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北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
In the closing ceremony, the president expressed his sincere appreciation to the
volunteers. It meant the volunteers‘ work had a successful close. It also symbolized
that the Dept. of Psychology had a preliminary success in an attempt to promote the
transformation of Olympic legacy and beneficially combine volunteer work with
academic study. The volunteers from Dept. of Psychology reinterpreted the spirit of
volunteerism by their actions.
Facing Catastrophe: Darkness Dispelled by Love
The spirit of volunteerism is not only showed in the Olympics and the WCP, but also
in the catastrophe. They lighted the candle of life and hope by power of science and
glory of humanity which bring strength, courage, and hope to the compatriots in the
disaster areas.
In May 12, 2008, a strong earthquake hit Wenchuan which every Chinese will never
forget. Soon after the disaster, when they knew that countless people in the disaster
area stood severe psychological and they urgently needed psychological care,
graduate students of Dept. of Psychology organized a professional volunteer team to
disaster areas and worked for earthquake relief and provided psychological
assistance. Their action gained the support from Prof. Lin Jianhua, Executive Vice
President of PKU, leaders of Dept. of Psychology and direct guidance from Prof.
Qian Mingyi, expert in Clinical Psychology.
During that unforgettable day, they toured extensively over Guangyuan, Qingchuan,
and Pengzhou. They gave psychological training to local doctors helping them to
give better treatment to patients. They also actively involved themselves in alleviate
the psychological trauma of all kinds of rescue staff. Additionally, they concentrated
possible resources to the project of ―children psychological rehabilitation‖ which was
supported by Sichuan Province.
In the interview, Dr. Xu Kaiwen, who was the sponsor of this psychological rescue
plan, told us that there were a lot of things the professional volunteers could do to
disaster areas. In Chengdu, they gave about 120 psychiatrists and local doctors
psychological training; in Chongqing, they gave basic psychological rescue training
to local volunteers; in Pengzhou, they chose the teachers and students from Xinxing
Town as the special patients of psychological treatment and provided psychological
training to local people in order to help them walk out of the darkness of disaster.
Even today, they have sent people to Sichuan to provide psychological treatments
every month. Dr. Xu said that they would continue the rescue work based on the plan
of ―Level Three Intervention‖ as long as the funds were possible and there were
needs in disaster areas.
Dr. Xu also told the reporter that he could always feel the value and meaning of his
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