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| The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) had arranged two service trips for students to the rural area of Nepal in the past two years. This January of 2020, CityU Service Outreach Experience Programme (SOEP) obtained funding from University Grants Committee (UGC) to broaden the horizon of students by joining overseas services trips. On this trip to Lamjung, the mountains of Nepal, CityU students not only joined various activities to serve the local community but also learnt the needs of local communities and experienced different lifestyles to self-introspect their way of life. After this trip, all students believe that this service trip means a lot to them. So, why this Nepal trip is so special? Learn from each other and grow through teaching |
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| The CityU Nepal Volunteer Service Team led students into mountain schools to serve as volunteer teachers, bringing different learning experiences and inspirations to the enthusiastic local students in the classrooms with scarce resources. In the process of their teaching, Hong Kong students immediately felt the sharp contrast between the mountainous areas with limited resources and affluent Hong Kong with abundant of resources. The service team members needed to develop appropriate and interesting teaching content and utilized whatever was available there (the natural lighting, a blackboard, a few pieces of chalk and some simple self-made teaching materials) to impart their knowledge to local school kids creatively. To facilitate a smooth teaching process, CityU students not only had to be well prepared, but they also had to learn how to manage the atmosphere in the classroom and how to initiate kids to participate in the classroom. CityU students realized the persistence of learning of local kids and how much they enjoyed learning despite the so many obstacles in front of them. This prompts them to reflect on the abundant learning opportunities and resources they have in Hong Kong. Kin Chow, a 4th-year student in Chemistry, stated that he gained teaching experiences and teaching enthusiasm through this teaching experience. So he is determined to be a Chemistry teacher after graduation. He tried his best to overcome the language barrier between the two sides during teaching, and the active participation of local students made him deeply felt the responsibility and honour of being a teacher, thus affirming the direction of his future career path. Experience hard mountain life and reflect on personal attitudes towards life |
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| The transport system is so convenient in Hong Kong that it is difficult for Hong Kong people to imagine a 5 to 6 hours' walk to school. The organization of this trip specially arranged a 1-day “Walkathon” for Hong Kong students to experience the hardship that local kids have to go through every day. Students followed the steps of local kids, trekked a long way to the so-called "nearby" school to teach. The mountain path was rugged, bumpy and muddy, which made the students feel very strenuous. However, when they saw the smiling faces of local kids with their simple flip flops, heavy school bags and school books in their hands, they could directly feel the enthusiasm of their pursuit of study and their strong eagerness to learn. Besides, CityU students also got a chance to "shadow" the work of local women by following their homestay mothers to do their daily chores such as farming, cooking and chopping wood etc. Students also experienced how hard it was for farmers to bend their back and worked long hours daily on the farm by learning how to remove weeds, sow seeds, harvest the crops, as well as using simple tools to sift away husk from rice etc. Due to the language barrier, there occurred many joking situations on the farm as well! Afterwards, CityU students helped in chopping wood with simple tools and carried the chopped 20 Kilo-wood back home. After all these activities, they really admired the sacrifice and labour of these local women who did for their families. And when later the students saw the meals and hot cups of tea prepared with those chopped wood, they realized that it was the result of all the hard work everyone contributed, a fruit which was not obtained easily! Everyone felt very grateful for what they have back home. |