Qinghai-Tibet

**[|Qinghai – Tibet] Community-Wide Service Project**

In September, 2005 my husband, Jim, and I began our involvement with a Tibetan secondary school in rural Qinghai province, western China. We visited [|Gui’de County Tibetan Middle School (GCTMS)] to get a better understanding of education in the countryside as well as to offer some sort of assistance. Jim decided to stay on and teach as a volunteer, working with students as well as English department staff in an effort to improve Tibetan students' English skills. Tibetan students who become trilingual (Tibetan, Chinese and English) generally have a better chance of succeeding in the rapidly changing world that they now find themselves very much in the middle of.



Over the past three years that initial step has led to a much deeper involvement at various levels between the entire community at the International School of Tianjin (IST) and the Qinghai community. In May 2006 a group of IST grade 11 secondary students and teachers visited Gui’de for a week, the first in a series of a community service/cultural exchange trips between IST and GCTMS. The group also spent a few days at a primary school for the children of nomadic families in Changmu (Tib: [|Tongmer] ), a small village at the foot of the grasslands in southeastern Gui’de County. They had learned about this school prior to their visit, and they knew that many of the young female students were sleeping on pallets on the cold concrete floor. The students raised the money for a bunk-bed project, which raised the funds to buy 16 pairs of bunks, which the students delivered and installed. This was the first of their personal involvements with the students and people of Changmu.

The IST students and teachers returned in September 2006 and helped to celebrate the 30th anniversary of GCTMS. They also conducted classes and continued their work in the Changmu community. In January 2007 12 students and four teachers from Gui’de visited IST for a week. That week became a milestone at IST, as the Tibetans attended classes and engaged in many activities that were ‘firsts’ for them, one of the most memorable being an afternoon spent in the secondary science lab. The thrill of being involved with students who could hardly contain their excitement was one that is hard to adequately describe.

The Tibetans also presented themselves and their unique experiences of life to classes and parents as well. These included stories of the cold and loneliness of being female goat herds, walking back and forth to primary school twice a month through areas with wolves, and also the difficulties of trying to learn in an educational and boarding situation that is radically different than one would generally find in an international school. (Most of the students are boarders, since their villages are at such great distances from school, and GCTMS, with 1250 students, has neither running water nor heat in the dormitories. And in the winter it can get very cold.) It also included much singing and dancing, and the entire IST community was moved as well as becoming involved.

Two of the students who made that initial visit to IST have been provided full tuition assistance for four years of university by the IST Parent Faculty Organization - a young woman goat herd who is in her second year at Tibet University in Lhasa, and a young man who will enter Tianjin Science and Technology University in September, 2008. Two other young women who were also part of that initial group received private four-year full tuition assistance. Currently there are a total of eight students from GCTMS who are being supported in university as a result of the grassroots’ work we started three years ago. We hope to increase that number as our involvement continues. Our mission has evolved as the project has, though it is still primarily one of establishing and sustaining cross-cultural relationships while also providing opportunities for students from both schools to participate in substantive community service projects, as well providing unique life experiences in challenging settings. An important though non-assessable positive aspect of the IST students’ involvement and visits to the Plateau is the introduction of an entirely new frame of landscape, placing them in an environment as exceptional as any on earth. Though we cannot foresee how this will influence students’ expanding global sensitivity and vision, we believe that the outcomes of these experiences will have positive ripples throughout their lives.

In that spirit, a group that visited Gui’de and the Changmu in September, 2007, included two parents, one of whom is a civil engineer. They investigated the possibilities of building a sustainable water system in Changmu, one that would not be destroyed by the seasonal spring floods, as is the case at present. A young Tibetan student who has become quite the expert on writing proposals for water projects in the Qinghai area visited Tianjin and [|assisted a small group of IST students write] their own proposal in order to procure funds for the project.

The list of events and projects continues to grow, but what is most rewarding is to see a group of international school students who live along the prosperous east coast of China and a group of students living the harsh Plateau life in western China, many of whom are genuinely impoverished, reaching out to and learning from each other by building small bridges of perceptions in what it really means to be students in this world.

MORE links that document the process of this project
Click here for more photos about the area and students GIN presentation with water project analysis video and grant proposal posted [|Water project](Sept 2008)

For more information about this project contact Jim Gourley at [|Absurdity, Allegory and China] Or Beth Gourley at beahgo@gmail.com