FOCAL POINTS

FARS and Volunteers

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The FARS program has not only helped the students continue their schooling, but also attracted the active participation of a number of volunteers in China. Some of them have helped students to apply for FARS support and have continued to keep in touch with those students. Some of them have been recipients of FARS scholarships and have been moved to become volunteers after they graduate -- to carry on the spirit of ESS, to hold out a helping hand to the students who are in need in the rural areas in China.

Following are some of their stories.

 

Zhang Lubing and Her FARS Students

In the summer of 2008, Zhang Lubing, a student at Shanghai University, went with a support group to Yunnan province to help needy students obtain financial assistance.  She was able to connect with ESS and find support for 15 students.  Now, nine of these students are attending universities, with ESS continuing to provide financial support.

In the spring of 2012, Lubing and two other volunteers went to Yunnan again, this time to visit five of the students now attending universities.  Lubing remembered them very well when she first met them four years ago in their home villages - bashful and hesitant youths in their last year of junior secondary school.  Now they have blossomed into a new generation of university students, full of vigor and vitality.

One of the students, Zhu Wenbo, was in tears during her first visit.  Wenbo's mother died when she was young.  Her father was crippled and her grandmother had been suffering in bed without adequate medical attention for more than a month.  Her dream was to become a successful entrepreneur who would be able to improve life for her family and help people in her village to become rich.  Now Wenbo is a brilliant student in finance in the Economics and Management Institute of Yunnan Normal University.  She still holds on to her dream.

Another student, Lin Lin, came from a peasant family in the high mountains.  Both of his parents were too feeble to work in the fields.  A shy teenager who loved to play basketball, Lin had an excellent academic record, gaining first place in his class.  The volunteers remembered him holding onto his basketball in the school grounds as they left, watching them as if unwilling to let them go.  Now as a university student, he studies hard and does odd jobs to earn his keep.  His dream is to become an economist and a philanthropist with a global vision, to contribute to the community as a tribute to all the people who have given him support.

Of the age group that Wenbo and Lin belong, less than 20% managed to complete senior secondary education.  When the volunteers initially helped the 15 students apply for ESS assistance, they were only hoping that these children would not be forced to quit school because of financial difficulties.  Seeing that the students have excelled and gained admission to key universities, they are deeply gratified.  They can feel the powerful motivation of these students from the rural areas, their strong sense of responsibility for their families and home villages, their firm resolve to struggle hard for their ideals, their passion for life even as they lead simple and thrifty lives.

What the ESS FARS program has given these children is not only financial support but also the care and concern from the community at large.  It serves as a catalyst that helps to sustain the dreams of these children, their families and their home villages.  Seeing their dreams fulfilled is the greatest reward for our ESS sponsors and volunteers.

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