BEST Fund Volunteer Carlos with teachers and children form the Madao Center Primary School in Liuba County, Shanxi Province.
In the blink of an eye, the children have spent the second week in the BEST Fund Shanghai Summer Camp. Each week, there are courses with different topics, which makes the children enthusiastic to learn gradually. The theme of the second week course is: "When English Class Meets Natural Science".
Scientific experiment: Children work in teams to use their knowledge of natural science to design and make water filters themselves;
Colorful Weather Class: Learn interesting climate facts in English;
Art and Craft: Children make their own healthy fruit juices;
Children are searching for a treasure in the card map to compose "Giraffe loves Liuba" in English
Rehearsal of graduation ceremony
August 13th,2016, Zootopia Tour
For the second weekend, BEST Fund volunteers, Carlos (from Mexico) and his friend Eily will guide the Liuba children to visit the Shanghai Zoo. Carlos has been a volunteer of the BEST Fund for the past two years.
“Uncle” Carlos speak limited Chinese. When the children learned this, they were really happy and worried. Fortunately, they were happy because they could finally communicate in English with international friends instead of using it only in classes. But on the other hand, they were also worried that everyone was unconfident about their English to communicate Carlos.
The teacher encouraged everyone to build confidence to speak boldly with the English they learned, and not be afraid to make mistakes.
Sure enough, when they met Carlos, everyone found that the previous worry was really unnecessary. The children summoned the courage and took the initiative to say hello to Carlos. After a while, they talked to Carlos in English. Carlos talked enthusiastically and his humor was infecting every child. Everyone shared happiness and studied together, and soon became good friends, as if they were old friends.
BEST Fund volunteer Carlos (first right)
BEST fund volunteer Eily (first left)
Carlos and Eily led everyone to visit the zoo and introduced these nimble animals to the children one by one in English. Although the Liuba children and the small animals in the mountains are no strangers, but the rare animals in the zoo make them feel very novel. The clumsy and funny bears they only have seen on TV and in cartoons, cute and lazy pandas, colorful wild snakes, cold-blooded crocodiles and so on. Children couldn’t stop taking pictures when saw so many cute and interesting animals as they wanted to retain this fun and joyful moment in order to tell all these wonderful things to their parents.
Children take pictures of the animals
The picture shows the BEST Fund volunteer Carlos taking pictures for the children
The picture shows the diaries of Liuba children's weekend activities
Between the lines of the diary, the children's excitement about the zoo tour was revealed, and they also expressed their gratitude to Carlos and Eily, volunteers of BEST Fund. This week the children have gained both knowledge and great confidence.
All of us toghter | we learned together, we shareed together, we had fun together Shanghai Zoo.
——Carlos 2016.08.13
Today is another very happy day for the children, because the volunteer who led them to go out together today is a Mexican friend, Carlos. I heard that he doesn't speak Chinese. I was a little worried before but I didn't expect the children were so great. When they met Carlos, they immediately communicated with him in English. At the zoo, the children saw many animals they liked and couldn’t stop taking pictures. I believe that today children not only gained knowledge, but more importantly, gained confidence, because they could communicate smoothly with foreign friends by themselves!
——Mr. Yan Huifang, Madao Central Primary School, Liuba County, Shaanxi 2016.08.13
Q: What is the BEST Fund?
A: The BEST Fund started in June 2009. Tewa Srilaklang (chairwoman of the Beijing Liang Dian Design Center), Tang Zhi (chairman of Shanghai Giraffe English Training Center), and Dominique Phommahaxay, general manager of LDPi Lighting Design Partnership International (China Branch) teamed up with primary schools in Liuba County, Shaanxi Province to annually select outstanding students in financially challenged rural area and send them to the Giraffe English Training Center in Xuhui District, Shanghai for a unique 1-month summer camp. This self-organized public welfare education project has also received great attention and support from the Liuba County Education and Sports Bureau.
Q:What is the purpose of the BEST fund?
A: The BEST Fund is a reward fund for English learning. Its purpose is to focus on the education of children in remote mountainous areas, to allow children to increase their knowledge and learn English, and to motivate them to study harder. Set great ambition to go out of the mountain area and change destiny with knowledge.
Q: How to join the BEST Fund?
A: To join the BEST Fund, please call 139-1137-8140 (same number with WeChat), Ms. Wu.
