Education « Sichuan Quake Relief

Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

SAME Camps – huge success in difficult circumstances.

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

360 volunteers from China and abroad taught more than 4000 kids in 13 camps organised by SQR in various locations around the affected areas.

The SAME (Sports, Arts, Music, English) camps have been hugely oversubscribed, both in terms of those attending and in terms of volunteers, and have been a lot of fun, a lot of hard work and well worth the effort put in by all involved.

SQR sends huge thanks to all our volunteers who worked under difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions.

This summer in the quake zone, there have been large aftershocks, horrendous rock and mud slides, and many bridges and roads in the area were blocked. The extraordinary torrential rains caused 11,000 homes to collapse in the past week alone, and scores of local residents died. It is a timely reminder that, whilst incredible progress has been made in the reconstruction effort, there is still an enormous amount of work to be done in building up an effective infrastructure in this beautiful area, in terms of roads, bridges, schools, clinics, hospitals and other facilities.

All volunteers were camping, with no hot water available. To compensate, however, there was often a plentiful supply of warm buzzing mosquitoes (thanks to them for committing to the project), and heavy rains on tap pretty much permanently in recent weeks. The volunteers and kids showed great good humour and determination to enjoy themselves.

For the volunteers, life really was not easy at times, but they managed to keep the kids occupied and entertained for a week at a time, which is an achievement in any conditions at all. It is wonderful to see such a tremendous effort from so many people, from students on holidays, from people giving up time from work and their families to help out, from people travelling large distances from all over the country and all over the world to make a contribution. The SAME (Sports, Arts, Music, English) camps have made a difference.

Thanks to the hundreds of people who contacted SQR to volunteer, and thanks to those we said ‘no’ to as well – there were simply too many volunteers. To stay in the loop for future volunteering opportunities, email mark@sichuan-quake-relief.org to be included on the SQR newsletter mailing list.

If you took part in the camps and have stories and photos, please email mark@sichuan-quake-relief and we’ll get them up on our Flickr account (www.flickr.com/sichuanquakerelief) and on the SQR website (www.sichuan-quake-relief.org)

Thanks again

SQR

Tags:dead, landslide, mud, newsletter, rockslide, SAME camps, thanks, volunteer
Posted in Arts, Civil society, Education, Living conditions, Psychological health, SQR, SQR Activities | No Comments »

Baoxing

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Baoxing, according to government reports, was one of the worst affected areas in the 12 May 2008 earthquake; 3 died, 338 were injured and altogether more than 41,000 people were affected in Baoxing, which is 80% of the total population in the county.

More than 800 houses collapsed, and up till May 11th 2009, 652 of them had commenced reconstruction and 435 had completed reconstruction. 2 middle schools are being rebuilt with the help of Hainan province and 1 Hope Elementary school has been donated by a central government research office in the most affected town called Raozi, which is of Tibetan ethnicity.

Online sources.

Tags:Baoxing, Hainan, Hope Elementary School, house, middle school, Raozi, reconstruction, Tibetan
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Home rebuilding, Infrastructure, Local government, National government, Official news source | No Comments »

SQR Jingcheng 500 KM Charity Cycle Challenge: 8th to 9th August 2009

Friday, July 10th, 2009

The Confederation of British Industry’s Chief Representative in Beijing is raising money for a key SQR project, the Guangji Kindergarten & Community Centre.

Many Beijing residents will have travelled along some part of the Jingcheng (Beijing to Chengde) highway enroute perhaps to the Great Wall at either Mutianyu or Jinshanling.

Guy Dru Drury, the CBI's Chief Representative in Beijing, prepares to take on the gruelling 500km 2009 JCCR

However, have you ever considered continuing along its entirety, past Beijing’s principal reservoir at Miyun and on into the mountains that lead, after 200 KM, to the imperial resort of Chengde? Well, if you do then you’ll be visiting the summer hideaway of successive Chinese Emperors who created their very own “summer palace” nestled in the mountains that overlook the Mongolian steppes. It is home to China’s largest palace garden and, incidentally, the world’s shortest river, the Rehe. At a mere 9 miles in length it feeds the bucolic Rehe springs and is largely contained within the vast expanse of the royal palace grounds. In August, and tentatively scheduled to coincide with the one year anniversary of the Olympic opening ceremony, the CBI’s Chief Representative, Guy Dru Drury, will be embarking on his own journey from Beijing to Chengde following the route of the Jingcheng highway. Travelling by a mixture of road and mountain bike he aims to cover the mountainous 500km roundtrip route in 20 hours over the weekend of the 8 August.

It is all in the name of a good cause, namely raising money for the reconstruction of the Guangji Kindergarten destroyed in last year’s devastating earthquake.

Downloadable information

SQR Jingcheng 500 KM Charity Cycle Challenge

Guangji Pre-school and Kindergarten

If you would like to support Guy’s efforts then please give generously to SQR directly. By the way, if you do want to visit Chengde you can of course travel there in air‐conditioned comfort either by car or rail if a 20 hour cycle ride is not your preferred means of transport!

Guy Dru Drury (guydd@cbi.org.uk and gdrudrury@gmail.com)

Beijing 01.07.09

Tags:Beijing, CBI, Chengde, Confederation of British Industry, cycle, Guangji, Guy Dru Drury, kindergarten, rebuild, sponsor
Posted in Childcare, Civil society, Corporate Social Responsibility, Donation, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Media, SQR Activities, SQR Donation Request, Social welfare, sport | 1 Comment »

First SQR SAME Camp a success: a report from the project manager

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

June 28 – July 3 SQR SAME Summer Camp Session 1 at GuangJi Township near Mianzhu

Last week 7 enthusiastic SQR volunteers trekked up to GuangJi to set up the first SAME Summer Camp at GuangJi Township near Mianzhu (2hrs from Chengdu). The GuangJi Kindergarten and Preschool was chosen as our first location because SQR already had an existing relationship with the school principal, Kang Laoshi (‘laoshi’ = ‘teacher’). SQR is actively coordinating the demolition and rebuilding of one of the buildings damaged in last year’s quake.

The 7 volunteers consisted of international students (an American and Brazilian) as well as local Sichuan university students and recent grads. We met on Sunday afternoon at the Bookworm for a short meeting to discuss the upcoming week’s plans then set off by van to GuangJi, arriving by early evening to meet with Kang Laoshi and discuss the week’s schedule and lesson plans.

Our accommodation were more than adequate in that Kang laoshi allowed us to sleep in the temporary classrooms next door to the permanent buildings. It was quite comfortable since we were provided beds and linen and had access to lighting and electricity. The worst inconvenience was the occassional mosquito bite.

The first morning and day began well with the local teachers starting the kids off with morning exercises and dances to loosen up kids for an active day of learning. It was wonderful to see, and I took loads of pictures.

Throughout the day the SQR volunteers conducted their teaching modules in Sports, Art, Music and English; working alongside the local teachers and adjusting our lesson plans to tailor to the school children’s various levels. In that sense, the volunteers are challenged to adapt quickly and be flexible to the needs of the children.

During the second night at camp a 5.6 quake struck nearby Mianzhu shaking us out of bed, but luckily no major damage was inflicted. Indeed it was a stark reminder of why we were there in the first place. Less than 12 hours later an aftershock of 5.0 occurred during napping time for the kids. The local teachers and SQR volunteers quickly scrambled to evacuate the children from the permanent building and arrange for classes to be conducted in the temporary classrooms the rest of the week. Seeing some of the children distraught and crying from the quake gave us another reminder of why we were there.

The remaining week went on smoothly. The classes and activities were fun and interesting for the kids and the experience gained by the volunteers was challenging yet every bit rewarding and life enriching.

I am lucky to have been apart of such a wonderful experience and will remember and cherish it forever. During our last dinner with Kang laoshi, I thanked her for everything she had done for us and told her that “Sichuan will forever be in our hearts.”

Leeman Now
SQR SAME Summer Camp Project Mgr
The Chinese University of HK, MBA 2011

The first SAME camp of 2009 was a success, or "A range of high marks for the ballroom dancers."

Tags:aftershock, demolition, evacuate, Guangji, Guangji kindergarten, Hong Kong, Kang laoshi, kindergarten, Leeman Now, Mianzhu, SAME, Sports Arts Music English, summer camp, temporary accommodation, volunteers
Posted in Arts, Childcare, Civil society, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Living conditions, Psychological health, SQR Activities, Seismic activity, Social welfare | No Comments »

Volunteers needed!

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

SQR SAME camps 2009

DOWNLOAD PDF INFO in English and Chinese.

We need volunteers! With schools out for the summer the kids living in temporary villages in the earthquake area have two months free and not a lot to do, so Sichuan Quake Relief is currently setting up several fun-based activity camps for them.

The SQR SAME Camps will focus on the four areas of Sports, Art, Music and English-language learning.

Camps will be run in 5-day modules from Monday to Friday, commencing Monday June 29, and running till the end of August.

SQR SAME Camps 2009 - 中文

We are asking volunteers to commit to at least one full week of teaching over the summer, leaving Chengdu on the Sunday, staying in the village teaching from Monday to Friday, and returning to Chengdu on the Friday evening. We are looking to build mixed teams to run each camp, so people of all ages, Chinese and non-Chinese, most welcome. And while teaching experience and some Chinese language skills would be great, they are not necessary. We just need flexible, enthusiastic people who have a sense of humour and are able to live and work under difficult conditions.

Transport costs to and from the camp, (very basic) accommodation, and food will be provided by SQR. We are currently building teams for the first seven SAME Camps:

June 28 – July 3
July 5 – July 10
July 12 – July 17
July 19 – July 24
July 26 – July 31
August 2 – August 7
August 9 – August 14

If you would like to volunteer for one or more of these camps, or if you would like additional information, email volunteer@sichuan-quake-relief.org or call (86) 136 7121 2235.

Tags:art, Chengdu, English, music, sports, SQR SAME, summer camp, village, volunteer
Posted in Arts, Childcare, Civil society, Education, SQR, SQR Activities | 2 Comments »