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| Volunteer in China |
As a non-profit organization, Lotus sponsors and organizes a number of volunteer activitiess. These activities can help our international students to know different life and people, and have an opportunity to do volunteer work in China. We hope that through theses activities, students will be able to offer help to the needy, understand different cultures, and build friendship across ethnic, national and cultural differences.
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| Charity Excursion to Hebei Senior Centers |
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| Teaching at Tibetan Orphan School |
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| Charity Excursion to Hebei Senior Centers |
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Each semester we organize charity excursions to senior centers in rural areas in Hebei Province. The aim of these excursions is to help students feel the life in other communities of China and learn “filial piety” 孝道 (xiào dào), to be dutiful to one’s parents and treat other elderly people with respect as if they were one’s own parents—a very important part of traditional Chinese culture. |
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About twenty senior people aged from sixty to eighty live in a typical senior center. The living conditions are very low. The elders do not have children and some of them are disabled. We do the following services for the seniors:
Give hair wash and massage
Do foot wash
Distribute gifts of fruit, honey, and other foods. We also offer Chinese medicines
Staff free clinics with volunteers who have medical backgrounds
Perform singing, dancing and other entertainments
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| Anyone wishing to volunteer to serve at the senior center can sign up with our Beijing Office. To learn about our recent excursions, please click on Charity Excursion July, 2006. Some Lotus students who joined the excursion wrote stories on the excursion and their thoughts and feelings on it. Below are the stories. |
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| Students’ Stories |
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This past weekend I had the chance to visit a run down school that was charitably given over to a group of aging, retired elderly Chinese men. There are many chances in this life when we are given the opportunity to lend a helping hand to those in need. I was offered such a chance by Lotus, an event that proved to be one of the most enlightening and fulfilling experiences yet during my stay here in Beijing. It is rare that we realize just how lucky we are when compared the destitute living conditions of those like the men we
visited, men with no family or home to call their own. But, the strength of spirit in these individuals, living in a tight-knit community where the friends they make will be there for the rest of their lives, touched me deeply. Never have I felt such complete joy playing a simple game of balloon volleyball. It was in this simplicity, surrounded by squalor, that I realized that the important things in this life is not the environment that surrounds us, but rather the people we surround ourselves with. I wanted to stay with these men for months, hearing their stories, understanding their many individual trials and tribulations. In one day, far away from the bustling streets of Beijing, in a run-down school turned old person's home, I realized the power of reaching out to those that just needed a friend. All these men needed was someone to hold their hand and lend a sympathetic ear.
I want to thank Lotus for giving me such an opportunity, one that I will remember for the rest of my life. All I did was spend a day with those that needed a little care, and I came out with memories that will last a lifetime.
Thank you Lotus.
By US students Spencer Jemelka, photograph provided by Spencer.
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On a Sunday in late July, I joined a group of fellow Lotus students and Lotus-affiliated Chinese volunteers for a benevolent excursion. We visited an old people’s home in Hebei, at a distance not too far from Beijing.
The excursion was great for two reasons: firstly, because of an insight into
welfare conditions in China, which I might now suggest are nothing exceptional. Secondly, and more importantly, because of feeling the rewards of community service. While there we helped out with bathing of the elderly men, cleaning of their clothes and rooms, and by giving them companionship with conversation and games. They were immensely thankful, and despite broken communication, those of us from abroad seemed to be accepted as familiars. Not only was this feeling felt in relation to the elderly men, but the Lotus affiliates seemed willing to extend a genuine bond of friendship to us as well. It was a tremendous day. I should remember it distinctly for a long time to come.
By Australian student Thomas Smithurst
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Lotus by the way also makes a point of really teaching you the many facets about life in China and the Chinese culture. During their weekend excursion trips which are apart of the program, my best and most memorable experience was their optional trip to visit a Chinese senior center home in the rural part of China to do volunteer work. It was by far the most heart warming and life touching experience I have ever had. That kind of experience is priceless.
By US student Wesley Wong |
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The differences found among the people in this world are truly remarkable;
differences in language, in culture, in food, in world views, in political systems,
in educational systems, in spiritual beliefs, and so on. Such differences are often
 staggering when you experience them first hand - that is, not just hear about them.
Your mind is suddenly torn open to a new world of ideas and images and it's hard
to know what to do with these things, how to put them in perspective, how to make
room for them inside this brain machine that is full of memories and thoughts and
concepts that have poured in and piled up since the day we entered this world. But
in my opinion, this experience of stretching and exercising the mind is a part of
the human experience. We have this extraordinary capacity for a reason. We have
the ability to be "enlightened", in whatever sense you choose to interpret such
a concept. But the scary reality is that in this day and age of capitalism and commercialism
and modernity and materialism, we don't have to challenge our minds. Especially
in the developed nations of the West, such as my own country the United States,
we can pass the days and years without ever having to open our eyes to the way other
people live, without ever having to question our government and the elite class
who wield tremendous control over our lives (their job is to keep us believing we
are in complete control, of course), without ever having to truly face the poverty
and injustice that exists in so many other parts of the globe.
In modern capitalist
societies, we have an endless number of things to distract our thinking minds with,
mainly entertainment and material goods. The drive of people to consume is incredible,
and thus companies that manufacture movies, music, books, clothing, shoes, cosmetics,
jewelry, and so on are able to accumulate such incredible wealth. With this wealth
they can influence governmental policies and public and private media, and therefore
influence our worldview and the way in which we live our lives. In this way, the
average person can easily lose his innate capacity and gift of thinking and questioning
and challenging. I believe that the value of traveling and living abroad is that
we may stretch and exercise our dormant and all-too-comfortable minds. We may allow
ourselves to see and experience the realities of other people. Understanding the
realities of others may encourage us to question and challenge our own, and then
perhaps realize a greater truth that encompasses much more than just that which
we experience at home.
Lotus Educational Foundation has given students the opportunity
to truly see the way other people live and thus expand their minds and increase
understanding. They have done this through providing homestay families as well as
charity excursions to places such as senior homes and orphanages. Participating
in both kinds of activites is still a rarity in China. The majority of foreigners
visiting China are wealthy tourists who will never get a taste of the real, nitty-grittiness
of China, or foreign students who all too easily get sucked into a comfortable lifestyle
of living in dorms or apartments, going to class occasionally, and eating and partying
for scarily low prices. They may leave China after one year without ever sitting
down to eat dinner with a Chinese family or gaining an awareness of how both the
government and non-governmental organizations are addressing poverty issues that
still pose a significant obstacle to the country's rise into the class of developed
nations.
Currently, I am living with what you may call a typical middle-class Chinese
family. Besides improving my Chinese language skills, interacting with these people
everyday has given me a more real understanding of China's present social trends
and pressures than I could ever have gained through books and articles. I'm getting
a close glimpse into the way a few out of China's millions live everyday. It's actually
a pretty incredible opportunity. Besides being an observer, I feel that I am a significant
part of my host family's life. I only hope that I can teach them as much about American
culture and the way I live my life as they have taught me about Chinese culture
and the way they live their lives.
Since arriving in Beijing, I've participated
in two charity events in nearby Hebei province through the Lotus program. One event
was to a senior home, and was specifically open to all students in the Lotus program.
The other event was to a children's orphanage, and was organized by the Tzu-Chi
Compassionate Relief Association, Taiwan's largest Buddhist charity organization
which is beginning to establish itself on the mainland as an official non-profit
organization recognized by the government (Tzu-Chi has a strict policy of no politics,
no propaganda, and no religion when providing charitable relief). Both volunteer
experiences impressed me deeply. I was forced to realize just how fortunate I am
and how much more I can be doing to help others. Seemingly big problems became minute.
I've realized that what we think we know about the suffering and misfortune of others
are just abstract ideas until we actually see them in person. Then they become a
part of our reality, and the desire towards positive action, towards actually helping
people, is born. I'm not saying that through attending volunteer events one immediately
becomes some angel do-gooder, but at least he has a truer understanding that poverty,
illness, hunger and suffering is real. Through compassionate acts, the distance
between us (the more fortunate) and victims of suffering and injustice is cut off
and, at the very least, we are forced to change the way we look at and live our
own lives. I really encourage current and future Lotus students to make the most
out of their time in China and value any opportunities to understand Chinese people
on a deeper level and also to help those who are suffering. Think of it as wonderful
exercise for our minds. |
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Teaching at Tibetan Orphan School |
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About the school
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Xieqing Charity Orphan School is a non-governmental organization. The school is located on a beautiful grassland at the foot of snow-capped mountains in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, southwest China. |
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The founder and principal of the school, Gongxia Rinpoche has been dedicated to establishing the school since 2004. After two years hard endeavors, with assistance of donors and volunteers from local Tibetan communities, other parts of China and abroad, Rinpoche fulfilled the construction of a modern school for Tibetan orphans on a highland with an altitute over 4,000 meters. |
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Rinpoche completed the first phase of the school construction in the summer of 2006. The first 50 orphans entered the school in September 2006.
The school is very important to the Tibetans. Living conditions in these Tibetan areas are difficult because of high altitude and isolation. Local people lead a traditional life of nomads and farmers, without access to education. Due to harsh conditions, many children lose one or both parents and become orphans. Although local people are kind-hearted and provide them with basic shelter and food, they are unable to provide the orphans with a nurturing and healthy living environment and an opportunity for comprehensive and modern education.
The school will be a warm home for orphans; and provide them education in Tibetan, Chinese, English languages, mathematics, natural sciences, ethics, arts, etc. Children will also receive vocational training such as greenhouse farming, medicine plant growing, animal herding, environment protection, handicraft arts, tourist services, etc.
Through providing the orphans with education, the school also hopes to introduce advanced concepts and technology of the outside world to these isolated villages; and gradually influence the education and life in rural Tibetan areas. Furthermore, as more and more volunteers and supporters are involved in volunteering their time and skills, etc for the school, more and more people will be benefited from helping others, experiencing a new life and building friendship across ethnic, national and cultural differences.
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| Teaching at the school |
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As a sponsor of the orphan school, Lotus hopes to provide the orphans an opportunity to know the outside world and learn knowledge and skills which will be helpful to them and gradually the local communities. We also hope to provide international volunteers a chance to offer help in a Tibetan school, and know a different life and culture.
Who may volunteer?
Volunteers need to be mature, independent and in good health.
What will you do as a volunteer?
Volunteers will teach English to the orphans. Those who have education/working experience in health care, teaching environmental protection and green house building are also welcomed.
Cost in USD: 1,980 with no length limits. We support volunteering from a few weeks to year long at the same price.
What is Included:
nAirport pick-up and drop-off in Beijing.
n10 nights Homestay in Beijing (for periods before and after volunteering in Tibet), including private bedroom, breakfast & dinner, computer and free DSL Internet service.
nRound flight tickets from Beijing to Chengdu
nUSD 100 donation to the school
nAccommodation and food provided by the orphan school
nSupervision and 24-hour phone assistance from Lotus Beijing Office
You need to take care by yourself:
International flights, insurance, visa application
Airport pick-up, drop-off and accommodation in Chengdu, transportation from Chengdu to the school
Program schedule
Before departure to Tibet:
Day 1: Arrival to Beijing, airport pick-up and transfer to the host family
Day 2-5: Orientation, crash course in Chinese, meeting with Lotus Beijing Office
Day 6: Take plane to Chengdu, then take bus from Chengdu to the School.
Volunteer in Tibet:there is no length limit to your volunteering.
Back from Tibet:
Day 1-2: Take bus to Chengdu, then take plane to Beijing
Day 3-5: Beijing Homestay
Day 6: Leave China, airport drop-off
Note: Schedule may be subject to change
Others
nAs the altitude is over 4,000 meters, good health is required to overcome high altitude reaction.
nFood in the orphan school is typical Tibetan food, i.e., Zangba (Tibetan food made from highland barley), rice, yak meat, cabbage and potato. Accommodation is shared dormitories.
nFor visa extension, you can apply for it in the immigration office in Chengdu.
nSpeak with your college about financial aid opportunities.
For application, please contact us or send email to: info@lotusstudy.com
The volunteer program is free of charge to our students of Chinese Immersion programs, but airfare from Beijing to Chengdu, 10 nights free Homestay, and donation are not included. Students who are interested in the volunteer teaching, please contact our Beijing Office.
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