university. It is even more exciting that all who applied were accepted into university, 4 of them to key universities. These great results reflect the dedication of the school officials and teachers to providing the best education possible.

CWEF thanks the students who have persevered through many challenges. Each young woman has her own story, including loss of parents, lack of education for their parents and therefore unpredictable family incomes, lack of access to land to provide for daily food needs, family members with health problems or long-term disabilities, and the list goes on. In the face of these challenges, these young women continue their diligent studies and look forward to the benefits of education for the long-term welfare of their families. Their hope for a better future is inspirational!

Thank you to Target for your continuing generosity to the impoverished district of Guangdong and for your trust in working with CWEF. With your support we are able to expand the scholarships to more young women. We hope that CWEF’s partnership with Target and Heshan No.1 middle school and Renhua Middle School will continue through the future – always focused on that better future which education provides.”

Kampong Chhnang Province is the 15th largest in Cambodia with a population of 471,616 people. Located in the heartland of Cambodia, most parts of the province contain fertile soil reservoirs with abundant fish and rice paddies. Unfortunately, as with many places in Cambodia, Kampong Chhnang suffers from a shortage of clean drinking water.

During the month of December 2012, CWEF staff and local partners completed the installation of 8 waters wells with hand pumps supporting 40 families in Kampong Chhnang. Five wells were installed in Phnom Taos village and the additional three wells in Dom Nakklong village. These two villages are approximately 5 hours north of the capital, Phnom Penh.

Prior to the installation of the wells, the residents of Phnom Taos and Dom Nakklong were collecting water from a nearby pond, which was not suitable for cooking or drinking.  During the dry season, this pond would dry up.

CWEF staff met with the village chief and the water well contractor to determine where, when and how the 8 water wells might be completed. The contractor confirmed that it would take one week to finish all the wells and the cost for each well would be US$450. In addition to the installation of the wells, five individuals in charge of well maintenance received ‘safe water’ and ‘well maintenance’ training from CWEF staff. The wells were dedicated in a ceremony at the end of December allowing the families to come together, celebrate, enjoy fellowship, and envision a stronger and healthier future as a community.

Chen Ming is from Luzhou, Sichuan, China. He currently serves as the Shanghai Education Coordinator for CWEF.

“In the spring of 2008, as I was about to graduate from university in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the famous May 12 earthquake happened and destroyed many parts of northern Sichuan. My classmates and I heard a lot of sad stories and saw many sad images from the earthquake area. We felt so bad and cried together during that time. Like many other college students, I wanted to do something to help. I told myself that if I got a chance to help the people in the earthquake area, there’s no doubt I would go.

Right after I graduated, this chance came to me. I got to know CWEF through Toni Wang, the manager of the Guangzhou office at that time. She introduced me to the work that was planned for the area around Nanba, a small town that was badly damaged by the earthquake. I was very excited; my first job could be to help other people. I visited Nanba and decided to spend two years there.

The first year of life in Nanba was very hard. There was no clean tap water, no buildings, no air conditioner. All this was kind of a shock to me as a city boy experiencing “real life,” but the people there treated us very well. We visited many homes and talked to the mothers who experienced the pain of losing their children, only to witness their joy in getting pregnant again and having new-born babies. We climbed mountains to build water cisterns to replace the ones that had been damaged in the earthquake. We helped the local school equip their new library building with books, computers and furniture. We organized different activities to enrich the local students’ school life.

In 2011, I moved to Shanghai to help set up new CWEF programs with migrant schools, which is what I am doing up until now. In my work with CWEF, I have to deal with different issues which can be very unexpected and challenging. I always have to learn new and different things to accomplish my work. If I was working in some other job in China, I probably would just need to repeat the same thing everyday.

In Nanba, all the work we did was very welcome by the locals, but they didn’t know why we did it. At the time, I didn’t know why CWEF had asked us to do those things either. I just knew CWEF existed to help people. Since I moved to Shanghai, I have experienced some deep changes in my beliefs. I still get to learn many things in my work, but now I realize it is much more meaningful than simply how I can improve myself. Now I know we were designed to serve others. I’m happy to work with CWEF because what we do matches what I believe in.”

-陈铭 Chen Ming