Guangji Di Kang Le Kindergarten & Community Centre
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About Guangji
Guangji Town is situated in Mianzhu County, 70 kilometres north of Chengdu and the same distance east-northeast of the epicentre of the 12 May 2008 earthquake. The county was severely affected by the earthquake, with over 11,000 people killed, and 95% of buildings destroyed. Once in Mianzhu, almost every building on the way to the kindergarten was built in the two and a half years after the disaster.
A large proportion of the rural adult labour force are migrant labourers, working in the construction and service industries in China’s coastal cities, and sending their earnings home to support their parents and children. The average income for people living in the region is 6000 yuan per year, mostly through farming and seeking irregular work as day-labourers. The older generation remain on the land to farm and take care for their grandchildren. Since the earthquake, they have faced the additional burden of repairing or reconstructing their homes and, in many cases, recovering from loss or injury.
History of Di Kang Le Kindergarten
The Guangji Di Kang Le Kindergarten was, from 1975 to 2003, originally part of Bazihe Village Primary School. After the primary school was closed in 2003, and following the gradual closure of other dedicated kindergartens in the surrounding villages, kindergarten principal Kang Yuling and several other teachers took it upon themselves to continue to educate the youngest members of their rural community whose families could not afford the time nor money to send their children to the town school. With approval from the education bureau to open a new village kindergarten, Ms Kang donated her family farmland to the cause, and the group raised enough money to build three small school buildings, with classrooms, teachers’ quarters and offices, and a playground alongside her family home.
The kindergarten plays a vital role in the life of the community, providing childcare and pre-school education to children aged 2 to 6. As many of the grandparents are illiterate or poorly educated, and all are engaged in agriculture and reconstruction, they are not able to care for the children at home on a daily basis. Furthermore, the social education and basic literacy taught in the 2 to 6 age group form an essential foundation for China’s primary level curriculum, and children who do not receive it are at a severe disadvantage when they begin state school at age 6. Ms Kang charges minimal tuition fees – 120 yuan per semester – and these are discounted or waived for those families that are not able to afford them.
The 2008 earthquake destroyed Ms Kang’s house, and two-thirds of the school buildings were damaged beyond repair. The building which survived intact required reinforcing with steel rebar before it could be declared safe to resume use. Fortunately, none of the children or teachers was seriously hurt in the disaster, but all were affected to a large degree by the impact on the region. The school received swift government help in the form of temporary buildings in order to continue running classes, but as a private enterprise it did not qualify for a grant to rebuild the permanent structures.
SQR’s involvement
During our relief work in the days and weeks following the earthquake, SQR came into contact with Ms Kang and learned of the school’s history and predicament. We agreed to raise the funds to not only rebuild the school, but to expand its facilities with new dormitories, an activity room, environmental toilets and a bigger, better-equipped kitchen. Seeing an opportunity to further develop the community facilities, we also proposed to build and run a brand new community centre on the same site as the school. Ms Kang readily donated a portion of the site to this new social enterprise.
While SQR was in the process of raising funds for reconstruction, we provided the school with textbooks and winter supplies such as heaters and blankets, as well as holding one of our successful SAME (Sport, Art, Music, English) summer camp sessions there in 2009.
Fund-raising
SQR was born out of the Chengdu community spirit, and this community once again came together, taking the project to heart with a number of fund-raising events specifically targeting the school rebuilding and community centre construction. Chengdu-based groups and companies that organised events and donated funds include the staff and customers of Cargill, the Chengdu International Women’s Club and the American, British and European Chambers of Commerce in Chengdu. SQR also applied for, and was granted, funding from the Irish Embassy in Beijing as part of the In-Country Micro Projects Scheme.
Sporting events were a popular way to both raise funds and further integrate the community: Jonny Dallas and some friends set up Chengdu Sports Aid; Dan Garvey and the Tian Fu Community organised a tennis tournament supported by Chengdu native and world-class player Zheng Jie; Bruce Aitken worked with SQR to hold a half-marathon and fun-run; and Graham Bannerman put together a swim-a-thon; Guy Dru Drury of the Confederation of British Industry in Beijing undertook a sponsored bike ride to Chengde.
Others donated their services or facilities free of charge to further the project – in particular Sunshine Yuan, IDFGlobal, Robinson JZFZ, Simon Perrin Design, QSI International School and EtonHouse International School. The project also attracted support from further afield, with musicians Abigail Washburn and the Shanghai Restoration Project pledging profits from their Afterquake EP.
Roland Catellier of the US-based NGO Disaster Relief Shelters Foundation, working in Sichuan to encourage environmentally-friendly earthquake-safe reconstruction, was invited to partner with SQR on the community centre phase. He designed, partially-funded and oversaw the construction of the building shell. It is an environmentally-friendly centre that utilises a lightweight steel frame and rice-straw-panelled insulated wall-spaces, together with under-floor piped heating.
Work begins
With Ms Kang’s tireless help we secured all the required permits and approvals for our design, and construction began in January 2010. The first priority was to reinforce the existing structure so that the students could resume classes in a proper classroom after over 18 months in the temporary buildings. With that work complete, construction started on the new building, which houses new bathrooms, an activity room, dormitories and a new kitchen. The site was partitioned off from the existing building in order to ensure the safety of the children.
Roland sourced materials from all over China to introduce environmentally-friendly methods to the region. The lightweight steel frame arrives in kit-form, and can be put together by unskilled labourers (or in our case, volunteers) on a solid concrete foundation, with just one experienced supervisor overseeing the operation; Roland enlisted Singapore-based New Zealander Dave Davies of Enovate Steel Frame Homes to help with this phase. The rice-straw panelling attracted particular interest from the local government, with such a large part of local life revolving around the production of rice.
Progress reports
- Reinforcements completed
- Car park, playground and pathway
- New school buildings begun
- Community centre construction underway
With a newly-expanded and child-safe playground rounding off the project, construction was finally completed in August 2010, and the new facility was officially opened on 12 September 2010.
SQR going forward
For the first year SQR will run the community centre as a social enterprise, to ensure that it is fully-utilised by local grassroots organisations and community groups. We will provide training to these local organisations to build their capacity to develop their own projects, as well as organising community events for children, women, seniors, disabled people, and so on. By actively managing a series of structured events, we aim to stimulate community participation in local development and to create a flourishing, sustainable community centre in regular use by local groups.
