Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Strategics Member. It was established in Chengdu of Sichuan, China and for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

One month after the 4.2 magnitude earthquake in Lushan, the first phase of relief was completed and the second phase of reconstruction was started. Rainbow Village launched our projects in Taiping Town, Lushan County in early June. There are 4 primary schools with 876 students and most of them are left-behind children. Taiping is 15 kilometers away from the epicenter and 90% of the houses were damaged to varying degrees and 60% of them were collapsed or dilapidated. According to our survey, Rainbow Village can provide services on following aspects. 

1)      Psychological services for the children. A) There is a phenomenon of anaplasia among the children after the quake. B) The temp shelter is crowded and in poor condition, so the children tend to be irritable. C) Some of the children blame themselves after the earthquake because their parents do not have time to communicate with them.

2)      Food related problems. A) Their diet is monotonous and most of the children have eaten instant noodles and sausages for over a month. B) Inconvenient transportation has increased the price of fruits and vegetables, which is causing a nutrition problem among the children. C) The children do not care about their own dietetic hygiene.

3)      Social relationships. A) The original communication system has been damaged and the ways of communication between neighbors and family members has changed. B) Many parents have not been able to understand their children’s reactions after the quake, which has created isolation.  

As for the 3 problems mentioned above, Rainbow Village designed an interactive activity, aiming at creating a fun environment for children and their parents. We wanted them to be able to communicate with each other in relaxed surroundings. This is the first stage of our work: to enhance understanding.

It is the largest parent-child activity we have ever carried out. We invited 12 families to participate. We worked hard to prepare and see it through, because we want the children to benefit from the activity. Our goal for the activity is to let the children interact, cooperate and share happiness with their parents. 

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Strategics Member. It was established in Chengdu of Sichuan, China and for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

2 months after the earthquake in Ya’an, the rescue work is almost completed. Life at the disaster-stricken area is returning to normal. The school is on summer holiday, so education and safety for the children is very important. 

The below picture shows the place that Rainbow Village wants to set up a service center. It is located in a mountainous area with poor traffic. The houses have been badly destroyed by the quake, and the whole town has to be rebuilt. The people will have to live in the tents during the reconstruction. 

After the quake, many kindergartens became dilapidated. Temporary shelters were built, but the space inside is smaller, which makes it harder for the children to play. They have to have their classes in the morning, but they do not have a place to play after school. There are dilapidated buildings everywhere.    

Rain Service Center for Children is a project run in collaboration with One Fund and One Playground. It aims to provide a safe and comfortable playground for the children living in the disaster-stricken areas. Because of the quake, children will have to make up lessons and attend hobby groups during the summer holiday. The playground will ensure that they do not play near dilapidated buildings. Now their parents can focus on reconstruction. Here in the playground, the children will have carefree fun, which is good for them psychologically. 

Original article written by Quandi Cheng, translated by Maggie Li and edited by Yanyan Zhang

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Strategics Member. It was established in Chengdu of Sichuan, China and for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

On May 31, 2013, staff from Rainbow Village visited Qinchong Primary School of Guangxi Province, taking gifts like stationary and sporting goods with them. They spent a happy Children’s Day with the children. Many interesting games inspired the children and most of them participated in the games actively. The paper airplane contest attracted hundreds of children. Competitors had to fold their own airplane and fly it to a specified zone. It seemed simple, but it was also a challenge. Many children tried their best to adjust the shape of their plane and find the best way to fly it. Each one of them tried hard again and again to show their skills. They were earnest and persistent, which moved our staff greatly. The campus was full of happiness and cheers.

Rainbow Village also brought festive gifts to the children in the Yulin Dandelion Home of Guangxi, spending a happy Children’s Day with them. We hope their happiness can go on and accompany them as they grow up.

Original article written by Quandi Cheng, translated by Maggie Li and edited by Yanyan Zhang

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Strategics Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

Longmen Primary School is in Wenshan City in Yunnan Province. There are 7 classes with 270 students. One of the teachers has just resigned.

180 students live in the school, so the teachers take care of the students, giving them breakfast and water (unfortunately there is a water quota because of a local water shortage). The teachers also have to do home visits for drop-out students at the beginning of the semester. What the teachers are really concerned about is that there are no music, PE or English classes for the students. Currently, they are not able to provide such classes. In addition, only a few students complete their 9-year compulsory education because of geographical distance and lack of parental awareness.  

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Strategic Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

Qujing Special Education School is under construction, but we still feel its warmth. The school lacks water due to droughts. The water supply lasts only 2-3 hours a day. There are 53 blind students and 403 deaf-mute students in the school, which covers primary, secondary and vocational education. 

There are 21 students in the class for the blind. 13 of them are low vision, not totally blind. Their vision got worse when they were growing up because they did not receive any treatment or correction.

Liu Hailin is 11, and he is in the class for the blind. His grandmother, father and uncle all have low vision. His eyes have not received any treatment or examination so far. 

The smiling girl is Liu Fuyuan. She lived in a remote village when she was a child. Her eyes inflamed, and her father used hydrogen peroxide to treat the inflammation, which caused the loss of function for the corneas. She became blind. Such cases are not rare in special education schools.  

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Associate Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

You Fuhai has been suffering from scoliosis on the lumbar vertebra. When I saw him, he had been out of school for about one year. Most people may wonder why he dropped school.

You Fuhai’s father is a blind man. All burdens of the family fell on his mother. His mother not only did field work, but also sent Fuhai to school by carrying him on her back (he cannot walk due to the nerves being pressed). It took her 1 hour to walk to school for each of the 4 trips back and forth between home and school each day. His mother is short and due to Fuhai's growth, she could not carry him on her back when he was in Grade 4.  

Such situation meant he could no longer attend school. It is even difficult for him to stand up straight and his two legs are not the same length. With his efforts, he manages to ride a bike. He told me he wanted to study at school. His bicycle skills enable him go through mountainous roads to school. 

People do have strong will to overcome difficulties, but his bike was damaged on such a road condition. He had to quit school when he could not afford the basic insurance premium at school and a new bike. 

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Associate Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

In the west of China, the economy is backwards and the climate is awful. Malnutrition, poor health care, and  unpurified drinking water are quite common among people living in this area. The rural children suffer from all kinds of illnesses. The undeveloped medical system aggravates this type of situation. Many families can become impoverished again by treating their children.   

Huang Zhengchao is 2 years old. He was born in a Zhuang ethnic minority family living in the small village of Wenshan, Yunnan province near Vietnam. He has a 13-year-old sister in secondary school and a father who works in the city. Life is not too difficult. The family even built the new house with a reconstruction project implemented by the government. When the new house was almost completed in May 2012, Zhengchao’s left eye had swollen to a massive amount. Due to the shortage of medical knowledge and negligence, his parents didn’t pay much attention to it. His left eye bulged quickly in a month. The sudden change threw his parents into panic, and the family began the 9-month journey in seeking treatment.

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Associate Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

The two brothers also got to participate in our annual conference themed Love Passing-On. The children and I dressed up as pandas and made various poses. They played along happily. The next event was to raise money for the construction of a warm house for the children. The goal of the fundraising project was 25,000 RMB, and most of the items to be auctioned off were handicrafts made at a special education school.

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Associate Member. It was established for the purpose of serving the needs of impoverished children.

Life for Non Zezhi and Non Zeshao, two brothers, was sad. Their teachers told us that no matter how hard they tried to make them happy, they never smiled. It seemed that smiles had disappeared from their faces. In art class, the teacher asked the children to draw their favorite animals. Most of the students, including Zezhi, drew a panda. When the teacher asked him about the picture, he said he would love to see a panda and his teacher caught a smile on his face. 

With an opportunity annually provided through Rainbow Village, we scheduled a happy journey for the children: seeing pandas that they had been dreaming about for such a long time. We hoped that the journey would bring smiles back to the children.