Multi-Media Village Education Project
Project Summary: By developing multi-media learning opportunities in Yunnan’s rural village schools, Village Progress aims to promote health initiatives and environmental awareness among youths. Utilizing art, acting, song, dance and photography, students will have the opportunity to create projects with the help of teachers and volunteers to share with classmates and the greater community.
Project Vision: For more than a decade, rural Chinese have seen villages slowly disintegrate as cities continue to grow at an astounding rate. Though rural China receives plenty of government support, there has been little growth in opportunities for villagers. Many feel stuck in traditional lifestyles while the cities are seen as a land full of opportunity. Moreover, there is little engagement with village schools to modernize and offer more contemporary environmental and health care information. The Multi-Media Village Education Project serves to counter this trend and offer students a chance to attain a further education and reclaim pride and ownership in their community.
Village Progress aims to work with village schools to give students opportunities beyond typical lesson plans. By creating a venue where students have access to study materials, art resources, computers and volunteer teachers and instructors, Village Progress has the goal of promoting health initiatives and environmental awareness among students, their families and entire communities. Village Progress aspires to help students, along with village leaders, acknowledge the problems present in their village; then by using multi-media mediums like photography, art, song, dance and acting, students will be empowered to share their own vision for the community. By engaging students in this way, they will learn to take responsibility for the future of their village and take a vested interest in addressing the problems that it faces.
Village Progress’s Multi-Media Village Education Project has made connections in village schools and with local government officials throughout Lincang Prefecture. All have welcomed the mission and goals of the project; and in most cases, schools are already prepared to offer space and time to operate a continuing education program.
In May, 2011, Village Progress brought the first volunteer teachers to the Bangdong Village Elementary School in Lincang Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The volunteers included doctors, artists and an environmental survivalist. The test project proved very successful as did the students receptiveness and own creative input. It was also clear that more substantial projects in the future would prove even more productive.
Project Work Plan: The initial goal of the Multi-Media Environmental Education Project is to work with school leaders to establish multi-media resource centers in village schools. Resource centers will be part of existing school structures and will house books, computers, cameras and other art resources collected from Kunming schools, donor programs, grants and government support.
Once in place, the venue will serve as a center for service learning projects that will work with students on multi-media assignments to address health and environment issues. Multi-media clinics run by volunteers and partnered NGOs will take place every two months to assess past projects and initiate new ones. Assignments will take form in art, dance, poetry, song, photography and acting. Each project will vary according to students’ own interests and those of skilled volunteers. Volunteers for the projects include Chinese university students from Kunming, environmental specialists, international doctors and visiting teachers. Village Progress has developed strong relationships with local artists, dance troupes, and international doctors and teachers who have pledged to volunteer their time to the Multi-Media Village Education Project.
Finished assignments will be shared among other classmates, students’ families and the entire community. Projects will serve as a way to organize communities to address health and environment issues present in villages. Village Progress will continue to offer long-term support for community-organized service projects that grow out of the Multi-Media Village Education Project. The successful implementation of the first resource center at will serve as a model to replicate at other village schools in Lincang. As the project continues to branch out, Village Progress will reach out to more government involvement to both fund and monitor future Multi-Media Environmental Education Projects.
Project Impact: The main impact of the project will take place in schools from which they can take root in the larger community. Where many villages are now faced with devastating health and environment issues, villages more than ever need a way to reorganize and address issues together as a community. There is little positive influence that government agencies and other external forces can have upon village communities if they themselves lack the ability to work together.
The Multi-Media Environmental Education Project will provide the venue for communities to first acknowledge what issues villages now face and then work towards addressing those issues. Village Progress can do little without each community’s support, so the first objective is to understand the local perspective and refrain from enforcing its own. In this way, village communities can work together to provide a better environment for their children and future generations. Opportunity is the driving force of any successful community, and opportunity starts with education. Drought, pollution and clean water issues cannot be addressed if communities lack the proper education. By instilling environmental values in students and equipping them with the ability to overcome hardship. However, teaching these values alone does not necessarily beget understanding. That is why this project uses art, photography, theater, music and dance to fully engage students’ creativity and innovativeness.
The long-term goal of the Multi-Media Village Education Project is to provide village schools and students with continuing education opportunities that equip them with the skills necessary to address health and environment issues present in the villages. By providing schools with multi-media resource centers and organizing volunteer groups to participate in projects, Village Progress aspires to see positive changes upon health and environment problems in villages throughout Lincang and Yunnan.
Though the Multi-Media Village Education Project will produce mostly qualitative results, progress will be determined by the following measurable objectives:
Project Sponsors:
Project Vision: For more than a decade, rural Chinese have seen villages slowly disintegrate as cities continue to grow at an astounding rate. Though rural China receives plenty of government support, there has been little growth in opportunities for villagers. Many feel stuck in traditional lifestyles while the cities are seen as a land full of opportunity. Moreover, there is little engagement with village schools to modernize and offer more contemporary environmental and health care information. The Multi-Media Village Education Project serves to counter this trend and offer students a chance to attain a further education and reclaim pride and ownership in their community.
Village Progress aims to work with village schools to give students opportunities beyond typical lesson plans. By creating a venue where students have access to study materials, art resources, computers and volunteer teachers and instructors, Village Progress has the goal of promoting health initiatives and environmental awareness among students, their families and entire communities. Village Progress aspires to help students, along with village leaders, acknowledge the problems present in their village; then by using multi-media mediums like photography, art, song, dance and acting, students will be empowered to share their own vision for the community. By engaging students in this way, they will learn to take responsibility for the future of their village and take a vested interest in addressing the problems that it faces.
Village Progress’s Multi-Media Village Education Project has made connections in village schools and with local government officials throughout Lincang Prefecture. All have welcomed the mission and goals of the project; and in most cases, schools are already prepared to offer space and time to operate a continuing education program.
In May, 2011, Village Progress brought the first volunteer teachers to the Bangdong Village Elementary School in Lincang Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The volunteers included doctors, artists and an environmental survivalist. The test project proved very successful as did the students receptiveness and own creative input. It was also clear that more substantial projects in the future would prove even more productive.
Project Work Plan: The initial goal of the Multi-Media Environmental Education Project is to work with school leaders to establish multi-media resource centers in village schools. Resource centers will be part of existing school structures and will house books, computers, cameras and other art resources collected from Kunming schools, donor programs, grants and government support.
Once in place, the venue will serve as a center for service learning projects that will work with students on multi-media assignments to address health and environment issues. Multi-media clinics run by volunteers and partnered NGOs will take place every two months to assess past projects and initiate new ones. Assignments will take form in art, dance, poetry, song, photography and acting. Each project will vary according to students’ own interests and those of skilled volunteers. Volunteers for the projects include Chinese university students from Kunming, environmental specialists, international doctors and visiting teachers. Village Progress has developed strong relationships with local artists, dance troupes, and international doctors and teachers who have pledged to volunteer their time to the Multi-Media Village Education Project.
Finished assignments will be shared among other classmates, students’ families and the entire community. Projects will serve as a way to organize communities to address health and environment issues present in villages. Village Progress will continue to offer long-term support for community-organized service projects that grow out of the Multi-Media Village Education Project. The successful implementation of the first resource center at will serve as a model to replicate at other village schools in Lincang. As the project continues to branch out, Village Progress will reach out to more government involvement to both fund and monitor future Multi-Media Environmental Education Projects.
- Phase 1 (Completed by January, 2012): create a space within school grounds designated for a multi-media learning center. Initiate multi-media health and environment projects.
- Phase 2 (Continuous): Return to participating schools every two months to check on previous projects and initiate new ones.
- Phase 3 (Continuous): Replication in other village schools.
Project Impact: The main impact of the project will take place in schools from which they can take root in the larger community. Where many villages are now faced with devastating health and environment issues, villages more than ever need a way to reorganize and address issues together as a community. There is little positive influence that government agencies and other external forces can have upon village communities if they themselves lack the ability to work together.
The Multi-Media Environmental Education Project will provide the venue for communities to first acknowledge what issues villages now face and then work towards addressing those issues. Village Progress can do little without each community’s support, so the first objective is to understand the local perspective and refrain from enforcing its own. In this way, village communities can work together to provide a better environment for their children and future generations. Opportunity is the driving force of any successful community, and opportunity starts with education. Drought, pollution and clean water issues cannot be addressed if communities lack the proper education. By instilling environmental values in students and equipping them with the ability to overcome hardship. However, teaching these values alone does not necessarily beget understanding. That is why this project uses art, photography, theater, music and dance to fully engage students’ creativity and innovativeness.
The long-term goal of the Multi-Media Village Education Project is to provide village schools and students with continuing education opportunities that equip them with the skills necessary to address health and environment issues present in the villages. By providing schools with multi-media resource centers and organizing volunteer groups to participate in projects, Village Progress aspires to see positive changes upon health and environment problems in villages throughout Lincang and Yunnan.
Though the Multi-Media Village Education Project will produce mostly qualitative results, progress will be determined by the following measurable objectives:
- The project will conduct surveys before and after each multi-media assignment to test students’ knowledge and perception. Students’ progress will be assessed and tracked to determine the educational value of the project.
- All student projects will be recorded, photographed or documented. The productivity of the students an important indicator of the project’s productiveness. All multi-media works, and the hours spent on those works, will also be recorded.
- The most valuable project indicators for the project are health and environment improvements within the villages themselves. The project will document issues that villages now face and will catalogue impacts that the project has on these issues.
- Increasing involvement from community leaders and local government is an important progress indicator for the future success and replicability of the project.
Project Sponsors:
- China California Heart Watch (CCHW) www.chinalcal.org: In May, 2011, Village Progress was able to attain support from the Lincang Government of 900,000 RMB for a village doctor training programrun by CCHW that taught hypertension and high blood pressure diagnosis and treatment to nearly 500 village doctors throughout the prefecture. http://www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/2223/back_to_bangdong_village
- Heart to Heart NGO: This is a Chinese-run NGO that has partnered with Village Progress and CCHW in the past to run heart examinations for students in poor migrant schools.
- Center for Intercultural Education (CIE) www.centerinterculturaled.org: CIE in partnership with Exidea (www.exidea.org), a Kunming-based NGO, has offered Village Progress assistance from its university volunteer students who have years of experience operating service-learning programs in rural Yunnan.
- Salvador’s Food and Beverage Co, Ltd www.salvadors.cn. Village Progress grew out of a business in Kunming, Yunnan called Salvador’s Food and Beverage Co, Ltd. Salvador’s has been a very successful business for over seven years and in that time has employed nearly 40 young women from Lincang Prefecture. The women of Salvador’s were the inspiration for Village Progress that now endeavors, along with the help of their employees and their families, to create sustainable environmental, education, health and poverty alleviation programs in the very villages that Salvador’s employees grew up in. A portion of Salvador’s profits help to fund Village Progress.
