Dandelion School

 

On April 18th, our group had an amazing opportunity to visit and volunteer at the Dandelion School.   The Dandelion School is a nonprofit educational institute located in Daxing District, the outskirt area of Beijing City. It is the first and only middle school built especially for the children from low-income migrant families in Beijing. The school was started by Dr. Hong and five other women to give poor migrant children a chance for an education.  As Dr. Hong explained, the right to education for the children from poor migrant families has been largely neglected by the Chinese government.  The current residential registration system and low levels of income are the two major barriers for these children to enter either public or private schools.  The school's mission is to "Give back the right to quality education to migrant children."

Dr. Hong and her staff have made an incredible impact in just six short years.  As a group, we expected to find a sad, run down school with little supplies.  Instead, we were swept away by the beauty of the school and the joy evident in the students.  The students have taken an old factory site and made it into a living museum of their own art work of found objects.  There are murals everywhere, some even made from plastic bottle caps.  An old alleyway is decorated on every square inch with a stunning mosaic. 

We had the chance to spend some time talking to Jimmy, an American volunteer teacher.  Jimmy, only 18 years old, has spent the last few months teaching English at the Dandelion School.  He talked to us about the ways in which the students have taught him about life and opened his heart.  Our conversation with Jimmy strengthened the sense we had that Dr. Hong had created a place of promise. 

At the end of our visit to the Dandelion School, Dr. Hong and our group exchanged contact information since it is our hope that the Darien High School Exchange program will continue to develop a relationship with the Dandelion School.  Our group talked about creating opportunities for correspondence with  students at the Dandelion School as well as a fundraising campaign to help support the school in the future.

The time we spent at the Dandelion School left a lasting impression on us.

Kristen Backus