 MARCH/APRIL 2002 (XXXX 2) |
Last summer nine volunteers from the PYM area went to the first “China Summer” Friends workcamp. This summer from July 29 through August 17, twelve American volunteers will be needed to work alongside college students from China, Japan, and South Korea to undertake a joint environmental project in a small town in the rural Hunan Province of China. We’ll also continue the work started last summer restoring a 100-year-old school as well as tutoring local school children with their English.
Today China is undergoing historic social and economic changes which are having a dramatic impact on its natural environment, social services and rural society. Participants will enjoy a unique opportunity to not only learn more about these developments, but also improve the local environmental situation, and provide critical educational opportunities for local children. Through this workcamp, participants will learn a great deal about each other’s society, cultures, values and beliefs. This will also help the participants learn more about themselves.
The workcamp begins in Beijing with a two-day tour of the city’s parks and historic sites. Such sites as “The Temple of Heaven” built solely for the emperor to pray, “Tiananmen Square” which has been an important historic landmark in China for centuries, and “The Forbidden City” from which many dynasties governed the nation. We then travel to the Hunan Province by train, where we will visit local markets, schools and government facilities and hike in the surrounding hills during the workcamp, before concluding with a four-day visit to China’s first national park, Zhangjiajie.
The Workcamp will be led by Wuna and Jamie Reilly of Westfield Meeting (NJ) and is sponsored by Westfield Meeting, the Workcamp Program of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and the American Friends Service Committee.
The cost is $2,200 (includes airfare). All applications are due April 1. For more information, please contact Adam Clark-Valle at ChinaWorkcamp@pym.org or 215-241-7236.
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM