Two things make this a keeper. The first thing is the Mao Harvest. We challenged our youth club to raise money for a good cause by collecting maos (Chinese equivalent of pennies), inspired by NYC’s Penny Harvest (hence the name). It was our first time doing this, but one thing that I have learned while working with youth is that they have a tendency to come through in amazing ways. One student in particular, Paul, who actually deserves his own post, got his fellow classmates at school to join in and raised a lot. It even got the attention of his school administration, who thought it was a really good idea to even implement in their own school. Amazing.
Our students then voted to donate all the maos to a nearby orphanage. It was great seeing our students interact with these orphans. In China, the disabled, diseased, any part of society that isn’t part of the norm are brushed under a rug. Out of sight, out of mind is the idea. We hope that our students learn the importance of justice, and that they can do so much more with what they are blessed with, than to waste it all on educational success.
