Now I know this blog has been lacking in posts recently and I do apologise, but in my defence I have been very very busy! I promise I will get back to “THE NATIONAL WEEK” story as soon as I tell you about my placement. After being in Shanghai for 3 months I have not mentioned my internship placement to you all. I’m sure that a few of you have heard me mention it in private e-mails or what not but for those of you who haven’t I will explain. I have been working at Shanghai’s Roots & Shoots with their Kid Strong program: a program dedicated to teaching health and hygiene to migrant children. Me and my partner, Grace will travel to a total of 4 migrant school located on the outskirts of Shanghai, about a 3 hour trek there and back. At the school we proceed to attempt to teach migrant children proper health and hygiene techniques and habits. I should clarify here; Grace teaches the children health and hygiene while I pathetically attempt to teach them fruits and vegetables in English.
So far the internship has had its pros and cons:
PROS | CONS |
I have gotten to know Grace very well, she is a wonderful partner and helps me with my Mandarin | I am really bad at Mandarin |
I get to work with Children and test out my teaching skills | They only speak Mandarin |
I have learned a lot about the inequalities and living conditions in Shanghai | Knowing that migrant children automatically have less of an advantage to succeed and cannot peruse a higher education in Shanghai due to their hukou is very hard, especially when you can see how much potential these children posses. |
I can build my resume | Hearing the stories of the children and their families can be heartbreaking. I recently found out that one of the students and his younger sister at the kindergarten were found living under a bridge for a year and a half because their family could not afford the housing costs in Shanghai. |
I teach the children English | The schools are located on the boarder of Shanghai, which means 3 hours of travelling there and back |
Somehow I would like to believe I am making a slight difference to the lives of these children | The Schools and its surroundings are unbelievably appalling to Western standards. The kindergarten was small dirty and was surrounded by a garbage site with exposed metal and electrical wire merely 2 feet from the schools walls. The primary school is surrounded by factories pumping out pollution. Both schools have no heat or air. |
Well there you have it the pros and cons to my internship placement. I am glad that I was chosen to be a part of this organisation and although they are a bit disorganised I always keep in mind the situation they are in. NGO’s in China have a hard time implementing or facilitating their programs as the Chinese government enforces strict rules and maintains a watchful eye. Roots and Shoot’s is still in the process of fine tuning their methods and with our help they will be able to see what can be improved. A few weeks ago Grace and I had to write an article for the organisation which I just found out has been published online on Shanghai Expat. If you would like to read it here is the link: http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/article/shanghai-charities-kid-strong-roots-shoots-9769.html
I also want to apologise for the grammar, I believe they took parts from the English version and also parts from the Chinese version, re-translated it and thus some parts do not flow that well. Any way that’s not really the point, the point is that I have an article published online and I think that’s pretty cool….
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