Shanghai, China

Shanghai Charity Committee engages in extensive plan for schools’ refurbishment and students’ education

Renovation of rural schools in precarious conditions

Our colleagues in Shanghai set up an ambitious two-year charitable plan (2018-2019) focused on supporting education in rural districts of China, where many underprivileged children attend unsafe and unequipped schools. 

Working in cooperation with key customers, renovation work began on three schools whose buildings were all in a precarious condition.  By the spring of this year, renovation work was complete at Wangjiatai Primary School, located in Gansu Province, which is attended by over 40 children.

This year a further two schools will receive support and funding raised by the Shanghai Charity Committee.  Located in Henan and Gansu Provinces, these schools also need urgent renovation to provide a welcoming environment and safe education to over 400 children.

“Happy Child Aid” Project: support to summer camps

In August 2018, the Shanghai Committee funded a three-day summer camp for 40 schoolchildren from four schools in Dengzhou, an agricultural centre in the Southern province of Henan. For the first time, the kids had the opportunity to travel to Zhengzhou, the capital of their Province, where they discovered the city with its cultural heritage and urban attractions. In December 2018, the social workers that organised the summer camp went back to visit the kids and provided them with school supplies.

According to the students, the summer camp has been a very important experience for their education and personal growth: for many of them, it was the first time they visited a museum and… the first time they took an elevator to watch the world from the top of a skyscraper!

Another brick in the wall: a tradition of support to the most underserved schools

Since 2014, the Shanghai’s office has been engaged in helping schools in marginalised rural areas of China refurbish their precarious buildings. In 2017, they helped with the renovation of the Wangxinbao School, where broken windows and old doors were fixed, leaking roofs and the teachers’ office repaired. Another college, the Chenliu School, received the financial support of Trafigura Shanghai, which persuaded one of its customers to share the refurbishment’s costs. In 2015-2016, the Caiping School was the first institution to benefit from the Charity Committee’s generosity, which covered the expenses for the instalment of windows, the electronic systems and computers, printers, and fans.

To support this extensive aid programme, our Chinese colleagues planned fundraising activities and motivated customers and partners to contribute to their charitable project.  For instance, a Trafigura Charity Basketball match was organised in 2017 to collect funds for the renovation projects of a school in the Henan province.