From June 29 to July 9, the Cambridge Eastern Education and Development Society (CEEDS) organized the charity summer camp ‘seek the dream, ignite the hope’, to visit the school children in the earthquake regions in Sichuan and Qinghai Yushu. In collaboration with the Sichuan and Qinghai TV Artists Association, CEEDS selected six society members, all current Cambridge students, to form a volunteer team, who visited six primary/secondary schools including Beichuan Leigu Middle School, Shifang Yinghua Middle School, Wenchuan No.1 Middle School in Sichuan and Jiegu County NO.3 primary school in Qinghai Yushu.
In the ten-day summer camp, our society members had pleasant communication and interactions with the school children. We listened to their moving stories, wept at their traumatic experiences, more importantly, we encouraged them to move on and stay positive towards the life ahead, to study harder despite all the difficulties and build a noble aim for their future. During the four days we spent in Qinghai Yushu, suffering more or less altitude sickness, we lived and studied with local children and became their close friends very soon. Other than the emotional comfort, we raised a charity fund of 15,000 RMB to buy some teaching equipment like computers and projectors and stationery to improve the learning environment for the children.
Through the interaction with the children, we saw clearly how the earthquake changed the local children’s life forever while we were also deeply moved by their strong will and optimism towards what the life presents. The Central Government has allocated many funds to help with the after-quake reconstruction in the areas, however, what the people need most will be mental help from more caring people from the whole society. We sincerely hope that our charity camp will attract the attention from more people to give constant psychological support and care to these ill-fated children and help them to walk out of the trauma the earthquake imposed on them. Let’s join our hands to ignite the hope for China’s future generation and help them to grow happily.
A Story About ‘Da Bai’
He is an orphan dog living with the children at Yushu Orphanage School. In Tibetan the children call him ‘Gaga’, which means very white. Therefore he got his mandarin name ‘Da Bai’ – a big white dog. Da Bai came to the orphanage after the earthquake and stayed with the children since then. At the orphanage, no one knows where Da Bai came from, and why he came. The only explanation could be that the family who raised the dog died during the earthquake and Da Bai became an ‘orphan’ since then.
In the orphanage, Da Bai lived happily with the school children. They jogged together, played together and had classes together. Yet, Da Bai suffered badly from his right foreleg injury. While he was running, he always lost his balance and felt on the ground, and then his white fur was all covered with dirt. The headmaster also worried about Da Bai, because the orphanage is not allowed to raise dogs.
When we came to the orphanage, Da Bai has soon became our closest friend. He stayed with us day and night. He accompanied us playing games and having classes with the children. He even guided us when we were climbing the mountains. We were deeply concerned about the fate of this clever and friendly dog and decided to adopt him on behalf of our society.
Now Da Bai lived happily in a pet adoption centre in Chengdu, a modern city 1000 miles from Yushu. There he lives happily with other adopted dog friends and receives the best care. We also hope his foreleg will recover soon by recovery treatment. In the meantime, we hope more people could know the story of ‘Da Bai’, and could do something to help this poor but lovely dog.
– Jun Kong
Acknowledgement
We sincerely thank Mr. Luohong and the LuoHong Environment Fund for the financial support to this summer camp;
We sincerely thank Sichuan and Qinghai Artists Association for their support during this summer camp;
We sincerely thank local governments and TV stations for their warm reception;
We sincerely thank the headmasters and teachers of the schools for their cooperation;
We sincerely thank other CEEDS society members and students for their help in preparation of this summer camp;
Especially, we would like to extend our thanks to every member in this visiting team, they are:
Thomas Carding: from UK, undergraduate student from Queens’ College, studying History;
Melodie Doumy: from France, undergraduate student from St. John’s College, studying International Relations;
Ching-Yu Huang: from Taiwan, PhD student from King’s College, studying Psychology;
Jun Kong: from China, PhD student from Darwin College, studying Molecular Biology;
Andrew Panton: from UK, postgraduate student from Hughes Hall College, studying Law;
Li Peng: from China, PhD student from Trinity Hall, study Engineering.
Activity Records
(Videos)
CEEDS 2010 Earthquake Region Summer Camp Report – Sichuan TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJX444fp8F4
CEEDS 2010 Earthquake Region Summer Camp Report – Qinghai TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P1K2VvigJM
A video clip for Sichuan Visiting Camp can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqYz8PSBY4o
(Photos)
Please take a look at the event album
for more photos taken during this trip, for use of these photos please contact info@cam-ceeds.org