We often become so deeply involved in managing our daily affairs and trying to advance our own positions in the world that we forget how easy and rewarding it can be to create a new and enriching experience for people less fortunate than ourselves.
This past Saturday Village Progress teamed up with Heart to Heart Community Care, TNS, and the Where There be Dragons Princeton Bridge Year Program to take a group of kids hiking in Kunming’s Western Hills, a new experience to which they would not otherwise have access.
This past Saturday Village Progress teamed up with Heart to Heart Community Care, TNS, and the Where There be Dragons Princeton Bridge Year Program to take a group of kids hiking in Kunming’s Western Hills, a new experience to which they would not otherwise have access.
The students, ranging in age from 10 to 16 are from Wangjiaoqiao (王家桥), an “urban village” in Kunming that is home to many lower income working people. They are mostly the children of migrant workers, and some face additional hurdles such as having only a single parent to care for them and support them on a marginal salary such as collecting recyclable trash. Because they were born elsewhere and lack Kunming household registrations, their lives will become increasingly challenging as they near middle-school age due to their lack of registration and their families’ financial situations.
Administrators at Heart to Heart told us that this was a very special opportunity for the kids, as they rarely have the chance to get outside and play or to see nature. Their pent-up energy reserves were in full display as they charged up and down the slopes of the Western Hills laughing, yelling and thoroughly exhausting their adult chaperones.
When we were able to calm the kids down and gather them into a group we also took some opportunities to teach them about the origins of Kunming’s karst limestone geology and to discuss the origins of water pollution in Dianchi Lake. At the end of the day, we collected a sample of water from Dianchi, which we will have analyzed at a lab so the students’ teachers can share the results with this future generation and discuss ways of preventing the water pollutions that threatens Kunming’s environment.
