The COVID-19 epidemic has rung in the new year with dramatic change and disruption. Throughout this challenging time, it has been heartening to hear inspirational stories, especially when they have involved members of the Pao School community. As we review the many ways in which our community has supported the battle against COVID-19, we find our core values - such as compassion - in action. This can be seen especially in our volunteers' generous devotion of their time and energy in helping others throughout their time of need.
Ms Poppy Ren from the Primary School took the initiative to sign up as a volunteer for community epidemic prevention, responsible for logistics support and publicity work. Additionally, the F.L Charity group, a high school student group, initiated an online fundraising project and donated 10,000 RMB to China Soong Ching Ling Foundation on behalf of YK Pao School's high school division.
Teachers and students from Pao School have been supporting the fight against COVID-19 in many unique ways, here are just some of their touching stories:
Finding ways to help Wuhan, ground zero for the battle against COVID-19
On January 24th, Pao School's Field Study student group published an article on its WeChat public account calling for donations to hospitals in Wuhan. The article was well received, and support came through from everyone in the Pao community - including classmates, alumni and parents as well as the general public.
Within a few days, the group of over 40 student volunteers, raised more than 160,000 RMB. In the month after the fundraising effort began, the students displayed an impressive degree of professionalism and efficiency. They contacted major medical supplies manufacturers one by one, choosing partners based on a strict set of criteria. They also made sure to carefully vet all hospitals that would receive the donations and make sure they were authorized to receive them. Through cooperation with various small and medium-sized NGOs to obtain authorization to ship the supplies, Field Study finally succeeded in sending medical supply donations to the intended recipients - all located in places where the necessary supplies were limited. Overall, the students performed admirably throughout the process, including the financial aspects – ensuring that they kept the process transparent by maintaining detailed records of all donations and recipients.
Screenshots from the Field Study official WeChat account
Pao School students established Field Study in 2013 with the intention to engage the public in philanthropic endeavours and increase awareness of how to help those in need. Field Study currently has 60 members, who hail from many different nations. The organization works to support local communities by providing both human and financial resources. Yet even for this group of already experienced students, it was a challenge to manage such a large sum of money for the first time. Some students had to work long hours to communicate with hospitals and manufacturers. It was difficult at first but everyone in the group soon gained familiarity with the basics of protective medical supplies.
Field Study faced many obstacles during the fundraising and donation process. One of the biggest setbacks, according to Ruby, leader of the Field Study group, was an incident with purchasing masks. Pao School students initially purchased 25,000 masks from a production facility in Xiantao, Hubei, to be sent to a hospital in Hanchuan. However, the medical supplies were requisitioned for use in Wuhan, where they were urgently needed. After learning about this, everyone felt frustrated and powerless. Even Sabrina, who was leading the effort, felt extremely dejected. However, the team soon recovered to rally round Sabrina. In the early hours of the morning, Ruby received a WeChat from Sabrina: "I'm convinced that we can find masks for this hospital. Let's make this happen!" In the end, Sabrina and the team managed to locate another 50,000 surgical masks and ship them to Hanchuan Women and Children's Hospital.
An event poster designed by Y9 Clare.
Ruby lauded the persistence and generosity of spirit shown by the Field Study team. "This charity project has shown me a whole other side of my classmates that we aren't likely to see in the classroom - it was truly inspirational," she said.
We all have our limits, but sometimes we need to ignore them and forge ahead. It was that single-minded sense of purpose that allowed us to overcome the setbacks we encountered.
Student groups have limited resources, especially in regards to finance and time. Yet Field Study members often ask themselves: How can we do more? All members share a belief that in this time of unprecedented difficulty, even a single protective mask can give someone hope. The students' determination to make a difference in the battle against COVID-19 - no matter how small that difference - ultimately resulted in many hospitals in 20 cities receiving much-needed protective medical supplies.
Part of the donation agreements
In the future, Field Study hopes to help more people through participating in epidemic prevention work and reducing panic online. They are currently seeking experts to refute misinformation that's commonplace on the internet. If you are a medical expert or would like to recommend one, please contact the YK Pao School Field Study group at fieldstudyteam@outlook.com.
The Field Study Society has so far collected more than 160,000 RMB in donations,
disbursed to hospitals in nearly 20 cities from the following provinces: Hubei, Shanghai,
Anhui, Fujian, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Yunnan. In total, more than 40 hospitals
and medical clinics received 613 boxes of protective medical supplies. At the time of
writing, the purchase of the last batch of supplies is being confirmed.
Core participants in the fight against COVID-19: Alisa Y10, Angela Y9, Anna Y9, Cathy Y10, Clare Y9, Cynthia Y9, Lily Y9, Paris Y8, Ruby Y11, Sabrina Y11, Sophia Y9, and Vicky Y8 (in alphabetical order)
Using social media to brighten people's spirits
Social media can be a powerful tool in bringing hope to those suffering through uncertain times. In the fight against COVID-19, students Steven and Helena (Year 10) used social media platforms – both domestic and foreign - to brighten people’s spirits.
On February 2nd, the Xinmin Evening News published an article entitled "Li Lanjuan, Academician in the Eyes of Her Son," which was widely circulated on the internet. Behind this report is a Pao School team led by Y10 student Steven, who first interviewed Li Lanjuan's son, Zheng Jie, to introduce Li Lanjuan to the world through the eyes of her son.
Steven explained that the interview with Mr. Zheng Jie is part of a series of reports. "We wanted to tell an inspirational story in the context of the COVID-19 situation," he said.
With their bilingual skills, Steven and his team were able to reach across linguistic and national borders to help more people outside of China to understand the development of the COVID-19 outbreak and the efforts made by China to control the contagion.
Executing this project was no walk in the park for Steven and his team. A large team was needed to handle all the different tasks, from video production, translation to social media management. The group of nine students lacked manpower but quickly resolved this problem by recruiting nearly 200 enthusiastic volunteers from various primary schools, secondary schools, universities and businesses.
At the same time, Steven and his team needed to brush up on their coursework knowledge. Before they could begin producing videos to inform people outside of China about the disease, they needed to familiarize themselves with the science behind COVID-19. They spent many hours reading some of the top peer-reviewed journals in the global scientific and medical community, such as "The Lancet", "Nature" and "Chinese Bioinformatics." They also obtained a great deal of valuable information from the websites of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Health Council.
Steven admitted that it was hard reading these top-tier medical journals in English for the first time, especially "The Lancet." Fortunately, Steven had previously studied biology and knows its basics as well as certain key professional terms used in the scientific and medical community. He also took advantage of the vast reach of the internet. For those he did not understand, he was able to answer his questions by doing research online.
Helena, one of the project leaders, said the biggest challenge was figuring out how to engage with the audience, which was entirely online - and to monitor the level of engagement.
To be successful in these two tasks, it was imperative for us to get all of the volunteers involved while dividing up responsibilities evenly and managing their time well.
Currently, Steven and his team are busy making videos to help people outside of China understand the COVID-19 epidemic. This video is in the final stages of production and will be published on major global social media platforms in late February.
https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDU2Mjc5OTc5Ng==.html
A preview version
The completed version will be finished and published in late February
Over the coming days, Steven and his team members will continue to tell inspirational stories on major social media platforms through online videos and special reports, and they hope to continue this work once the contagion is brought under control. They plan to extend their projects to cover topics such as children's welfare and wildlife protection.
List of the first batch of core team members including nine Y10 students from Pao School: Alisa, Arwen, Hannah, Helen, Helena, Lisa, Nancy, Steven and Zoey (in alphabetical order)
Racing against time
Pao School student Rony (Year 7) and his brother, Mickey (Year 4), helped spearhead an effort to donate a large number of N95 children's masks and protective medical supplies to a hospital in Hubei. Most impressively, they coordinated this campaign from overseas.
While travelling on vacation with their parents, Rony and Mickey learned the spread of COVID-19 has caused serious shortage in protective medical supplies in Hubei. They knew they had to do something. They contacted a local factory under the guidance of their father - procuring a large number of N95 children's masks and other supplies. However, coordinating the logistics was a challenge. Using standard international shipping would have been very slow. Instead, the family decided to find friends who could help them bring the protective medical supplies into the country. As the destination of these friends spread all over China, to bring the masks to Hubei, the family asked more of their contacts for support. Overall, their efforts were a huge success: in this race against time, everyone worked together, transporting the supplies from person to person, from overseas to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Changsha, and finally to Hubei.
When we learned of the epidemic, we immediately turned our attention to helping our fellow citizens back home in China, and the children played a major role in the donation process. We are relieved that it was successful. -- Rony and Mickey`s mother
We believe charity does not end with monetary contributions. Instead, we hope to build
a bridge for more people to express their love and care. We want to thank Pao School,
our parents and our fellow students. The COVID-19 outbreak has created a unique
occasion to work together and help one another.
——Ruby, Field Study Leader
*The cover picture comes from the Field Study donation event, designed by Y9 Clare.
We want to hear the stories of Pao School families and alumni families living in China or overseas.
How are you affected by the COVID-19 outbreak? What have you done in
response to the epidemic? Please send us your stories and photos at
Paolife@ykpaoschool.cn. We will select the best ones and may follow up
with you to conduct a brief interview.
