Children of Madaifu’s 1 st Summer Camp July 14-22 2013

1. Children of Madaifu’s1st Summer CampJuly 14-22 2013

2. Our goals • Gather together a group of 30 children in a nice environment and combine learning and pleasure over a week. • Surrounded by a team of French/Chinese professionals and volunteers who offered a range of skills and activities in a warm and supportive way. • Get a good mix of children who seem stable and confident and some of the more fragile ones. • Get them to open up, establish friendships, learn to work together as part of a team. • Leave behind their daily worries and feel carefree for a while.

5. How it went • 28 primary school children from 3 different counties in Gansu (+2 teacher’s sons) • Age range: 10-14 yrs old • Location: Shanmen Middle School, Qingshui county • Duration: 1 week • Budget: RMB 50 000

7. Approximate cost : RMB 56 300 • Children, staff and material’s transportation: RMB 25 000 • Food and cooks’ salaries: RMB 8300 • Equipment: RMB 10 000 • Children and staff’s bedding and crockery: RMB 10 000 • Children’s insurance and miscellaneous costs: RMB 3000 Transport costs have been reduced as some volunteers decided to pay their own tickets

11. Activities and tools • Outdoors sports equipment (ping-pong, ball games, skipping ropes, water pistols) • Multimedia library • Toys and board games • Hiking, painting, singing, dancing , cooking, English classes, self-expression, arts & crafts • Overall theme: Native American Indians

13. Feedback • The summer camp’s preparation Everyone was satisfied with the location, Shanmen being very quiet, green and mountainous. The number of children was appropriate and the materials bought in preparation were all adequate and sufficient. The only real drawback was the Bathhouse’s defective pump, which meant the children couldn’t shower every day, as planned. A trip to a local bathhouse and a big group-shampooing were opportunities to instill good hygiene habits. • Be Better association’s activities Through lively social & financial education programs, Be Better motivates children & youth to think critically, and help them to grow up into responsible citizens with a will to act collectively for a better world. They very kindly agreed to come and animate activities for the first three days, which were very well received by both children and staff. The activities were a lot of fun and allowed the children to express themselves and their aspirations.

14. English classes The English teacher’s goal was to show the children that English can be fun and interesting by teaching them songs, recipes that were later used in the kitchen and various games. He managed to make the lessons very lively and got the children to participate actively, despite the big differences in level. Isy’s activities Aiming to get the children to come out of their shell, she devised several exercises which were completely new to them. It taught them how to interact better with others and helped the shyer ones. She also helped organised the final day parade but wished she could have stayed more than just four days. The American Indian activities This theme was chosen because it was distant from both Western and Chinese culture and could lead to many creative activities (drawing, painting, make-up, jewellery making etc). It also helped the children learn how to work in teams and develop their imagination.

16. The children The children were of course the high-point of the summer camp. They were a real delight and the staff found them to be kind, disciplined and enthusiatic, as well as easy to deal with. The number of children seemed appropriate (16 girls/ 12 boys + 2 teacher’s sons). Over the course of the week, we noticed a real change in the behaviour of the few children who are usually shy and sad-looking, who gradually opened up, integrated the group well, and just had lots of fun! To have to deal with foreign adults whose Chinese skills were sometimes lacking was also a good opportunity for them to be in a position to be the ones who help, which was an unforeseen aspect of the experience. • The staff Even though the Chinese level of the French staff was far from perfect, the Chinese team made a real effort to make communication smooth and did its best to grasp the essence of the project. Each member of staff had their own responsibilities, which were complementary with the rest of the team’s, thus creating a balanced and harmonious work environment. Visiting members of Tianshui’s Education Bureau, who has always been supportive of our actions, welcomed this initiative.

18. Summer Camp 2014 All the conditions are met for us to start planning for next year’s summer camp. We will keep the same number of children, who will still be in primary school and simply replace those who move up to middle school with younger ones. We are still looking for next year’s theme and teachers and, of course, for funding… More money would allow us to organise more outings and activities.

20. Our team • Madaifu’s Baoji Office: • 李义熙 Li Yixi, Local manager • 杨军 Yang Jun, Assistant local manager • 张亮亮 Zhang Liangliang, Intern (formerly supported by Children of Madaifu) • Madaifu Beijing • Marc L’Huillier, Intern – Acting programme manager • Isy Chautemps, Actor and director • Hélène Kerdilès, Volunteer • 李诗云 Li Shiyun, Volunteer

22. And many thanks to • 胥江 Steven Xu, Be Better Association • 秦海鹏 Qin Haipeng, English teacher • 刘娟 Liu Juan, Psychologist • 张丹Zhang Dan, Teacher (Gangu Education Bureau) • 王旭东Wang Xudong, Teacher (Tianshui Education Bureau) • 王崇新Wang Congxin, Teacher (Qingshui) • 伏喜梅Fu Ximei, Teacher (Shanmen) • 马春苗 Ma Chunmiao, Teacher (Gangu Education Bureau) • Shanmen cooks Organizing the Summer Camp would not have been possible without the generous help from Viva International and all those kindhearted people who bought our Apples !