July August 2009.pub - Qingdao Expat Group

Charity Chat
Qingdao Expat Charity by Carla Vassmer
The QEC replaced the roof of this building to
make it usable again.
The original toilet @ Laixi Lijia School.
The QEC recently financed its replacement.
Laixi Lijia
Primary School
M
embers of the Qingdao
Expat Charity (QEC) recently
took a daytrip to Laixi and
Pingdu to visit the students
QEC sponsors. These visits, to rural schools
outside of Qingdao, offer a better understanding
of how most of the Chinese really
live.
Our first stop was the Laixi Lijia Primary
School which has Grades 1-5, 29 teachers
and nine classrooms. This is the school
that is most in need of assistance. They are
so happy to see us and always offering us
seasonal fruits, delicious peanuts and water.
The principal then sends us away with
boxes of fruit. (Which proved helpful this
trip as we were so busy meeting with
teachers and students, we had no time for
lunch— we ate these gifts while we drove
from to other schools!)
We were happy to see a previously unused
school building, now occupied with offices,
a table tennis room and classroom after
our financing of the roof repair. We met
with two girls the QEC assists. These girls
seem more comfortable with us the more
we see them. The principal asked the QEC
to consider financing a new toilet structure
for the students. We expressed the need
to clean the toilet building everyday. They
assured us they are designing it to make
this easy to do. We went into a classroom
full of old computers. The students were
working on their lessons. There were many
computers not functioning and some were
in different stages of repair.
The Qingdao Expat Charity thanks the
Qingdao community for their continued
support. You are assisting and encouraging
young students to further their education.
These students are most appreciative.
The QEC will meet next on Monday, August
24 @ SPR Whitehouse 2F. We welcome you
to join with us in our Mission to assist needy
Qingdao area children.
22 QINGDAO EXPAT MAGAZINE