Int'l firms inspire dreams in troubled children

By Wu Jin
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 31, 2012
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A Chi Heng Foundation camper known as "A Guang" seldom uttered a word during the organization's seven-day Beijing summer camp for the AIDS affected children from Henan Province since July 16.

But after taking in the sights and sounds of the city and touring the Beijing offices of Standard Chartered Bank and multinational public relations firm Waggener Erdstrom Worldwide, A's impressions were too overwhelming for him to shy away from.

 

Members of a summer camp sponsored by Hong Kong's Chi Heng Foundation visit the Beijing Office of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, a public relation company in Beijing on July 17. [Pang Li/China.org.cn]

"I really hope I can be like them someday," A said, after meeting staff at Waggener Edstrom, seeing the company's high-tech office setup, and listening to a presentation of the firm's activities around the globe.

The camp, which had been held from July 16 to 22, entered its eighth year of operation this year. During the previous seven years, the foundation has kept bringing kids from AIDS-affected families to China's largest cities with the hope that the annual visits to the commercial hubs will broaden their minds and give them perspective on modern society.

Jojo Kong, director of the Chi Heng Foundation's Beijing office, said A Guang wasn't the only camper to be so intensely moved by the visit to Beijing offices of international businesses.

"A young girl said she wanted to be one of them when visiting the Standard Chartered Bank a few years ago. She said the accountants looked so graceful in their business suits," Kong said.

After brainstorming in groups about communications for two hours in the Waggener Edstrom office, the Chi Heng campers were filled with new thoughts and ideas.

"I've never known much about social networks, like Renren.com," one camper nicknamed Xiao Kun said, responding to one of his teammate's points at the conclusion of the Waggener Edstrom meeting. "But is it possible for us to establish a new platform for communication companies like Tencent and Baidu to combine their resources to build a larger network to share ideas?"

"It is just like how the Olympic Rings inspire different peoples with different thoughts to share the same platform."

His was rewarded with a huge box of chocolates.

Getting their first glimpse of the stark contrast between the urban abundance and their scarcity, most children desired change. And that peculiar feeling coheres well with the purpose of the foundation and its partnered sponsors, such as, Waggener Edstrom and Standard Chartered Bank.

"We hope [the children] can be encouraged to dream big dreams, and be confident in communicating," said Cindy Gan, general manager of Waggener Edstrom in China.

In the camp's scheduled painting class a day after the Waggener Edstrom visit, A Guang tried to copy a picture of a serene landscape with deep swaths of blue and brown on his paper. Surveying his work, without looking up, he said, "It looks like my hometown." "My home is surrounded with layered mountains spotted with trees and grass." "It's beautiful."

Originally, after seeing Beijing, A said he wished he could bring the city home with him. But he became perplexed when questioned if the skyscrapers he planned to bring home would not leave any room for the grass and trees.

His knotted eyebrows stretched, he gradually deduced that he wouldn't need to bring skyscrapers home to improve conditions in his hometown, but rather, an innovative spirit.

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