Jiangxi Service Learning Trip (Jun 2016) 手牽「守童」行 — 江西服務學習之旅
In the summer of 2016, 20 HKUST students and 2 Connect staff went to Ruijin, Jiangxi to visit the left-behind children living in rural villages. Aiming to broaden the children's horizon and raising their interest towards different types of knowledge, the team designed and conducted themed workshops in Huangtian Primary School and Longjiang Primary School. In the "Water and Science" workshop, the participants conducted a simple experiment about water filtration with the kids, while in the "Human and environment" workshop, the children learned about how human activities influence the surrounding environment. Through storytelling and other interactive activities, participants hoped to introduce to the children some interesting ways to learn English. Last but not least, there was a "Understand the world" workshop about different interesting things of the world.
Besides conducting activities, the team also brought storybooks and stationeries purchased and collected by Jiangxi post-trip team "Take a step further", with the support of HKUST community during the fundraising campaign. Each children also received a year book designed by the post-trip team which marks the precious memories shared between the children and the participants of all the previous Jiangxi Service Learning Trips.
After the 3-day services in schools, the team split into small groups and visited a number of families of the children studying in Huangtian Primary School. During home visits, participants were able to learn more about the livelihood and difficulties faced by left-behind children and people living in rural China. The team then visited a farm in Huangtian village, which is run by a social enterprise named “eco-Cultivation Organic Agriculture Development (Ruijin) Co. Ltd.", and learned how organic farming operations can positively impact the villages nearby.
This 7-day trip is undoubtedly an unforgettable experience for the volunteers and the children and it will surely be cherished in the times to come.
