On October 23, the third session of “Thousand People for Charity Initiative - Lao Niu Academy” started the journey of 4-day training in Zhengzhou. This training adopted the theme “From Social Innovation and Impact to Cross-border Cooperation” and helped charitable organizations in China to organize and explore effective path and innovative method for funds management through looking into the cross-border cooperation between the government and the society and between the society and enterprises. This training adopted the form of “visiting + training”. On the first day (the 23rd), the visiting activity was unusually brilliant. Participants respectively visited Zhengzhou Charity School of Culture and Martial Art, Zhengzhou Xinjiayuan Community Service Center and Gallery of the Silent. Let’s look at the splendid moments.
“Thousand People for Charity Initiative - Lao Niu Academy”
Third Session in October, Zhengzhou
Officially Started!
(The sunshine is perfect. Let’s have a nice and good group photo first)
On the first day of the Zhengzhou Station of the Third Session of Lao Niu Academy, we visited three places, namely Zhengzhou Charity School of Culture and Martial Art, Zhengzhou Xinjiayuan Community Service Center and Gallery of the Silent. What are the connections between these three different institutions and “philanthropy”? What experience can they bring to the trainees of Lao Niu Academy?
Now, let’s review the 12 hour visiting journey from 6 AM to 6 PM today!
First Station
Zhengzhou Xinjiayuan Community Service Center
The trainees set of at 6 o’clock in the morning. After two hours’ bus, they arrived at Zhengzhou Charity School of Culture and Martial Art in Dengfeng. After having breakfast in the Vegetarian Restaurant, they stepped on the journey to visit the school right away with the instructors from the school.
According to introduction, the opening ceremony of “Zhengzhou Charity School of Culture and Martial Art” and the launch event of ‘Guardian Angel’, ‘Sharpen Wills’ Charity Project was held in Academy of Deshan. Shaolin Temple Civil and Military School officially became a school filled with the sunshine of philanthropy and supported by loving heart. The teachers and administrative staff in the school are all charity volunteers happy to contribute. The opening of the school is both an honor and responsibility.
Zhengzhou Charity School of Culture and Martial Art allows children to cultivate their charity awareness while learning cultural knowledge and courses or martial arts and enables them to establish the outlook on life and values of doing goods all the time and to make contribution to the development of the society.
During the visit, they happened to run into the students doing morning exercise on the playground. The uniform movements and loud and clear slogans from the students attracted the attention of the trainees.
Of course, the performance by children in Academy of Deshan is something worth looking forward to. They were really skilled in various types of combat, each showing his special prowess! The trainees also applauded and took out their phone to record the wonderful scene. When seeing some dangerous moves, the trainees also broke into cold sweat.
Talk is cheap. After watching the performance of martial arts and under the arrangement of school teachers, the trainees also experienced the daily homework of the students of martial arts, namely Eight Trigrams Boxing, Zen Relaxation and Calligraphy.
Can you still remember the pithy formula for Eight Trigrams Boxing? Let’s have a review. Get your notebook and write it down. You can start practicing tomorrow!
Holding the Hands High with Palms Up to Regulate the Internal Organs
Posing as an Archer Shooting Both Left-and-Right-Handed
Holding One Arm Aloft to Regulate the Functions of the Spleen and Stomach
Looking Backwards to Prevent Sickness and Strain
Swinging the Head and Lowering the Body to Relieve Stress
Moving the Hands down the Back and Legs and Touching the Feet to Reinforce Kidney and Waist
Thrusting the Fists and Making the Eyes Glare to Enhance Strength
Raising and Lowering the Heels to Cure Diseases
During the short visit to the Charity School of Culture and Martial Art in the morning and after seeing children of different ages and backgrounds studying culture and martial art here, the trainees couldn’t help feeling that, although many children in the cities couldn’t evenly be bumped, the children here had to receive training little by little and it was not easy for them. Apart from that, they were also touched: due to the educational psychology of helping those in danger and relieving those in need and making many friends through doing good things, the school has received many orphans and stay-at-home children, providing them with good living and learning environment, site for professional cultural and martial art education and the conditions for healthy physiological and psychological growth.
There is no doubt that this method that implants the “virtue” and “goodness” in traditional culture deeply into the heart with practical actions will bring a lot of support to the practice of the trainees of Lao Niu Academy in the future.
Second Station
Zhengzhou Xinjiayuan Community Service Center
After completing the morning trip in Dengfeng, the group of people came to the District Level Community Service Center of Guancheng Hui District in the afternoon. Fan Xiaokang, Deputy Director General of Zhengzhou Xinjiayuan Community Service Center explained the trip for everyone and introduced how Xinjiayuan allows “the public to come in and the social workers to go out” and conducts community-centered work. There were even some “good private stuff” in the sharing!
The District Level Community Service Center of Guancheng Hui District has seven floors in all, with different service content for each floor. Xinjiayuan currently undertakes charity projects at different levels and brings charity and love to the beneficiaries in an all-round way and from multiple perspectives, including the provincial project of “Heart to Heart Sunshine Aid for the Disabled” in Henan Province, to the municipal charity project “Love, Start With Three Miles”, and to district level “Enjoy Life in Warm Sunset” charity relief project for poor old people to enjoy their old age in peace.
This time, we mainly visited the incubation mode of Xinjiayuan: in order to support to development of philanthropy, actively promote charity awareness and strive to expand the service scope of charity work, the center has successively established 36 volunteer teams, conducted 24 charity projects and served people for over 1 million person times.
As the “benefit for the trainees” of Lao Niu Academy, we got the chance to visit the smart Community Information Center, which utilizes digitized method and 24-hour service hotline for home-based care for the aged to solve the opinions, feedbacks and issues from residents on a technical level.
On the sharing and exchange session after the visit, trainees of Lao Niu Academy also raised various kinds of questions from the constitution of the institution to the combination of charity and business. It was really a fruitful journey!
Third Station
Gallery of the Silent
Gallery of the Silent is the last stop on the agenda. Unlike the first two, this project is targeted at the deaf, including training, employment and entrepreneurship. According to information, this is also the first domestic institution that cares for the marriage of the deaf. With “Achieving the Life-long Happiness of the Deaf” as the vision, the institution has established a dating website for the deaf and successively held 9 national blind date event for the deaf.
This time, we were coming to the Gallery of the Silent to learn from their incubation mode, including the 10 basic incubation outcomes by the Gallery of the Silent for the purpose of safeguarding the diversity and fineness of works and satisfying market demand, such as paper Cutting Studio, Embossing Studio, Wall Painting Studio and Color Painting Studio, etc. In 2017, with the support and guidance from Zhengzhou Charity Federation, “Longyi Experience Center for Training of Manual Skills” was officially established by the Gallery of the Silent. The Experience Center targets the training for manual skills among the disabled and allows them to acquire professional skill and better serve the society.
The more important thing is the incubation of the Gallery’s hematopoietic function for the market: in terms of online part, the Gallery has online distribution channels, including WeChat Store and Taobao Store, which make use of the internet to sell the products of the Gallery; in terms of offline part, the Gallery has cooperated with relevant shopping malls, set up exhibitions halls at regular intervals, conducted charity bazaar, and provided them with the custom service of holiday gifts.
In order to have deeper understanding of this mode, we followed the guide of Zhou Lei, the General Manager of the Gallery, and saw many magnificent art works produced by our deaf friends with their fabric art, paper cutting and painting skills.
In the afternoon, the trainees also got the chance to experience four items under the guidance of our deaf friends, namely embossing, hand painted pillow, mounting of paper cutting and fabric art. They all chose on their own to experience the item they were interested in.
In the end, can you still remember the sign language for Lao Niu Academy you just learned in the afternoon? Take time to review it in the evening, for tomorrow is another day with a lot of new knowledge!
The first day for the third session of “Thousand People for Charity Initiative - Lao Niu Academy” in Zhengzhou ends here. In the next three days, I’m sure the trainees will come back with fruitful results. See you tomorrow!
