“There are so many natural and beautiful, but backward villages here. It is my dream to help my people.”
There is something really touching about the simplicity with which our WildChina guide, Jacky, explains to me his reason for working on rural education projects in Guizhou.
Since 2008, Jacky has worked on various community service projects in his native Guizhou, where he grew up in a rural village. Fully aware of the challenges that children in these communities face, Jacky has focused on education projects to create a brighter future for them, both by leading student groups to work on rural infrastructure projects, and by being a community volunteer.
While he’s collaborated with students and villagers alike to improve countryside roads (giving children access to schools), and volunteers as an English teacher during the low season months of November and December, his biggest current project is to rebuild the elementary school in Nandao Village.
In Nandao, which is separated into Upper and Lower sections, a good education is challenging to obtain. Each day, children as young as 5 years old must all make the long walk to a decrepit school – essentially just an old house – that lacks heating and proper school equipment.
“I see so many children in school shivering all day,” Jacky says, “and I want to help them.”
This coming spring, the children of Nanduo will get a better schoolhouse – and hopefully, a better future with it. With the aid of Hong Kong charities, Jacky will coordinate the school’s reconstruction with generous donations of materials and helping hands.
“This is my biggest wish,” Jacky says. He hopes that Nandao, and other rural villages in Guizhou, can become nurturing learning communities for the young children who inhabit them.
We can’t wait to see how Nandao transforms.
