Dare to dream!
On the 12th of May, 2008 a deadly earthquake occurred in the Sichuan province of China with 68,000 deaths. This catastrophe made many children orphans. When a student of the Renmin University of China in Beijing visited this area and saw these children, she decided to set up a project in her student organization to help the children. She was a member of AIESEC and created the Dare to Dream project. A project about inspiring children to dream with summer camps in Sichuan with foreign and Chinese volunteers.
Content of the project
The project took place for the third time in the summer of 2010 and consisted of 6 organizers, 23 foreign volunteers and 24 Chinese volunteers with duration of 6 weeks. The project started in Beijing, where the volunteers had training for 5 days. In Sichuan the group was divided into two smaller groups. Each group went to a different school, where they provided a summer camp of 10 days. After the first summer camp, we had a small break, where we evaluated and prepared for the second summer camp. After the second summer camp at two other schools, we evaluated in Chengdu. There ended the third Dare to Dream project.
The training in Beijing involved multiple things. First of all the training was about to learn each other better. We did name games, teambuilding games, and had some free time in the evenings to spend together. Secondly, we got some lectures about how psychological effected the children can be due the earthquake and how we have to cope with it. And last, but not least, we had to make courses and activities for the summer camps.
Every foreign volunteer was coupled with a Chinese volunteer and every pair taught one class in the summer camps. We had many different courses with fun interaction with the children. Some examples are English teaching, a lecture about responsibility, debates about topics of their interest, and presentations about dreams and careers. Furthermore, we had activities like Global Village, a cultural role play, a talent show, a sport meeting, a lip dub video and a goodbye party.
The organization
The organizers of the Dare to Dream Project arranged everything for the volunteers during our stay in China. They arranged the summer camps together with the schools, picked us up from the airport, arranged accommodation, and were always there if you needed something. They were really helpful. But the organizers occasionally lacked the ability to take own initiative. Sometimes volunteers had to come in action or pushed the organization to gather necessary information. It was noticeable that the organization wasn’t experienced in leading projects of this scale, but they managed to make the project a success. In the end everything worked out and I’m really thankful for their big effort in this project.
My coaches in the Netherlands helped me professional with finding a good internship, prepare for the travel and were ready to help during my travel. I’m also thankful to them.
The culture
Chinese culture is completely different than the Dutch culture. The things I were really amazed about or were very noticeable to me are the following.
First of all, the traffic is completely different than the Netherlands, besides that the roads are bigger. They drive really close to each other, like to zigzag through the traffic, wear no seat belt, use cell phones while driving, and horn a lot to let others know they are coming. But no accidents! The drivers are really experienced! I feel also really safe when I’m in the bus or a taxi, even though the traffic looks like a mad house. Furthermore, when you have to cross the street, you just have to start walking. The cars will avoid you. After the first day I enjoyed crossing the street and the first days back in the Netherlands I cycled through red light all the time!
Besides that, the food is completely different, but very good! But at first eating with chopsticks was really awful. The Chinese volunteers, who treated me for a meal at the first day, gave me a spoon eventually. After 4 days I managed to eat with chopsticks properly and back in the Netherlands I eat meals with rice with chopsticks. As well is the food more spicy in China, even the KFC burgers!
Furthermore most of the Chinese can’t speak English at all, their English signs are so bad that it is funny, they spit occasionally on the ground, they like waiting, and they have always long discussions, which sounds like big fights due yelling.
Once in a lifetime experience
This travel showed me a lot of insight of what kind of person I am, what I can achieve and how I should live my life. I met awesome people, gain a lot of experience and had loads of fun! Besides the teaching we also had loads of time for sightseeing. For instance, I have climbed a mountain, climbed the Great Wall, saw pandas, and visit the Terracotta Army. We also had to endure some difficulties, but together we managed them. The stay has changed me a lot due this knowledge and experience. I am really glad I joined this internship! This project blew my expectations completely away! Simple said, it was an once in a lifetime experience!
So if anyone has the same opportunity as me to go on an internship, I would say, do it! You won’t regret it! Just choose an internship that suits you and don’t forget that you control how good it will be!
Tjeerd van Campen, Tilburg
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