SUIS students volunteer to help migrant peers
Print Edition
SHANGHAI United International School Hongqiao campus fourth grade students visited Xiangyang School on May 13 and volunteered to help its students learn English. In the spirit of friendship, the SUIS students brought over 100 English language books to share with their peers.
The volunteer project was organized by the school’s parent support group as a part of its Xieli Sunshine Fund project. The group is a volunteer organization comprised of parents from SUIS. The organization has gradually developed into a charity- and service-oriented team of socially-active community advocates. This unique group of parent-volunteers champions charity projects and volunteerism, bringing the spirit of service to Shanghai’s schools and students.
The group’s Xieli Sunshine Fund is once such volunteer program and was established to encourage students’ volunteering spirit. All aspects of the Xieli Fund program, including management, planning, the application process, and execution, are all done by members themselves. Since its launch in 2015, the fund program has received 66 volunteer program applications, five of which have passed assessment. The May 13 English-teaching initiative was one of the first to be fully implemented.
During their recent visit, the SUIS student volunteers assumed the roles of English teachers and helped the Xiangyang School students read the English-language picture books they brought. Both sets of students learned new vocabulary words and the room soon filled with laughter and happy voices.
The students took to each other very quickly, despite their different backgrounds: the SUIS student volunteers are primarily Shanghai residents, while the Xiangyang students are the children of migrant workers who moved from the countryside to find better job opportunities. The Xiangyang Elementary School was established in August of 1996 in Songjiang District, and is the district’s earliest privately-funded elementary school for the children of migrant workers. For many years, the school’s faculty and staff have upheld the administrative ideal of “laying the foundation for the sustainable development of ‘floating flowers’ (migrant children)” and have done their utmost to implement the school’s motto of “being tolerant of diversity, and encouraging varied development.”
The SUIS students plan to continue helping their new friends at Xiangyang learn English by volunteering at their school every Friday, bringing with them a wide variety of English language learning materials. The SUIS students also plan to invite their Xiangyang counterparts to visit their school, study with them and participate in fun English-learning activities. In doing so, the SUIS student volunteers hope to get other students involved in their volunteer program.
SUIS students reported that the volunteer activity broadened their world view, allowed them to experience and share the concept of charity, and improved their ability to independently design and implement projects. Even though they grew up in different worlds, the SUIS students sincerely hope that they, as well as their Xiangyang counterparts, can grow up to be healthy, happy citizens.
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