Showing posts with label Volunteering. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

CCC

Two books that teach children how to help others

Authors help children to see a way of life and financial circumstance that is completely different from their own

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 30 June, 2015, 6:03am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 30 June, 2015, 6:03am

Every one of us starts life as an egocentric baby, concerned only with having our own needs fulfilled. Somewhere along the road to adulthood, we all become less self-centred, to varying degrees. Some children are so protected from growing pains that they never let go of their self-centredness. Others grow up in an environment that lets them become empathetic and aware of others' feelings.

I was fortunate to have parents who valued volunteerism and community. As far as they could, they lived each day, putting the needs of others ahead of their own. This included participating in micro-loans to help friends through difficulties. Hui are loan clubs entrenched in Chinese society and extensively relied upon by the Chinese diaspora. My parents never turned down an invitation to join a loan club. With nothing more than a handshake, it was a win-win proposition that relied on mutual trust. My parents understood that, for the initiators of the loan clubs, the effect of this pooled support ranged from convenience to life-changing impact.

Katie Smith Milway explores its life-changing aspect in One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference. Part of the CitizenKid series of books, which uses fiction and non-fiction stories to inform and inspire children as global citizens, One Hen is about a boy whose mother receives a small loan from some village families after his father dies. The boy uses some of the money to buy one hen; it grows to 25 hens by the end of one year, and eventually becomes the largest poultry farm in Ghana.

I appreciate the idea of teaching people to help themselves. It seems to provide more sustainable outcomes than simply giving hand-outs.

As a result, I spend most of my free time volunteering with two local non-profit organisations that focus on training, including Bring Me A Book Hong Kong. Besides donating picture books, it focuses on training parents and teachers on the art and science of reading aloud to children.

Beatrice's Goat, a picture book by Page McBrier, tells the story of an impoverished family that was taught to help itself. Beatrice's family was given a goat by Heifer Project International, a non-profit organisation that seeks to end global hunger by providing livestock to poor communities around the world. The titular goat provides enough milk to feed Beatrice and her five siblings, with a surplus to sell for profit. In the end, Beatrice's dream to be a schoolgirl comes true.

These two books help children to see a way of life and financial circumstance that is completely different from their own. It's inspiring to know that, in the developing world, one simple hen or goat can bring about such change to a family and its community.

To build tolerance and compassion in children, parents can expose them to other families and societies. We read with horror news stories about rural farmers who sell their own daughters to support their families. Until you understand the abject poverty that they are fighting to overcome, you cannot feel compassion for such families. And when you feel compassion for them, you will be motivated to help them.

To help children find their own "something", Ellen Sabin's The Giving Book is an interactive tool that "helps them record their ideas, dreams and wishes for the world - making them the authors of their stories and creating a 'scrapbook' of their journey into compassion, philanthropy and the power of their actions."

Families who want to learn more about local children-related charities can visit the Children Charities Carnival on Sunday, from noon to 5pm at Dream Kids Club in Chai Wan. Visit their Facebook page or email ccc@prestique.com for more details.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation promoting family literacy

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Books that teach how to give back

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Books Transform Lives (1)

Between the lines: reading together helps families bond and grow

Annie Holife@scmp.com

I regularly venture into parts of Hong Kong I would never see were it not for my work with Bring Me a Book. I visit kindergartens, primary schools and community centres.

When I see the sweet and earnest faces of the children, I can't help but wonder about their future. How many of them will break out of their economic class and stop the poverty that often gets passed from generation to generation?

Many parents in these communities can barely make ends meet, yet they will spend what little they have on after-school tutorial classes for their children. They do so in the misguided belief that more tutorials lead directly to better school grades and, ultimately, success in life.

The after-school classes to which I refer are not the fun-filled and stimulating activities that middle-class children enjoy. Tutorials in these communities often involve paying HK$50 for a child to sit silently for one hour, among rows of students, watching an instructor with a wireless microphone expounding academic theories.

This learning environment is hardly helpful for a child who is already struggling at school. Most parents want their children to read well, yet many are sceptical about their ability to help their children develop a lifelong love of books. Some parents don't believe they are educated enough or have sufficient language skills. Others blindly follow the masses; if the whole neighbourhood has signed up for English flashcard classes, they feel compelled to do the same.

I tell parents in these communities to save their money and take their kids to the public library instead. Through our read-aloud training workshops, they come to understand the tangible and intangible benefits of parent-child read-aloud sessions.

And after they put what they've learned into practice, they become true believers that something so simple as reading stories together can have a big impact on their family life and their children's development.

Middle-class families tend to spend quality time together and live in homes containing at least half a dozen books. This is not the case in lower-class families.

One parent told me that, before she started reading with her son, their interaction usually involved berating him about school homework and household chores. This parent went from a long day of work to an evening of cooking, cleaning and childcare. Her eight-year-old son rarely spoke to her, preferring to spend his time playing video games in his room.

Our training workshops comprise two classes one week apart. At the end of the first class, we give parents two books to take home, and ask them to read aloud to their children every night for one week.

By the time the parent with the eight year-old son returned for the second class, she was a devotee of reading aloud.

She revealed that her son was at first reluctant to sit down and listen to his mother read a picture book. When they finally sat down and read the story together, she suddenly realised that she hadn't cuddled with her son, not in months, but years.

By the end of the week, mother and son were having meaningful conversations, including her son sharing that a friend was being bullied at school.

She began to see her son in a new light, as the labels of irresponsible, ill-mannered and unresponsive melted away, and his sense of humour and endearing perspective on life came to the foreground.

By the end of the second class, she knew that their lives had been transformed.

This parent was aware that this transformation would improve the relationship, but what she had yet to learn was what had happened would lead directly to her son's improved cognitive and non-cognitive ability.

In the next column we will find out how.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Reading together, staying together