In mid-October, the new volunteers traveled to the center for the first time to participate in activities with migrant children. Not confident in their own Chinese language abilities, they were quite shy in the beginning. But they soon gained the children’s affection because of their interesting games and basketball skills.
The Changning International School (SCIS) has been volunteering at You Dao’s Qingpu Center for three years. Since the start of the new academic year the SCIS community has welcomed many new members, mainly South Koreans. How would the relationship be between the new volunteers and the children at our center? We have got the answer after two months’ cooperation.
Their second visit was on Halloween. After arriving, they quickly decorated the activity room with paper-made pumpkins and skull masks hung on the wall. Children were horrified by the scary atmosphere. Then the volunteers taught the children to make creative Halloween masks using their imagination. After cutting and coloring, their various masks came to shape. The children enjoyed using the masks to frighten each other and the volunteers.
On November 28th the volunteers from SCIS came to Qingpu center again. Since Thanksgiving had just passed, they played the game of turkey maze with children, explained to them the meaning of thanksgiving, and taught them how to make chocolate desserts.
The last activity the volunteers traveled to the center was to celebrate the annual birthday party for all children at the center on December 5. The supervisor of the group Andrea Stubbs and other teachers of SCIS came as well. They brought a big cake and many cookies. After the children made silent wishes and blew out the candles, the volunteers distributed the cake and cookies to the children. However, none of them started to eat. They told the volunteers that they wanted to share the food with their families! The volunteers were deeply touched. The gifts they brought for the children, though not expensive, were very special to them.
After the last activity, the volunteers expressed their desire to visit more frequently in the next semester. They hope they can continue to grow together with the children in love.