Activity background

The Tibet Volunteer Project started in 2010 and has been held for 11 years. The founder of the project is a senior at Kent Middle School, so the annual volunteer project can be said to be a kind of inheritance of love. Even under the influence of the epidemic, our activities are still carried out as in previous years. All online and offline students and parents can participate together and continue the spirit of love without borders.

Although this year's global epidemic situation has made the volunteer team more or less difficult in fundraising, preparation, and travel, it still achieved many dazzling achievements. First of all, at the beginning of the establishment in 2010, our team had only 2 people, but this year the number of the team has reached more than 20 people, an increase of 10 times. Secondly, this year we purchased two kitchen refrigerators for the orphanage, which greatly facilitated the daily life of the children and enabled them to obtain fresh food. Third, we arranged a day of online exchange activities, awarding scholarships and holding online concerts to make up for the shortcomings of being unable to go offline for activities due to the epidemic.

Site environment

This year, due to the outbreak of the Delta epidemic in China, most of our families were forced to cancel the original orphanage trip, and the heavy responsibility of going to the scene was shouldered by a small number of caring angels forming an offline team. The offline squad bears the trust of the entire team, risking altitude sickness, and needs to cooperate with epidemic prevention and multiple nucleic acid tests to ensure the safety of itself and others.

The offline team encountered unexpected changes on the day of arrival, and the orphanage just received an epidemic prevention notice that it would not be able to receive visitors. After unremitting communication and negotiation with the orphanage, the two parties finally reached an agreement to put the donated materials on the empty and ventilated outdoor basketball court in the orphanage for disinfection, and then cancel the original visit to the orphanage, the friendship with the orphans, and help the orphanage. Activities such as painting the children’s bedroom were changed to award scholarships to outstanding students on the basketball court. Volunteers who failed to attend interacted with the scene and conveyed love through a video conference connection. At the awards ceremony, the dean of the orphanage and outstanding students and the online and offline volunteers met each other, exchanged learning experiences and visions for the future.

In addition, after the offline volunteers arrived in Tibet, they also encountered difficulties themselves. In addition to overcoming the many inconveniences caused by the epidemic, protective masks made the original altitude sickness worse. Some volunteers also felt uncomfortable due to altitude sickness, which caused many students to have headaches and unable to sleep. What is gratifying is that with the help of local volunteers, the young loving angels successfully overcome these obstacles and gradually adapted to the hypoxic environment of the plateau.

Online concert + scholarship

For the sake of epidemic prevention and safety considerations, the day's event was chosen to be held on the basketball court. Volunteers placed materials in advance and set up a video platform. At the beginning of the activity, the students formed two teams on the court under the leadership of the dean’s mother.

The online host, Teacher Mao, first greeted everyone in Tibetan, and the Tibetan students at the scene also responded to good noon in Tibetan, which immediately shortened everyone's distance. First of all, the dean gave a speech. She thanked and praised the volunteers and caring families for their efforts for the happy growth of Tibetan children over the years, hoping that the children can live up to expectations and achieve better academic performance. Parent representatives in the volunteer team (including mother Oscar Wang, mother Jerry Zeng, mother Eric Teng) respectively sent sincere blessings to the children and wished the children good health and academic success. When it was the volunteer's turn to speak, Oscar Wang, Jerry Zeng and Anson Huang encouraged them to study hard, paid tribute to their hard work and perseverance, and expressed their innocent blessings to the Tibetan students. Student Zheng, who is far away in Hangzhou, said: "Helping people in need made me feel personal value. The smiling faces of the children strengthened my determination to continue loving and volunteering."

After that, the student representatives expressed their deep gratitude to the volunteer team, hoping to help those in need like older brothers and sisters when they grow up. A child said: "It turned out that we had a large refrigerator, but it was broken. Now, you have sent two large refrigerators, so you won’t have to spend time buying meat outside in the future, saving us a lot of time to study. We and the adults in the kitchen We are all very happy. The dean’s mother helped us keep the scholarship. When we are admitted to the ideal university and grow up to work, the dean’s mother will use the scholarship as financial support for our independent life."

The awarding of scholarships was the culmination of the day’s activities, and the awards were presented on behalf of the dean’s mother, Tang classmates, teacher Zhu and Tang’s mother. A total of six students have won this year. Among them, the first-class scholarship recipient is Zhuoma, the second-class scholarship recipients are Yang Jin and Dawa, and the third prize winners are Ram, Qu Zhen and De Ji classmate.

Oscar from Kent Middle School presented Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement to everyone at the awards ceremony. The reason for choosing the Moonlight Sonata is to convey the power of life to younger brothers and sisters through this piece. It is rumored to be Beethoven. Although the tune is a little sad, the creation after deafness conveys an indomitable spirit. Before this event, classmate Oscar had a phone call with a blind child. They were about the same age. The blind child said that she was very surprised to be able to talk to friends overseas. Talking on the phone with friends was originally an ordinary daily behavior. At that time, classmate Oscar realized that making or answering a phone call is a “difficult problem” for blind people who need help from others. Therefore, he wanted to bring a bit of warmth to the world of blind children.

Inspiration

As the leader of the Tibet Volunteer Activities in 2021, classmate Oscar is very proud of the smooth and successful implementation of the activities. He said: "Thank you very much for the trust of all the angels of love this year for me to be elected as the director of the 2021 I Love Tibet Event; thank you all for your generous donations to ensure the smooth progress of the 2021 Tibet Love Event. For me personally, start this This activity is based on actual needs and enthusiasm from the heart. I see that the children there need our help. They are very willing to understand the unknown and communicate with different cultures. I sincerely look forward to helping them do something because of this Long-term help is very meaningful both to Tibetan children and to me. "

Finally, the team leader Oscar shared some of his experience in team building. An efficient core team is the key to the success or failure of a project. He found two like-minded students at the beginning of the project preparation, and the three of them formed the core group of activities. This small core plays a very important role in the subsequent recruitment, promotion and fundraising. Everyone divides the work and cooperates, and constantly allocates their time in study, examination, and activities. When everything is on track , new volunteers and a sum of donations are automatically handled. Everyone knows the scope of the tasks they are responsible for, and the project progresses step by step. At the end of the event, the entire volunteer team felt a sense of accomplishment. They were gratified to be able to help younger brothers and sisters in Tibet. We look forward to doing better next year's activities and continuing to carry forward this tradition.