After volunteering at the 2016 Little Red Scarf Summer Camp, Cindy shares about her personal experience. The trip to Gansu was such a rewarding and unforgettable experience! It was truly amazing to see these children face-to-face, and now they have a place in my heart. What was it like to meet the children in person, after helping to translate their stories?For the past few years, I have been working with my son to translate stories for children who went through congenital heart disease surgery. As I was translating their stories, it was obvious their lives were very distant from me. It is very difficult for someone who has been living in North America for nearly 30 years to imagine living in rural Gansu and the problems they are facing.
I had never been to China before. This trip to Gansu was the first visit to this country. We were a bit nervous and anxious as we prepared for this trip. When we landed in Gansu, the staff member Guan Ying made us feel welcome. She took us for our first famous Lanzhou beef noodles and also introduced to us the lives of the children and the mission of their work. After an hour of sitting on the train and another hour of riding the bus, we finally arrived at the camp location. It was truly amazing to see these children face-to-face after translating their stories. We got to talk to them, hold their hands, play games, and sing songs with them. They were a great group of kids! We had so much fun together. As a TFish intern, Emma Cockerell brings not only her excellent language skills to the team, but also her passion for China and a heart to help others. Beyond the ClassroomThe 15-year-old at Palo Alto High School first heard about TFish during her sophomore year. Her AP Chinese teacher asked the class if anyone was interested in translating documents from Chinese to English. “At that time I knew nothing about TFish or the difficulties faced by rural Chinese villagers,” said Emma.
Motivated by her desire to improve her Chinese reading skills and English communication skills, Emma told her teacher she was interested. She also thought it would be a good way to learn more about China’s culture and people, especially since she is half Chinese. Her mom immigrated to America from Beijing. In recent years Emma has been to China a few times to visit relatives, and that is what grew her “passion for all things China.” Emma’s teacher connected her with Allison Zhang, another student at the high school who has volunteered for TFish. Soon enough, Emma was translating her first Little Red Scarf story. Our annual Little Red Scarf Summer Camp in Gansu is coming up in August. This weeklong camp gives us a chance to interact more with our post-surgery children and their siblings. We are pleased to welcome volunteers Cindy and Shawn Chung to help us serve this year! Cindy’s family immigrated to Canada from Taiwan in 1998. They got connected with TFish through Cindy’s aunt, Amy Chao, who is one of the founders. Cindy and Shawn, her 14-year-old son, have already been volunteering as translators for LRS for a few years. Their desire to meet the children in Gansu has grown from reading about them in the stories they translate.
Do you have a heart to serve underprivileged Chinese children? We're looking for 2 volunteers to help with our LRS Summer Camp 2016 in Gansu. Volunteers will:
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