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Student reporter:燙hloe Yang (Y11)
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The Year 11 students (Geminy Yang, Annie Ge, Scarlett Wang, Sunny Ruan and Angel Zhang) who organised Pao School’s Tianzifang art exhibition in August established an art NGO called Arcturus which successfully raised more than RMB 50,000 for two schools in Guizhou province’s Zaoxin City: Zailiu Elementary School and Zhaoxin Junior High School. 36,000 RMB of the funding will be used to renovate the schools’ bathrooms and 14,000 RMB will be allocated to purchase musical instruments.
The student organisers sought to improve the lives of the students in those two Guizhou schools, who live in hardship compared to many families in more developed parts of China. During Arcturus’s 15 September visit to Zhaoxin, Sunny Ruan observed that the living conditions of one family were somewhat impoverished. She notes that the floor of the family’s small one-storey wooden house is made of cement; the television set is broken, and they have no gas – they must cook over a fire. The parents work in Guangzhou and come home just once a year, so the grandparents raise the three children.
Nor are the boarding conditions, where the children spend most of their week, comfortable. The school has no shower and 12 students are crammed into a single bedroom.
Still, the visit to Guizhou province had many happy moments. Geminy Yang said: 'Villagers greeted us warmly in front of the school. As they are Tong people (members of the Tong minority group) they dressed in their vibrant traditional garb and performed songs and dances for us. They also gave us colourful ribbons that signify good luck in Tong culture. Teacher Lu from Zailiu Elementary School also invited us all to her home to enjoy a splendid feast; there were so many delicious dishes.'
Arcturus also donated art supplies to Zailiu Elementary School. The students were thrilled when they received the paper and paintbrushes: Art class is their favourite subject but they often are unable to paint due to a shortage of art supplies. After receiving the art supplies, a young boy surnamed Lu spontaneously painted a marvellous depiction of a scorpion, earning applause from his fellow classmates and his teacher.
Scarlett concludes: ‘We (the Arcturus founders) love art and see an important place for it in philanthropy. We hope to share our passion with more children in need, and help them to realize their artistic dreams.’
