Author: Wang Houlin Editor: Chen Ziyan
Every summer vacation is the busiest time for the staff of Sichuan Soma Flower Foundation. In order to visit the families of potential grantees, they divided into six groups and traveled to 430 villages in Daliangshan in the past two months, completing 1,444 home visits.
In early autumn September, on the eve of the ninth 99th Giving Day, I participated in the "Public Welfare True Exploration" program launched by Tencent Philanthropy, and met this group of public welfare people who have been providing education and teaching support here for more than ten years in Meigu County, Liangshan, Sichuan. How do nonprofits work? Can donations from the public become the power of "helping others to help themselves"? What kind of love and fear do volunteer teachers have? What can Internet charity activities like 99 Giving Day bring to the local area?
In the context of "rural revitalization", the development of education in remote rural areas has become a topic of increasing concern. I also took advantage of this trip to answer a lot of questions about public welfare education assistance and teaching, and gained a lot of touches. I hope that more ordinary donors and the public will have the opportunity to go to the project site, have in-depth exchanges with non-profit organizations, build trust, and learn about public welfare and participate in public welfare together!
(Visit Daliangshan)
Four university students from Ani village
Meigu County is located in the hinterland of Daliangshan, and it takes 13 hours to get from the county seat to Shapingba in Chongqing, where I live. On September 2, 2023, I completed this journey between sunrise and sunset, falling asleep in exhaustion, and in my dreams, I still felt like my feet were almost falling under the slippery mud.
This is the most direct feeling I got when I visited the homes of four students in Ani Village, Jingyetxi Township, Meigu County, Liangshan Prefecture. The students led us from the entrance of the village to their homes. Even with slippers, they can walk on slippery slopes and dirt roads after rain. I carefully mastered my center of gravity, stumbling for fear of falling, and the distance was not far, but when I got home, my shoes and trouser legs were covered in mud.
(Walking on dirt roads is commonplace)
At the entrance of the village, we met Enzag, who graduated from high school this year, and he was going to report to the Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu in six days, and he was helping his family dig potatoes. Knowing that we were Soma Foundation teachers visiting our home in the village, he warmly welcomed us into his home. Along the way, he introduced us to four students from Ani Village who were admitted to university this year, and called two other boys, Ji Hei Muluo and Ji Hei Weigu, who were admitted to the animal science major of Xichang University and the social sports major of Sichuan Film and Television Academy, respectively. The three of them were former elementary school classmates. Ani Village Primary School, in a place that was an hour and a half away from their walk. As now, the village primary school is only in the third grade, and from the fourth grade onwards they have to go to the township central primary school to live in school. Since junior high school, Jihei has been a sponsored student of the Sichuan Soma Foundation since high school.
(Encounter with Enzag at the entrance of the village)
Enzagxia's home is a traditional Yi old house. The Yi newspaper posted at the door sets the date in 2007 and also shows that 16 years ago, this was a rare Yi family with literate people. Sitting around the traditional Yi pot farm, Enzag's father took a blowpipe to roast potatoes for us, and Enzagha couldn't refuse to cut and cook bacon to serve us. In the homes of the three students who visited later, the students and parents still pulled us to eat this and that, despite the fact that we had already eaten lunch, and still stuffed our hands with potatoes and walnuts despite our refusals.
(Yiwen newspaper at the door)
(Grill in front of the pot)
As the first batch of college students in Ani Village, they carry the hope of developing themselves and driving the development of families, communities, families and even the nation; But at the same time, they are also under a lot of pressure. In addition to pressures such as academics and social integration, the most immediate pressure comes from money. During the conversation, when Jihei Weigu learned that going to university would cost 600-1,000 yuan a month, we saw that his eyes changed from surprise to gloom. At the last girl we visited, Ji Hou Yosi, who had not received any financial support before, how to start her own study life in minority languages and literatures at Southwest University for Nationalities will also become a huge challenge.
(Four university students from Ani Village)
After learning about Jihuyosi's situation, the Soma Foundation staff who accompanied her immediately registered her information. Like the other three students, she will receive a $5,000 a year in college years.
Although far away must reach home visits
In the past July and August alone, Soma Foundation trustees, staff and volunteers have completed 1,444 home visits to the homes of potential grantees. They are divided into 6 groups and drive cars, buggies, pickup trucks, motorcycles... He visited 102 townships and 430 villages in Meigu County, Zhaojue County and Muli County in Daliangshan. Many students' homes are inaccessible by road, so they get out of the car and hike, sometimes walking for two or three hours.
(Home Visit Road)
Why are you so obsessed with home visits?
The executive vice president of the Soma Foundation told me that there are three reasons for this: first, to understand the situation of students in person, to investigate the living conditions and needs of students and their families, and to obtain the most authentic first-hand information, which is the basis for the development of charitable projects; Secondly, the actual visit is also the foundation for the organization to establish credibility and gain the continuous trust of donors and all sectors of society. Finally, this practical visit is a great emotional support for students and their families, especially for students in remote areas, it reflects a spirit of fairness, and the love of all walks of life is donated to us in the form of money, we want to turn them into a face-to-face temperature, overcome the "last mile" difficulties to come to them, which is the mission of the Foundation.
(Soma Flower Love Aid Questionnaire)
"I have been to all the townships in Meigu County at least three times." The vice chairman said proudly. He has just donated a powerful Beijing BJ40 off-road vehicle to the foundation out of his own pocket, mainly for home visits. "With this car, I have confidence and a sense of security, and there is no student home that we can't go to!" Born in Chengde, Hebei Province, the post-60s vice chairman has been involved in charity in the Daliangshan area since 2012 and is now able to communicate with fellow villagers in some standard Yi language. And the Soma Foundation's green work vest on him has become a business card, and he always gains trust and welcome wherever he goes.
Since 2011, the Soma Foundation has sponsored more than 48,000 students. Home visits are a daily basis for all months of the foundation's work plan. It is gratifying to note that in recent years, more and more sponsored students have used their vacation time as guides and Yi interpreters to participate in this work with the "Soma Flower Love Aid Questionnaire".
(Sponsored student volunteers and foundation staff during home visits)
The cycle of love
For more than a decade, Soma Flower's education sponsorship has entered a "cycle of love" that can be felt more and more personally - the former beneficiaries have become today's volunteers; The "Soma Students", who used to be sponsored, are now teachers and the homeroom teacher of the Soma class made up entirely of Soma students.
On August 31, the day I reported to Niuniuba Middle School in Meigu County before the start of school, I went to this junior high school with only one Han student and the rest all Yi students. The secondary school has 8 Soma classes spread over three grades (5 have previously graduated), each with about 50 sponsored Soma students.
In the eighth-grade Soma class, I met a Tibetan homeroom teacher, Tashi Namu, and in a brief conversation I learned that she was also a sponsored Soma student. She has just graduated from the previous Soma class with more than double the county average, and continues to devote herself to the teaching of the new Soma class. In this class, teachers and students are "Soma students", and this sense of connection of "when I grow up I will be you" unites them into a more solid and powerful community of teaching and even destiny.
(Group photo of the eighth-grade Soma class of Niuniuba Middle School in Meigu County, and the second from left in the last row is the homeroom teacher Mr. Tashi Namu)
At present, the number of Soma students who have graduated from university is not very large, but presumably in time, as more and more Soma students grow up to become talents, they will become a solid force for the development of Soma Flower's educational undertakings and local causes. The development concepts of "helping others to help themselves" and "teaching people to fish" are being realized step by step through education, which has been proven and effective for a long time, not only on individuals, but also at the level of a community, ethnic group and region.
Send education to Shimomura
In Teacher Tashi Namu, we saw how "student assistance" and "volunteer teaching" are combined and form a closed loop. Compared to Tashi Namu, who works as a public school teacher in a central school at the township level, Soma Hua also has a large number of volunteer teachers working in village-level primary schools and even smaller teaching sites.
If the "education assistance project" based on "home visit-financial assistance" is the side of Soma flower education that focuses on material support, then the "volunteer teaching project" based on "teaching-sending to the village" is the other side of Soma flower education that focuses on spiritual enlightenment.
In the time dimension of student development - from kindergarten and village primary school to central school, junior high school, high school, university - we can also see the continuity between Soma flower's teaching support and education assistance. On the teaching side, Somahua's current 11 main teaching support points are all village-level primary schools (some have kindergartens and preschools). The 48 new volunteer teachers who completed their training on August 30 this year will be integrated into a total of 104 volunteer teachers, of whom 101 will be assigned to teaching posts in village-level primary schools (the other three middle school teachers will each be responsible for life education in two secondary school soma classes). About 80 percent of financial aid starts after junior high school, because most students face independent living on campus after junior high school, and in the non-compulsory education stage of high school and university, tuition fees become an increased expense for students whose family financial situation has not improved significantly.
(Soma Flower 2023 Autumn Volunteer Training Site)
At the middle school level, the model of "heavy support and light support" and "heavy support for education and light funding" at the primary school level reflects the synergy and complementary role of public welfare charitable organizations in government work. In recent years, the state and local governments have successively introduced policies to "strengthen the construction of small-scale rural schools"; However, it has existed since the 90s of the last century, and the strong inertia of "relocating and merging schools" that officially began in 2001 is still there, and there is a serious shortage of teachers in village-level primary schools and even more remote teaching sites, and it is difficult to recover. Therefore, in remote villages such as Daliangshan, if they do not rely on volunteer teachers to resume teaching in village schools, children under the third grade will face a series of risks such as either missing school or staying in central schools for a long time at an early age. Volunteer schools often play an important role in rural life and ecology. It is the cultural center and spiritual hope of the community. How can we imagine a picture of modern rural revitalization without vibrant schools, teachers and students?
Qianha Village Shinyuwen Primary School
Just as a country is calling for a great university, a village and a community are calling for thriving primary schools; Just as the strength of a university lies in the masters, the prosperity of a primary school also lies in the prosperity of teachers.
Qianha Village Xin Yuwen Primary School, located at an altitude of 2,600 meters in Qianha Village, Longmen Township, Meigu County, Liangshan Prefecture, has 7 grades and 7 classes including kindergarten and preschool, 205 students are Yi nationality, and 13 volunteer teachers are responsible for all management and teaching work. When the school opened in 2015, there were only two classes, and as teaching expanded, students and teachers had to attend classes in board houses on the playground or even under iron sheds. In 2021, an ordinary employee of a state-owned enterprise pooled his savings with his deceased wife to donate a total of about 1 million yuan to build a comprehensive building for this primary school, which has since been named after the donor's wife.
(The story behind the name of Senha Village Shinyuwen Primary School)
Chen Guan, a 32-year-old from Guangdong, has been teaching and living here for almost 6 years. In the past 6 years, he has witnessed changes here: under the leadership of the government, the village has access to roads, signals and WiFi; Caring people donated funds to repair the school building; All kinds of charitable public welfare organizations renovate the playground and send teaching materials... And he also went from being a "foreigner" who would be beaten by students' parents to a respected elementary school principal in the village.
"Time is of the essence. My parents always thought I wouldn't be coming back next semester. For the first few years, they would think that a lot of what I said was just talking and not believing it. In 2021, a girl in the village died of illness, and Chen Guan saved the child's life several times, which also gained deeper trust and recognition from his fellow villagers. And this is just an event in the past 6 years, as a foreigner, Chen Guan, interacted with and integrated with the local community through the school. Now, we can see Chen Guan proudly saying, "I said in the WeChat group that I want 5 parents to help, and 20 parents will come!" Behind this lies the countless trials and challenges that love, patience, perseverance and determination have endured.
(Various honors won by Qianha Primary School, below is the Yi relief made by the students led by teacher Feng Tingting)
This kind of trial and challenge is not unique, and it does not only happen in the project where teachers teach. In addition to being enthusiastic about education and public welfare, enduring hardships and respecting local folk customs, there is also a clause called "family consent". From these four short words, we can see the pressure of another aspect of the volunteer teacher. The family's lack of understanding is only the surface of this pressure, and behind it is the collapse of volunteer teachers in terms of economic income, living security, career development, social emotions and so on.
Feng Tingting, a Shanghai girl who also teaches at Xin Yuwen Primary School in Qianha Village, faces these challenges. Having been teaching for a year and a half, the decision to return to Qianha Village was difficult. Faced with her parents' doubts, peer pressure, and uncertainty about her personal future, she made her own choice and edited a video called "To Friends and Relatives: I'm Fine" in response.
Stop Ft
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Principal Chen Guan showed me this video when he introduced me to the school and the volunteer teachers. He said to me, "This is one of our volunteer teachers here, and it is also the voice of all our volunteer teachers." I was moved by this video, first for the kindness and firmness reflected in the video, and then I felt how much it would cost to practice this kindness and firmness.
Teachers are the fulcrum of education
I found Feng Tingting at school and interviewed her briefly. I learned that she loves drawing and wants to further her studies in art, but she doesn't know if this dream can be realized in the future with her current education, experience and financial income. And when I asked what I needed right now, she thought about it for a long time and said, "The winter here is so cold... Teachers and students stomp their feet in blankets."
(The author interviewed teacher Feng Tingting)
How can those who hold salaries for all be allowed to freeze to death in the wind and snow? The teacher lifts up the student, who will lift the teacher? Instead of asking how to stay, it is better to ask how volunteer teachers can gain their own security and development, and gain confidence and strength to face the future while staying. Teachers are the fulcrum of education. Without thriving teachers, there can be no thriving students and education. Giving no less attention and support to our volunteer teachers is not only a strategic choice, but also an inherent meaning of education, development and public welfare. No education, development and public good can achieve self-consistency bypassing the achievement of its practitioners themselves.
As the principal of Qianha Village Primary School, he mentioned many times in his conversations with me that the school should be used as a "platform" to integrate various resources to allow students, teachers, villagers and communities to develop, so that it becomes a model that brings hope to more villages, but also more specific people. At the same time, he also hopes that the volunteer teaching work can bring children more understanding and recognition of their own ethnic group and hometown, so that no matter where they are in the future, they will not lose their closeness to home. And the development of their hometown ultimately depends on their completion and return.
Today's Qianha Village Primary School has become a well-known star primary school. Compared with the hardware facilities donated by various institutions and the large and small awards placed on the display cases, I noticed the two books on the desk in the office - one book spanned a hundred years of time and space, and the other was the teaching philosophy and practice of another village in Xinglong Village, Zheng'an County, Zunyi, Guizhou at almost the same time. Seeing these two books appear here, I can't help but sigh, "There are educators here."
(Two books on the desk of a teacher at Qianha Primary School)
Let's go back to the beginning of the story, remember Enzag, Jihemulo and Jihei Weigu, who are now admitted to university? More than a decade ago, they were classmates from Ani Village Elementary School, and it was from here that they went to the central school, and then received financial aid to go to junior high school, high school, and university.
Today, the Ani Village Primary School, which has just been connected to running water, is also one of the 11 teaching sites of the Soma Foundation. At this elementary school, I also met a 49-year-old fellow from the northeast, who has been teaching here for more than two years. And the two volunteer teachers in the picture, the boy Gao Guangli, have been teaching for 6 years and are now the head of the school; Zhang Yuan, a girl who has been teaching for 8 years and now teaches third-grade Chinese classes, is a newlywed couple.
(A volunteer couple in Ani Village)
From persuasion to trust, from seeing to participating
With so many things, where does the money come from?
Soma Charitable Foundation's income and expenditure in 2022 are more than 20 million yuan. Unlike corporate profit-making, most of the "income" of non-profit organizations with public fundraising credentials like Soma Charitable Foundation comes from donations from caring enterprises and the general public. As China has fully entered the mobile Internet era, the foundation's fundraising work has also been fully carried out online.
(Work plan developed by the Foundation Fundraising and Development Department for 99 Giving Day)
"Our foundation has opened many online fundraising channels, of which Tencent's charity platform accounts for the absolute majority of fundraising, estimated to account for about 70%," Lu Yu, head of the fundraising and development department of Soma Charity Foundation, told me. ”
This year, the fundraising target of the Foundation during the 99 Giving Day is 4 million yuan, which is 1/5 of the fundraising target of the institution for the whole year. In 2015, Soma Charity Foundation, which participated in the first 99 Giving Day, made sufficient preparations for this: the enterprises that supported the foundation for many years mobilized their own employees, and the past donors also waited to become the spokespersons of institutions and projects in these days to initiate a donation together, and everyone touched in the foundation's project work was mobilized to forward and persuade donations, and the two offline fundraising points in Xichang Wanda and Chengdu Jinli were also prepared.
(Located in Chengdu Jinli offline recruitment site)
"Taking advantage of the 99 Giving Day, I saw the phenomenon of 'human-to-human' transmission of our projects." Lu Yu said. Even if some people didn't actually donate, they saw the project and saw it all began. "We have several volunteer teachers, such as Hua Hongzhen from Somahua Primary School and Zhang Li from Lanxili Village Primary School, who first learned about our project from 99 Giving Day and Tencent's charity platform, and finally decided to become our volunteer teachers." Here, we can see that the role of Tencent's charity platform is to raise kindness, and financial donations are only a way to express kindness, and persuasion triggers seeing and deeper participation.
In addition to bringing many new donors and supporters to the Foundation, 99 Giving Day has also become an opportunity for old donors to establish deeper connections with the Foundation once a year. On the one hand, when the foundation develops old donors (or enterprises) to become the main force of persuasion, it must further communicate its mission vision, working methods and achievements with donors; On the other hand, old donors introduce and explain to others the projects they support, and ultimately achieve the projects they support, which enhances the connection and stickiness between old donors and the foundation. "Although when they first communicate with donors or companies to participate in 99 Giving Day, they will also find it troublesome. But after this hurdle, they not only know us better, but also gain a sense of accomplishment by persuading more people to support us. Now, every year when we approach the 99th Giving Day, we have a lot of companies and donors, and before I can find him, he comes to me first! Lu Yu said with emotion, "Especially those who have visited after donating have become our die-hard fans." ”
(Caring enterprises mobilize employees to participate in 99 Giving Day)
"Giving is certainly important to us, but what we want most is the trust and participation of more people. We especially welcome caring people from all walks of life to come to our Daliangshan to have a look in addition to donating. We never expect this business to be a hit, we believe in the power of hard work and word of mouth. The vice chairman of the foundation, who had been sitting in the co-pilot's seat for three days, said that I should not mention his name, "I don't do this for a name, I'm just an ordinary caring person like everyone else." ”
For Soma Charitable Foundation, participation in 99 Giving Day begins with solicitation and seeing, and ends with trust and participation. This is also the original intention of Tencent Public Welfare.