Educating Girls of Rural China: Students Leading the Initiative
In March this year, Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi announced our partnership with Educating Girls of Rural China as their first Ambassador School. We want our students to be at the heart of this partnership, working collaboratively to consider how to best support EGRC. Our students have considered actions they could take to make meaningful contributions within their communities, aligned with our Global Citizenship Competencies.
In order to engage meaningfully in this partnership, our Year 5 and Year 6 students organised a fundraising event on Founder's Day. Early on the morning of Founder's Day, 22 students (and a parent) diligently set up a bubble milk tea booth. After hours of brewing tea, boiling the bubbles, bottling the tea, and even handcrafting stickers, 130 bottles of milk tea were ready to be sold.
Our students enthusiastically promoted their handmade milk tea at a booth during Founder’s Day, conveying the importance of supporting EGRC. Their hard work and passion led to a sell-out within just an hour. The event was a huge success, making a significant contribution to EGRC and demonstrating the caring spirit of our Dulwich community.
Our commitment to EGRC is not only shown through fundraising activities at school but also through direct interaction with the students they support. Recently, I had the privilege to visit some high schools in Guangnan County, Yunnan Province, where EGRC sponsors 180 students. The goal was to understand their needs through face-to-face communication. Many students face difficult choices due to their family’s financial circumstances, often leading them to premature work and disrupting their education. Their resilience and positive attitude in face of adversity are truly inspiring.
Before the trip, our students had written questions for their counterparts in Yunnan. These handwritten Post-its sparked conversations and forged connections between students over 2300 kilometers apart. Their responses, full of hopes and dreams, reminded us all of our shared humanity and the power of education.
By bringing together students from vastly different backgrounds, we aim to create a global citizenship mindset in our school community. This exchange is just the beginning. We look forward to the day when our students can meet in person and continue to learn from each other.
At Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi, we're committed to making a difference, and we're proud of our students for being at the forefront of this mission. This Friday, our Year 5 and 6 students will be hosting yet another fundraising initiative, an EGRC Quiz Night. Led and promoted by the students, we will bring community members together for an evening of activities and performances, all centered around raising funds and supporting EGRC.
We look forward to even more collaborations and projects going forward, and thank the Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi community for enthusiastically supporting our initiatives that are truly making a difference in the lives of the girls EGRC supports.
