On May 24, 2017, before Children’s Day, MBA Education Center of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, under the call of the 8th MBA Union, organized a “Smile Home Care Group”towards Dukeng Primary School and Sanhu Primary School,located in Longcun town of Meizhou city, northeastern part of Guangdong Province, to carry out the “Smile Home Care Charity Activity” of carig for left-behind children and celebrating Children’s Day, which is the traditional charity activity of GDUFS’MBA Union and the insistence of our hearts.
The weather was not good on that day. Despite the grey sky and continuous heavy rain, everyone arrived early the designated meeting place. Because of the long journey and the bad weather, the early students all fell asleep in the coach.But when they saw the children who cheerfully walked out to receive them, their exhaustion all vanished.
At the beginning of the activity, Principal Zhang of Central Primary School and Principal Huang of Dukeng Primary School, both in Longcun town, Wuhua county, Meizhou city, warmly welcomed the teachers and students of our MBA Education Center and introduced the current situation of the left-behind children.
Principal said that Wuhua county, located in the junction of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, is an agricultural county with backward infrastructure and transportation, and the large quantity of people moving out for work led to the outstanding phenomenon of left-behind children in Longcun town, for example, over 90% of the students at Dukeng Primary School were left-behind children. Raised by grandparents, lacking care in life, parental control in behavior and guidance in learning, left-behind children tend to be rebel and weary of studying in their growth. The problem of left- behind children is not only for a family but also for the society, it needs to be solved by the government, schools, families and the society. Principal Zhang fully affirmed that MBA Union of GDUFS,as a stream of solid and warm social force, had entered into the children’s hearts and touched the teachers and the local villagers with its five-year caring for the left-behind children of Dukeng Primary School and Sanhu Primary School. Zhang also appreciated our MBA Education Center’s great support in education facilities, improvement of teaching skills and matrial donation.
Ding Hao, teacher of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, was very worried about the situation of left-behind children the two principals talked about, and sad that even though the MBA couldn’t thoroughly solve the lack of affection for the left-behind children, it would adhere to care the children in the future, try our best effort to help Dukeng Primary School and Sanhu Primary School and pass the spirit of “Smile Home ”charity activity form generation to generation.
Then, the members of the MBA Care Group came to Dukeng Primary School, which was established under the help of Smile Home on June 1, 2013. After donating materials and goods, they entered into the classrooms to teach the children and play with them. The members taught the children through lovely activities, played mental games with them, tutored them in homework and encouraged them to study hard so as to change their destiny with knowledge and realize self-value in the future. The children of Dukeng Primary School were very familiar with our teachers and students, so they played together with enthusiasm and joy, waves of happy laughter echoed in the campus.At the departure time, the children were reluctant to bid farewell to the Care Group members and gave the local specialties plum and sweet potato leaves as gifts. It is the thought that counts. Maybe what we gained is more than what we gave to these children.
After leaving Dukeng Primary School,Care Group continued on its journey to Sanhu Primary School and played with the children there to celebrate Children’s Day in advance. After organizing the children leaving school, the teachers and students of MBA Education Center, with the teachers of Dukeng Primary School, had a symposium, sharing the methods and experience of caring and educating the left-behind children with negative traits, such as an unsocial disposition and rebellion, further knowing about their teaching difficulties in daily life and discussing on the problems about the heavy teaching tasks of rural teachers, the lack of time for lesson preparation and assessment, and backward teaching methods and facilities.
Xu Jianjun, an alumna of 2011 MBA Education Center and the initiator of the activity, talked about her original intention of initiating the charity activity and answered the questions of the teachers according to her experience about the work of charity activity of caring for left-behind children for many years. About the local teachers’ desire to exchange with Guangzhou city’s primary school teachers good at teaching, Xu said we would try our best to realized it in the future activity, she also affirmed the insistence of the 8th MBA Union of GDUFS. Finally, the symposium ended in the warm applause.
This Smile Home Left-children Caring Charity Activity fully embodied that the teachers and students of MBA Education Center of GDUFS followed the values of “SMILE”, which means Social Responsibility, Mutual Respect, Integrity, Learning By Doing and Entrepreneurship, and made contribution to care for left-behind children, demonstrating that the students of MBA Education Center of GDUFS has both excellent morals and academic skills.
At the same time, We would like to entend our sincere gratitude to the alumni, teachers and students who contributed. It is your silent contribution that makes the left-behind children feel the social warmth, study hard and never give up, and make them march forward courageously with gratitude.
