This week our Chengdu Sports Aid report comes from SQR’s Outreach Coordinator Yuanyuan, who every week does a stellar job of helping to organise the trips.
After being forced to make a last-minute change of venue last time, this week Chengdu Sports Aid managed to get all the way to the Dazhonghua Community Centre in Luoshui. The volunteers were the foreign students from Humana of the South West University of Nationalities, and the students from Arts and Science College of Sichuan Normal University.
After announcing our arrival over the public address system, the local kids quickly joined our volunteers. They sang and played games together. After 30-minute warm-up, groups were formed for the different games. Many of the kids chose bowling — their favourite activity — with the others enjoying skipping rope and basketball. Everyone was enjoying themselves so much that the time flew by, and it was all-too-sudden that we had to say goodbye to each other.
The Sunday outings have been going for well over a year now, and are as popular as ever. During this time we have built up trust with the kids in the quake-hit areas, and they have became more open, active and closer to us. Watching many of the kids moving from the temporary schools to the brand-new ones, and families moving from temporary houses to the permanent buildings, we are happy for them. We hope to continue to be a positive element not only for them, but also for the thousands of people who are still struggling to rebuild their homes and communities.
