Library Project&Teacher Training
Mission: Encouraging independent thinking and creative thinking among teachers, students and student families during reading programs.
Many children in remote rural regions of China have never read any books other than their textbooks. Since year 2003, through the Library Program, OCEF has provided books and established libraries in 460 rural schools. New books are purchased with discounts from big publishers. At the same time, volunteers in urban China run book drives to collect used books. OCEF inspectors visit the sponsored libraries every other year to monitor and evaluate the effective use of the donated books.
The OCEF Pilot Library Project aims to encourage reading activity. In addition to setting up the pilot libraries and reading rooms, the project further conducted teacher training, hosted seminars, and organized volunteer site visits and summer reading camps to create and nurture a reading environment for the students and teachers alike.
Teacher training is the key element in reading activity promotion. It includes a general training and site-specific trainings tailored for the individual schools and teachers by reading professionals, and national-wide training conferences.
Teaching Platform
Schoolteachers are encouraged to carry out regular meetings to facilitate communications on the reading project. For instance,all teachers in Zhong Shan Primary School would meet up every Friday afternoon, to discuss about problems that arose, work out solutions, and share good readings that they came across.
Teacher Stimulus Plan
Most teachers in village-run schools receive a monthly salary of only a few hundred Yuan. OCEF offers financial aid to seven teachers from Zhong Shan Primary School at RMB1,900/month, and RMB 2,400/month for four teachers from Jia Le Primary School. This financial aid helps to ease the teachers’ stress of living and encourage teaching quality improvement. Evaluation includes student performance, class culture development, reading progress and etc. OCEF student scholarshipand teaching rewards are also expanding to cover other schools in this region.
Achievements
Zhijin Minghua Primary School is the first pilot library site in Zhijing. With OCEF’s sponsorship, Ms. Li Hua Xiao, a teacher from Ming Hua School, attended the first nation-wide Pilot Library Project training during April 8-14, 2010 in Beijing. Nearly 20 volunteers and teachers from Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Anhui, Shandong and Beijing participated in the training, during which they learned the methodology for building libraries and exchanged their thoughts on reading in general.
A schoolboy is picking book from Ming Hua School Pilot Library
Library volunteers/librarians in Ming Hua School
The teacher is reading stories to the young students in a reading class.
In 2011, OCEF Program Official Xiu Liu and Ms Chuan Mei Sun, a reading program consultant, visited Zhijin County multiple times and tailor-made reading plans for the sponsored schools. They also delivered demo reading classes and Family Reading lesion for students and their parents during their visits.
The first launch of the Pilot Library Project at Ming Hua Primary School in 2010 has brought along another three schools, namely Zhong ShanPrimary School, Xi Hu Primary School and Jia Le Primary School into this project, in addition to helping more than10 schools in the neighboring districts to build small-scale reading rooms.
The feedbacks from these pilot project schools are encouraging as reading habit has grown rapidly among the students and teachers. The students are also performing better both in Chinese class and essay writing.
Afternoon reading session at Zhong Shan Primary School.
On March 15-24, 2012, OCEF invited Ms. Gao, a teacher of Xi Hu Primary School, to join a national-wide public reading conference—“Know Your Language Better” in Hangzhou, Zhejian. OCEF VP & COO Mr.Yun Bao Zhuo and Project Coordinator Ms ShuiMiao Qiu attend this conference as well.
Health Education Program
“There is no internet in the village and information is scarce. Most schools do not offer such (adolescent health education) classes. Even if they did, it was hardly useful. I have been through the adolescence myself and I understand what the young folks are facing. I am a village doctor which makes me familiar with the physical and mental diseases commonly experienced by the country women.” — Dr. De Qin Zhao, OCEF volunteer in Zhijing County
Mission: Promote a healthy and positive life attitude among teenagers and women, how to avoida risky relationship, premarital pregnancy, premature marriage and early pregnancy, when they face to adverse influences.
Very limited health education resources are available in the rural areas, especially those for teenagers and women. With this concern in mind, a Health Education Program was launched in Zhijin County, to properly educate the teenage students into forming good health habits.
Project Implementation
One of OCEF local coordinators in Zhijing County, De Qing Zhao is a female doctor who runs the only clinic in its village town. Dr. Zhao had received relevant trainings and started the women and adolescent health education programs in Guanzhai Township, Zhijin as early as 2004, which have broadly received positive feedbacks.
With OCEF support, Dr. Zhao delivers health education classes to three local primary schools and one junior high school.They are Ming Hua Primary School, Xi Hu Primary School, Zhong Shan Primary School and Guan Zhai Middle School.These four schools receive the health classes in weekly rotation, one for each per month.
The adolescent health education class covers the following topics: learn to know your body, puberty problems, sexual harassments, how to deal with premature relationship, risk in adolescent sexual activity, different types of body contacts, AIDS and its prevention, how to say no to dangerous temptations, etc.
Usually,large wall charts are used in these classes to convey basic human physiology knowledge and medical information. The big illustration greatly facilitates the comprehension of one’s own body. Role-playing teaching is most welcomed by students. Most students showed their interest in the initial touch of such topic.
In addition to school, the Blue Moon Community Libraryis another health information center. The books in library cover the subjects of medical health, life style, science and technology, etc. Dr. Zhao and visiting professionals will hold periodical health education seminars here for villagers.
In May 2011, OCEF volunteer Ms Xin Shu She visited Zhijin for 2 months. Ms She is a pediatrician practicing in New York. In hope of bettering the Adolescent Health Education Program, Dr. She had a constructive discussion with Dr. Zhao on the Program and performed her specialty in pediatrics. Please find Dr. She’s Site Visit Note here.
Program Timeline
November 2010Dr. Zhao proposed the Health Education Program to OCEF, with background information of the concerning issues and supporting documents thereof.
February 2011 Dr. Zhao proposed plans for the Adolescent Health Education Program. Program description, implementation plans and budget proposal was submitted for approval.
March 2011Proposals approved. Adolescent health education classes carried out in Ming Hua, Zhong Shan, and Xi Hu Schools.
May 2011 Small training sessions were held in Blue Moon Community Library for teachers and parents of the students.
October 2011 till now, Periodical screening of health education videos are in trial run in Blue Moon Community Library.
Crafting Project
Batik Art Class in Jia Le Primary School
The Batik Art class was first launched in spring 2012 in Jia Le School under the support of OCEF.
The class takes place every Tuesday afternoon for the 4th and 6th graders. It is the up to the 4th lesson already. The students have completed their works of the basic batik techniques from the previous lessons. Take a look at the batik portraits designed and crafted by the 6th graders. There is a strong hint of traditional Hmong arts in their designs.
