Helping Hands
As if getting to class on time, finishing homework and cramming for exams aren't enough, some students in Shanghai are bucking the apathetic adolescent stereotype by using their spare time to give back to the community. TALK caught up with a few of them to find out how they're lending a hand.
Ruby Nimkar
British International School Shanghai
Surabhi 'Ruby' Nimkar is in her last year at British International School, and like many high school seniors, she’s busy with college applications and mapping out her future.
Still, that hasn’t kept Nimkar from lending a helping hand. With her spare time, the 18 year old has taught English at migrant schools in Pudong, worked with children at an orphanage in Puxi, and helped raise money to purchase eyeglasses for children.
While she was born in India, and spent time living in Australia, Europe and China, Nimkar has developed a keen sensitivity to regional cultures, a motivating drive in her community service.
She says her multicultural background has taught her to interact with each new community she lives in, encouraging her to be “culturally aware". As an expatriate in Shanghai, giving back to local people creates a link to her new home away from home.
Working with children is also a two-way street since "the kids also teach you things,” Nimkar says. “Having them smile and laugh, getting them away from reality for just a few minutes is tremendously rewarding.”
Nimkar hopes to attend university in the UK or US, but says she’s keen to return to Shanghai and spend more time studying Chinese, as well as human and international relations.
Shan Lee and Heather Taylor
Concordia International School Shanghai
Concordia students Shan Lee and Heather Taylor, both in 10th grade, believe it’s important to give back to the Chinese community they live in.
Lee, who is from Singapore and has lived in Shanghai for 14 years, spreads her time among a few community groups. She started working with the National Junior Honour Society three years ago, and also helps with the Yunnan Education Project, a group that sends volunteers to Yunnan to help build water pipes and teach English, among other projects.
More recently, Lee helped start the Global Issues Network at Concordia last year. The group requires students to choose from a list of 20 global problems, and for one year, each person must try to implement solutions in their own communities and share findings with other students.
Like Lee, Taylor has also been connecting with the community. The Concordia student tutors children and adults at migrant schools and shelters, and says she’s enthusiastic about her volunteer work, especially when she sees kids who are engaged, determined and love to learn.
Natasha Weaser
Yew Chung International School of Shanghai
Natasha Weaser, a student at Yew Chung International School (YCIS), started getting involved with charity work and community service after a Year 8 trip to Yangshuo.
It was her "first time seeing any poverty ... [it was] a real eye opener," Weaser says. After returning to Shanghai, the 17 year old made it her mission to look up local charities she could work with.
She decided on the charity Heart to Heart, an organisation which raises money for children with heart defects, and has been volunteering for the last five years. On weekends, Weaser spends time with Heart to Heart children, and volunteers at Heart to Heart’s bazaars.
Lucky enough to help carry the Olympic torch in 2008, Natasha also used the opportunity to do her own “sponsorship run”, collecting enough money to eventually fund heart operations for three children.
But that’s not all. The busy teenager also helped organise a clothes drive at YCIS this year, collecting fall and winter clothes for the Jo Charles Foundation to distribute in rural Sichuan. On Saturdays, Weaser also teaches English to migrant children with her friends.
When asked what her favourite part of working with children is, Weaser says: "Definitely their smiles. They are so happy we are there."
Cedric Brenninkmeijer and Holly Brooke
Dulwich College Shanghai
Cedric Brenninkmeijer and Holly Brooke aren’t just giving back to the community. They’re also showing other students how to do the same.
The two senior students at Dulwich College have been working together to start a student-led charity committee at their school.
Brooke is the founding committee chair, and together with Brenninkmeijer, the committee secretary, they have been organising various fundraising events for their school to get involved with. One of the most successful has been a school bake sale, which started as a monthly event but is now a weekly fundraiser for local charities.
The funds raised by the student charity committee are primarily donated to two organisations: Home Sweet Home, and the Jo Charles Foundation. Home Sweet Home organises students to teach disabled, homeless factory workers English, while Dulwich’s charity committee raises money for the Jo Charles Foundation to help build schools in rural China.
