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Global community development: Gangfang School Project
Early in the morning of July 3rd we welcomed a group of 14 Belgian Boy Scouts, 7 boys and 7 girls, at the Beijing international airport on their first time ever in China. And they came with a mission: to clean up a river and organize a 2 week summer school at Gangfang primary school in Hebei.
After two days in Beijing, they started their project in Bakeshiying with a 3 day hike up and around the Great Wall. During those days they learned about the history of the Great Wall, walked through local villages and gained understanding of local customs.
Upon arriving at Gangfang Village they spent a day setting SMART goals and planning their actions.
Over the next 12 days the group worked on the implementation of their action plan: classrooms got painted, a children’s party for the end of the school term was organized, the river got cleaned up from bags upon bags of garbage, there were meetings with village officials and a garbage dump got built.
In the evening the schoolyard became the most popular hangout of the village with children, parents and scouts, singing and playing together.
Every day the progress of the project was evaluated which led to the continuous adjustment of the goals while cooperating with the head of the village and the school master.
On the last evening of their stay in the village, there was a campfire and a barbecue to celebrate the success of all the work that had been done.
On July 22nd at Beijing airport we said goodbye to a group of tired and very happy scouts. ‘It was an unique experience’, ‘We could never have learned this at school’, ‘I had never thought that I would be able do this’ and ‘ I have a thousand stories to tell now’ is what they said.
To see a video of the experience,
download this WMV file (25MB)
