Source: SYSU Youth Association
Written by: SYSU Youth Association
Translated by: Tan Shan

Recently, the 1st Commendation Meeting of Southern Guangdong Public Welfare Voluntary Service Kapok Prize, and the 2nd Guangdong Public Welfare Volunteer Cultural Festival and Canton Fair on Volunteer Service, was held in a world-renowned, world-class and tremendous exhibition center – Pazhou Complex with great splendor. 310 volunteer service organizations, 501 public welfare volunteer service projects, nearly 5,000 volunteers, public interest personages, and persons in charge of public welfare foundations and caring enterprises from across Guangdong Province, participated in this love event through stall selling and marketing voluntary service projects, linking up loving resources, and celebrating the 27th International Volunteer Day together by means of “going to a fair” during the festival.

Zhu Mingguo, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, and Director of the Committee for Social Affairs of Guangdong Province; Lin Shaochun, Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province; Qin Weidong, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC Guangdong Provincial Committee; and other leaders visited the scene to inspect the stall shows of public welfare projects.

A total of eight projects from six units of SYSU, namely, School of Pharmaceutical Science, International Business School, Postgraduate Volunteer Teaching Group of Sun Yat-sen University, Youth Volunteers Association of Sun Yat-sen University, Love League of Sun Yat-sen University, and SIFE Greeing, shone in the Public Welfare Cultural Festival, all got successfully “paired”, and received funds from corporations and foundations. The eight public welfare projects covered assisting the elderly and the handicapped, literature, sports, and popular science, ecological and environmental protection, youth services and other fields, and were expected to benefit up to 22,390 people.

At the launching ceremony, the Postgraduate Volunteer Teaching Group of Sun Yat-sen University became the most dazzling public welfare organization in the cultural festival, winning the highest award for collective voluntary service in Guangdong Province – the "Kapok Prize”, and the “Guangzhou Prize” issued in the name of the Guangzhou municipal government for the first time.

Postgraduate Volunteer Teaching Group of Sun Yat-sen University – Interprets Volunteer Teaching Stories in West Area through Dance and Songs

Wearing brilliant Tibetan clothes, members of the Postgraduate Volunteer Teaching Group of Sun Yat-sen University presented pure white Hada to the guests, and narrated with enthusiasm the stories about their one-year volunteer teaching experience in the West Area. The Postgraduate Volunteer Teaching Group exhibited a project with a distinctive “SYSU Volunteer Teaching Action Cultural Publicity Group”. "Spend a year doing an unforgettable thing” is their faith, and they keep the promise they once made with action.

To appeal to more people to participate in voluntary service and poverty alleviation in the west regions, they tactfully combined their own talents with volunteer teaching stories, and interpreted their volunteer teaching stories through dance, songs, short sketches, drama, and other different forms. Through theses activities, they hope that more people can experience and perceive the life of volunteer teaching, and will subsequently go to the west area and contribute to the cause of education in the west regions of China.

Love League of Sun Yat-sen University, and International Business School – Assists the Poor and the Handicapped, and Cares for People Around

Aimed at caring for the elderly, cerebral palsy children, autistic children, handicapped children, and other socially disadvantaged groups, Love League of Sun Yat-sen University calls on everybody in the society to do a good deed every day, and accompanies them into the loving experience “Volunteer for One Day”. They plan to recruit 100 volunteers, provide them with training, and go to residential care homes, nursing homes, disabled people's rehabilitation centers, etc., to conduct activities such as putting on a show, hand-made project, chess competition, volunteer teaching, assisting sanitary finish, assisting rehabilitation therapy and mild sports.

"Street Angel” Care Program from International Business School, SYSU cares for and loves the sanitation workers around, and plans to send medicine, herbal tea and sweet soup to sanitation workers at work. The program also plans to invite doctors and nurses to give gratuitous treatment and introduce occupational disease prevention knowledge to sanitation workers, and contact relevant departments to discuss specific program to improve their working conditions.

Environmental Protection Association, and SIFE – “Tiny Forces” Can Be Condensed into a Great One to Protect the Ecological Environment

The South Campus Environmental Protection Association give full play to college students’ creativity, and plans to launch a monthly environmental protection theme day “Tiny Forces” on campus and increase people’s environmental awareness by carrying out various forms of activities, such as "Refuse Disposable Chopsticks” in November, “The End of the World” in December, “Garbage Classification” in April, “Energy Saving” in May, and "Don't Throw Away Your Clothes” in June. Every month you will feel that environmental protection is around you and environmental protection involves everyone’s participation.

SIFE Greening’s project aims to “Advocate a Low Carbon Life, and Promote the Recycling of Flexible Package”. It sets up flexible package recycling systems on campuses and in local communities so as to promote the recycling and reuse of flexible package in Guangzhou through tripartite cooperation among schools, recyclers, and campus property management companies. The project has achieved results in schools, communities, and enterprises.

School of Pharmaceutical Science, and Youth Volunteers Association – Pay Attention to the Community and the Youth Development

Using their own specialty advantages, the “Public Welfare Project of Safe, Rational Drug Use in the Community” initiated by the CYL Committee of School of Pharmaceutical Science, went deep into the community to carry out “Safe Drug Use” publicity campaign, help the community residents understand the proper medication concept, and popularize safe medication knowledge among the public. The project organized three activities in Lijiao Park and Rome Homeland in July.

The “Golden Goose Classroom” and “Classroom After 5:00 pm” volunteer teaching projects by Youth Volunteers Association offer children of migrant workers one-to-two or one-to-many schoolwork tutoring, and organize a series of weekend practice activities to enrich the students' after-school life. The volunteers open their heart to communicate with the children and become the children’s good teachers and friends in the course of their growth, and help the children greet life with a smile as their academic performances are improved.