"College students return to hometown to keep the stay-behind children company" is a charity project launched by A Zi Se Ri, a Fu Hui Alumni now studying at Northwest A&F University. She noticed that with the development of society, many young adults from Liangshan villages leave home to work outside, resulting in an increasing number of children being left behind in rural areas. Without parents by their side while their elderly caretakers have a lower level of education, these children find it difficult to complete their homework. The lack of activities and companionship also affect the development of the children's physical and spiritual health. To this end, Se Ri and her partners launched a series of activities, hoping to provide care and support to these children. The first phase of the activity was carried out in four villages during the winter vacation at the beginning of the year. It has begun to bear fruit with favorable feedback.
As soon as this event launched, many college student volunteers responded enthusiastically. They all wished to contribute to keep company with the stay-behind children, tutor them in holiday assignments and lead them in various extracurricular activities. Thanks to ample publicity and active participation of volunteers, the number of volunteers increased from 7 in the first phase to 28, and the number of villages supported expanded from 4 to 9.
After the volunteers were in place, they went from door to door to recruit students. They collected sign-up students’ information and documents like disclaimers etc.
Volunteer training was conducted on July 12 and 13 in Xichang on financial reimbursement, tweet editing and typesetting in WeChat public account, short video editing, emergency management, homework guidance and competency development.
The event took place from July 15th to July 30th. While keeping the stay-behind children company, volunteers conducted various extracurricular activities, hobby teaching, and holiday homework guidance.
Accompanied by volunteers, the children played badminton, rope skipping, dancing etc. sports, played games such as eagle catching chicks, spelling and chess and conducted small but interesting scientific experiments.
The volunteers taught simple English words, chemistry, and mathematics exercise from junior and senior high school syllabus to help cultivate the children's interest in learning and thinking. They also taught painting, origami, paper-cutting, etc. to exercise the children’s hands-on skills. The volunteers’ teaching focused on the children, encouraging them to come on stage to share their thoughts and enhance their self-confidence.
Volunteers provided one-on-one tutoring on the holiday homework to ensure it was completed correctly. At the end of the event, most of the children had completed their holiday homework, and a small number of children completed more than 80% of their holiday homework.
Accompanied by 28 volunteers, the 169 children who participated in this event not only completed their holiday homework with high quality, they also had a happy and meaningful holiday. Although this "College students return to hometown to keep stay-behind children company" event is over, the college student volunteers and the children made an agreement to meet again in the coming winter vacation.