family,

Home visits help us to understand

the applicants’ family situation, build

relationships with the families and

choose the qualified students. Bring-

ing news and hope to the families

while gathering applicant information

to share with donors is fulfilling. We

want the families to know that there

are people and organizations that

care about them and want to help.

The three university volunteers en-

couraged the applicants and their

parents to continue high school

study. They have set a good example

for finishing

high school

and continu-

ing on to

university.

On September 24th, 2011 CWEF ar-

ranged home visits for 30 Xiangshan

high scholarship applicants. The day

started at eight o’clock in the morning

with 24 local volunteers gathering in

Deqing Times Square.

There are six home visit groups in total,

which have 4-5 members in each who

volunteer their time, car and money

which pay for fuel and food. Three of

the volunteers are CWEF University

Scholarship Recipients who graduated

from Xiangshang high school with

CWEF 3-year high school scholarship

support. Now they are willing to volun-

teer their time and energy to help stu-

dents who have similar circumstances.

Each group has 4-6 applicant families to

visit depending on distance. It’s a full

and meaningful day for each volunteer.

Huang Jinfeng is one of the Xiangshan

high school scholarship applicants. In

2008 Jinfeng’s family had to borrow

20,000RMB from relatives to pay off debt

after her father passed away from illness.

The family has 3 children in school. Jin-

feng’s 45 year old mother is growing one

mu rice and also works part time in the

village. The annual income of this family is

around 4800RMB. During our home visit

we learned that Jinfeng’s younger sister

graduated from middle school this July. To

save money, her mother let her go to

vocational high school which has

a much lower tuition of 500RMB per year.

“I could not support 2 kids to high school.

Jingfeng’s study is better, so I let her go to

high school.” Jinfeng’s mother said. Even

though life is not easy for this mother, she

still has hope for the future. She hopes

Jinfeng’s can go to university after graduat-

ing from high school. At the end of the

day each group took time to talk and

write down the overall impression of the

From September 23-29, the #3 Middle

School Affiliated with East China Nor-

mal University (or HuaSan M.S.) wel-

comed seventeen students and 3

teachers from Concordia International

School Shanghai (CISS) to their cam-

pus in Shanghai’s southwestern Jinshan

district. HuaSan Middle School is

made up entirely of migrant workers’

children. Migrant families move to

Shanghai from more rural parts of

China because the job opportunities

are better. When they arrive in the big

city, though, they encounter many strug-

gles from finding stable work to provid-

ing quality health care and education for

their children. In Shanghai, there are an

estimated 9 million migrant workers out

of a total population of 23 million.

The CISS students came to Jinshan to

support the migrant students’ education

by serving as volunteer English teachers

as a part of their school’s annual Interim

Home Visits for Scholarship Applicants

CISS Students Building Bridges

Improving Lives Through

Education and Service F A L L 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

Learning English through sports

Huang Jinfeng and her family

P A G E 2

CISS Students Build Bridges

Animals for Widows In June and July of this year

CWEF was able to gift 8 wid-

ows in Thai Bai, Cambodia

with animals. These animals

are given to the widows or

abandoned women with chil-

dren under 18 to help support

their income or provide food

for their families. Before the

ladies received their animals

they were given training that

included

1-partnership with CWEF, 2-

Raising animals, 3-Breeding

animals, 4-Feeding animals, 5

-handling animal health prob-

lems, 6-raising animals for

food or for sale, 7-Butchering

methods, and 8-Keeping re-

cords on the animal.

Once the ladies are able to

provide a pen for their animals

they receive 3-4 piglets.

Some ladies have been able

to sale some or all of their

stock for profit, raising a

total of $1152.50. There are

additional trainings and animal

distributions scheduled later

this month and into Decem-

ber.

CWEF is blessed to have this

project in Cambodia. It has

made a difference in women’s

lives that may not have oppor-

tunities to provide an income

for their families or food for

their children.

homes of 4 HuaSan students.

Continued from page 1..

program. The Hua-

San students enjoyed

a week of learning

English in new and

exciting ways, using a

variety of different

subjects, such as Art,

Music, Math, Science,

and Sports.

The CISS group

worked hard, teaching

6 classes of energetic 6th and

7th graders every day from

Monday through Thursday, as

well as 3 classes on Saturday

morning. On Saturday after-

noon, the teams separated

into smaller groups and were

welcomed to visit the humble

Having fun while

learning English

I M P R O V I N G L I V E S T H R O U G H E D U C A T I O N A N D S E R V I C E

Home visits in Shanghai

Building confidence while teaching

English

At the end of the week, the

group from CISS realized that

they had learned more than

they had taught. Neil White-

head, a math teacher at CISS

and one of the adult leaders

for the trip, said this about the

experience:

“I felt that the English teaching

trip produced a big change in

our students...as they became

more confident leaders, public

speakers and teachers. I think

that the English trips bring

about a bigger change in our

students than any of the other

trips that I have lead.”

Chea has 5 children and made $175 on the sale of

her piglets

Mey is a widow

with 4 children

and is a rice

farmer along with

raising her piglets

CWEF Sichuan Field Office Closes

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

September 30th marked the official

closing of the CWEF Sichuan field

offices located both in Cheng Du

and Nan Ba which opened in 2008

in response to the May 12, 2008

earthquake. The disastrous 8.0

earthquake took the lives of over

68,000 people, leaving hundreds of

thousands homeless.

The manager of the CWEF station

in the city of Guan Zhou in the

Guan Dong province, Toni Wang

originally from Cheng Du was in-

strumental in helping CWEF make

connections with the Government

and School officials in the small

countryside town of Nan Ba.

CWEF was also able to partner

with the Anthropology department

at Zhong Shan University in Guan

Zhou for the primary purpose for

facilitating a counseling program

and research efforts specific to the

effects of earthquake victims in the

small town of Nan Ba.

During the past 3 years CWEF

along with the Ping Wu County

Government and School officials

were able to accomplish many

projects in an effort to help the

schools and communities recover

from the earthquake of May 12,

2008. These projects included

building 3 water systems in three

separate areas, providing many

school resource materials for over

15 different schools, including 2

complete libraries with book

shelves and over 250,000 books, a

computer lab, close circuit TV for

education purposes, and basic ma-

terials for the subjects of science,

biology, chemistry and geography.

During this time there were also 4

different teams that came and held

English camps for both students

and teachers and two service teams

that came and provided Eyeglass

clinics that covered over 15 differ-

ent villages and schools. In order to

accomplish all of these projects,

CWEF was privileged to have on

staff Charlotte Chen and Bryan

Chen (Un-related) who served

faithful for nearly 3 years. CWEF

Sichuan would also like to thank

the many generous donors who

made these projects possible.

work diligently to give great ser-

vice.

One student came in and was

tested at a (+) 1 for reading and a

(-) 9 for Distance. We were all

rather amazed and curious how he

had been able to function for so

long without glasses. About 2

hours after he had been given his

two pairs of glasses – he came

running back to the clinic to share

with one of the CISS Students his

excitement about being able to

This past September, 17 students

and 2 teachers from Concordia

International School Shanghai

(CISS), 2 members from M.O.S.T.

(Mission Opportunity Short Term)

based in Ann Arbor Michigan and 3

CWEF Staff in Sichuan took to the

Countryside villages of Ping Wu

county with a mission of providing

eyeglasses to both students and

members of the community. The

team consisted of Roger Tu, a

Chemistry teach at CISS, M.O.S.T.

Director Carly Stevens, Nurse

Carolyn Holbird and a VERY Ma-

ture group of highly motivated high

school students.

In a period of 4 days, the team was

able to visit 7 different villages and

schools, see 1,304 patients, distrib-

ute 1377 eyeglasses to patients

between the age of 8 and 87. Not

only did each member of the clinic

read EVERYTHING that the

teacher had written on the chalk

board. Just moments after that, his

teacher came offer his own thanks.

On the last day of the clinic, Sean P

Harlow noticed the last customer

standing in front of a lamp post

with a sign on it reading intently.

Sean walked up to the man, Mr.

Zhou, and asked him if those were

his new glasses.

Mr. Zhou looked

at Sean then back

at the sign and

then turned and

said with tears

rolling down his

face “Do you real-

ize that this is the

first time in over 40

years that I have

been able to see

clearly? I can even read this sign in

front of me – This is so Amazing”

CISS and M.O.S.T. Conduct Eyeglass Clinics

Mr. Zhou and Sean

Patients Distance Testing

and laying pipe with the ultimate goal

of getting clean water to each individ-

ual household. Many students were

eager to connect with the villagers

while they worked side by side. The

English project involved students

teaching basic English to middle

schoolers in a new and interesting

way. The Concordia students used

art, p.e., music and story telling to

This past fall has once again been

filled with hard work and smiling faces

here in Yunnan. In September, over

100 students traveled from Concor-

dia International School Shanghai to

participate in two drinking water

projects and one English teaching

project. The drinking water projects

involved students carrying bricks to

help build a cistern, digging trenches,

spark interests in learning English and

to build relationships.

Concordia Welfare and Education

Foundation

Flat C, 6/F, Han Yee Building,

21 Hankow Road, TST, Kowloon, H.K.

Phone: (852) 2337 2036

Fax: (852) 2376 3992

E-mail: director@cwef.org.hk

Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation is a

Hong Kong based non-profit organization

founded by Lutheran Christians and dedicated to

improving the lives of impoverished rural commu-

nities in Asia through education and service.

We partner with local communities, organizations

and governments to identify sources of poverty

and implement programs in the areas of educa-

tion and community health.

We believe that education creates opportunities

for people to change their lives and create a new

future.

CISS and Yunnan Drinking Water Project

Improving Lives Through Education

and Service

www.cwef.org.hk

Digging trenches for water pipes

CISS Team

Cistern built by CISS students