讓愛隨圖書傳遞——澳洲女孩Bronwyn的愛心計(jì)劃

□ 李靜

一個連接中外友誼的“圖書角”計(jì)劃，887本圖書，一群來自五湖四海，黃皮膚、白皮膚、藍(lán)眼睛、黑頭發(fā)孩子們共同歡唱、學(xué)習(xí)交流，這樣的溫馨場面屬于重慶九龍坡石板小學(xué)的學(xué)生們?？墒钦l能想到，這個計(jì)劃竟然是由一位澳洲女孩發(fā)起的。

“一個孩子一本書”

來自澳大利亞的女孩Bronwyn，是一位熱心的，喜愛中國的外國人，她一直從事寫作和輔導(dǎo)大學(xué)生論文工作。來重慶的時間雖然不長，她卻非常喜歡這座城市，更想為這里的人們做些什么。通過觀察，她發(fā)現(xiàn)在重慶的外國人很多，而且都非常善意熱心。而這是一個很不錯的資源。如果讓他們的孩子與重慶本地學(xué)校的孩子們結(jié)成友好伙伴，不僅可以拉近彼此的距離，也可以幫助到當(dāng)?shù)氐囊恍┴毨У暮⒆?。有了這樣的想法，Bronwyn便開始著手準(zhǔn)備，很快，她就通過自己經(jīng)營的一個叫The Research Den的網(wǎng)站設(shè)立了一個中國重慶學(xué)生圖書館項(xiàng)目。項(xiàng)目的主旨便是由這些年輕的在重慶學(xué)習(xí)生活的外籍學(xué)生來幫助當(dāng)?shù)氐呢毨Ш⒆觽?，以此提高他們的生活和教育質(zhì)量。

帶著這樣的想法，Bronwyn找到了重慶一所比較有名的國際學(xué)校耀中國際，希望讓那里的學(xué)生加入到這個項(xiàng)目中來。她的想法得到了學(xué)校負(fù)責(zé)人的熱烈回應(yīng)和贊賞，而剛好耀中和石板小學(xué)是友好學(xué)校，有了他們的支持，Bronwyn的項(xiàng)目幸運(yùn)地開了個好頭。

“這個項(xiàng)目是通過三種形式來完成的?！盉ronwyn興致勃勃地講述她的這個計(jì)劃?！笆紫仁菍W(xué)生之間的互幫互助。由國際學(xué)校理事會選出一個當(dāng)?shù)氐膶W(xué)校一起合作舉行，一個外籍學(xué)生幫助一個當(dāng)?shù)氐暮⒆樱黄浯问钱?dāng)?shù)貒H友人的支持，擴(kuò)大影響和規(guī)模，與重慶外籍友人共同合作為當(dāng)?shù)貙W(xué)校建立一個圖書館或者讀書角；第三是‘一個孩子一本書’，如果學(xué)校里有500個孩子，那么項(xiàng)目目標(biāo)就應(yīng)該有500本書；1000個孩子就應(yīng)該有1000本書。” Bronwyn希望以此鼓勵當(dāng)?shù)赝饧讶藶槟壳白约核幼〉某鞘?，為?dāng)?shù)氐娜藗冐暙I(xiàn)一份力量。

國際友人熱情支持

可喜的是，圖書館計(jì)劃一提出就得到了很多熱心人士的幫助，也受到國際學(xué)校學(xué)生們的一致?lián)碜o(hù)，孩子們都躍躍欲試，迫不及待地希望加入其中。

對于這些外籍友人來說，項(xiàng)目最大的難題就是圖書的來源和選購。“石板小學(xué)的老師告訴我們他們需要的圖書種類，然后我們和耀中國際學(xué)校早教中心的老師商量，保證為孩子們的文化教育選出最合適最優(yōu)質(zhì)的圖書?！盉ronwyn表示，石板小學(xué)有700個學(xué)生，所以，700本圖書是這次計(jì)劃的目標(biāo)。為了達(dá)到這個目標(biāo)，外籍友人們都絞盡腦汁，一些美國家長還從國外選到很多不錯的圖書帶回重慶；同時，重慶國際婦女社也積極為項(xiàng)目前期準(zhǔn)備募捐，籌集資金，好購買更多圖書。

經(jīng)過一番努力，他們一共籌到887本圖書。這些書包含了各個方面，同時還有一些教育類的游戲、益智玩具和掛在墻上的海報等，還有為老師們準(zhǔn)備的卡片、百科全書和教學(xué)工具。第一次愛心行動就有如此不凡的成果，著實(shí)讓每個人驚喜不已。

小小書架傳心意

圖書準(zhǔn)備到位后，便是國際學(xué)校的孩子們自己動手，完成整個項(xiàng)目的時候了。為了讓這些外國學(xué)生們發(fā)揮更大的主動性，Bronwyn以及其他幾位國際友人都決定讓他們自己完成這一個項(xiàng)目?！斑@就意味著他們需要在各個環(huán)節(jié)自己做出決定，包括設(shè)計(jì)書架、給書分類、組織成立儀式等。所以在這個計(jì)劃中，過程與結(jié)果同等重要?！?Bronwyn雖然有點(diǎn)擔(dān)心，但仍然對孩子們充滿信心。

于是，這些來自印度、澳大利亞、美國、英國、韓國等世界各個國家的孩子們開始參與進(jìn)來，一場國際性的“聯(lián)合行動”拉開帷幕。

來自耀中學(xué)校藝術(shù)小組的同學(xué)們負(fù)責(zé)為圖書設(shè)計(jì)書架，他們分小組工作，設(shè)計(jì)出適齡3-5歲孩子的書架，他們的藝術(shù)老師Borrengasser曾學(xué)過家具裝飾，于是擔(dān)任起了孩子們的指導(dǎo)工作，他做了簡單的調(diào)查，試圖尋找適合年輕人的藝術(shù)設(shè)計(jì)。還鼓勵學(xué)生們創(chuàng)新，將自己國家的文化特色融入到設(shè)計(jì)中去。

孩子們的天性是活潑開放的，很快就找到了設(shè)計(jì)的靈感，很快，幾張五顏六色，布滿鮮花、小鳥圖案的設(shè)計(jì)圖就呼之欲出了。學(xué)生們都很滿意自己的作品。并開始著手自己調(diào)顏料漆，刷在書架上。得知這些書架和圖書是提供給當(dāng)?shù)氐男『⑺趯W(xué)校時，學(xué)生們都來了勁，一個個不知疲倦。在犧牲了無數(shù)個午休時間后，他們都把圖書井井有條的分好類，同時為即將到來的成立儀式做好了準(zhǔn)備。耀中學(xué)校的圖書管理員Margie Netti也被孩子們的熱情感動了，“看到學(xué)生們共同協(xié)助工作非常棒，令人欣慰，他們花了無數(shù)個午休的時間整理、分類圖書，可以看出他們在這個項(xiàng)目上花了很多心思?！?/p>

愛無國界

舉行圖書角成立儀式的當(dāng)天，石板小學(xué)的孩子們異常興奮，早早地就站在教學(xué)樓上把小身子探出窗外期盼這些大姐姐大哥哥們的到來。雖然操著不同的語言，但是兩個學(xué)校的孩子們聚在一起并不覺得陌生，反而激動地拉起對方的手，開心地交流起來。

三個漂亮的書架被分別安放在石板小學(xué)的三個早教教室里，成立儀式上，這些圖書被羅列在教室外的桌上，每個孩子都被邀請到臺上選出自己喜歡的兩本書放在他們的教室里。這也是儀式中最有意義的部分。孩子們總會花上很長的時間仔細(xì)選擇他們的圖書，左看看右看看，小手一直不停地摸著書的封面。選好以后，他們便迫不及待地走進(jìn)教室和耀中的學(xué)生們一起閱讀起來。

Gautham Ramesh，一位來自印度的學(xué)生興奮地表示，“看到他們拿到書時這么高興，在成立儀式上玩得這么開心，我也很開心。我們和他們一起閱讀，交流，真是意猶未盡?！?/p>

除了國際學(xué)校的學(xué)生們，還有很多熱心的外籍人士也參與了當(dāng)天的活動，他們和小孩子們一起，一字一句地教他們說英語和繪畫，整個石板學(xué)校被這些不同國籍的友人們的愛心包圍著。

耀中國際學(xué)校的合作校長 Matthew Nicholson也被眼前的情景感動了，“孩子們的熱心感染了我。這個項(xiàng)目讓學(xué)生們不僅學(xué)會了給予，同時也讓他們體會到了贈人玫瑰，手留余香的快樂，我們的學(xué)生們很享受這樣的體驗(yàn)，今后也將組織他們開展更多這樣的活動?！?/p>

作為這個圖書館計(jì)劃的發(fā)起人，Bronwyn覺得很有成就感，她希望將來會有更多這樣的活動，讓這些在中國學(xué)習(xí)的國際學(xué)校的學(xué)生在他們生活的城市成立更多圖書角?！叭澜缬?000多所國際學(xué)校，而且大部分都在中國。想象一下，如果每一個國際學(xué)校都參與一個項(xiàng)目，那將會有多少中國孩子享受讀書帶來的樂趣?！睆倪@位澳大利亞女孩湛藍(lán)色的眼睛里，我們可以看到，這樣的愛心接力才剛剛開始。

“圖書角”成立儀式當(dāng)天孩子們都很興奮

石板小學(xué)的方校長很喜歡孩子們設(shè)計(jì)的書架

Australian Girl's Library Plan

□ Written by Aggie

One Child, One Book

Bronwyn is a passionate Australian girl who loves China and has been engaged in writing and counseling thesis for college students. Although she hasn't been in Chongqing long,she was very fond of this city and wanted to do something for the people here. After observing the enormous amount of good will and resources that exist in international expat communities and the fact that both international children and local children could benefit from closer ties with one another, Bronwyn decided to provide seed funding through her business, The Research Den, to launch the first Students' Library Project in Chongqing, China.The goal of the project is for young expat students leading the projects to help improve the lives and education of their local, less well-off peers.

Fortunately the International School YewChung already had a relationship with Shiban school and they were willing to support her project and have their students join in.

“The 3 main philosophies of this project” Bronwyn was really excited to tell me about her plan “are firstly, that students help students, secondly, that projects are funded through expat support. And thirdly, that the library opens with at least one book for each child in the school. The motto is: ‘one child, one book’”. Bronwyn hope to encourage local expatriate friends to contribute to their city of residence and the local people.

Bronwyn在教小孩子們閱讀

Large Supports from International Friends

To them the main issue was the logistics of ordering books. “The teachers of Shiban told us the types of books they would like and we worked with the Early Childhood Education teachers of Yew Chung to identify the best quality children's literature.” Bronwyn said, there are 700 students in Shiban primary school, so 700 books were the objective of the project.In order to achieve this goal,some people from the United States even selected a lot of good books from abroad then brought back to Chongqing. Chongqing international women’s group also helped collecting and raising money.

Finally they collected 887 items. including children's literature,educational games, toys and posters for the walls as well as teachers resources like fl ash cards, encyclopedias and teaching tools.

Making Book Shelves

After the purchasing of books was arranged, it was time for the international students to complete the project themselves.“This means decisions needed to be made by the students and their involvement in every aspect - from planning to designing bookshelves to sorting books to organising the launch - was critical. In this way the process was as important as the outcome.” although Bronwyn and other people were a little bit worried, they were still full of confi dence in the children.

國際友人Amber與學(xué)生們一起學(xué)習(xí)卡片

Then students from India, Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Korea and various countries from the world began to participate, an international "joint action" just started.

The students from Art Group designed and decorated three book shelves. They worked in small groups to come up with original designs that would appeal to children aged 3-5 years.Under the guidance of the art teacher at YCIS, Mr Borrengasser,the students learnt about furniture decoration and researched art designs for young people. Mr Borrengasser encouraged the students to think creatively and include something of their own culture in the designs.

Children's nature was lively and open and quickly they found inspiration for the design, and soon several colorful designs with fl owers, birds were done. The students were very satisfi ed with their work and started to paint on the shelf. After numerous of lunch breaks, the books were well-organized and the upcoming launch ceremony was ready by students. "It was wonderful to see how the students worked together as a team. Student Council members spent many lunch times in the library sorting books into categories. You could see how much ownership they had of the project." Margie Netti, the YCIS Librarian was also moved by the children's enthusiasm.

Love without Borders

At the launch day of the library project, students from Shiban School were really excited and waited for their coming earlier. Although speaking different languages, the two schools children did not feel strange at all; they pulled up each other's hand excitedly and happily laughed.

There are three ECE classrooms at Shiban so each room got a bookshelf. At the launch the books were presented on tables outside the classrooms and children were invited to choose two books each to add to their classroom. This was a really special part of the day and many children spent a long time carefully choosing their books. Once they had chosen the books, they went into their classes and the YCIS Student Council members read to the children.

Gautham Ramesh,an India student said," My favorite part of the day was seeing how happy the children were to get the books and how much fun they had a the launch. Seeing their joy made me happy. We were able to spend time with them and teach them and they really wanted to participate with us."

In addition to the students of international school, there were many enthusiastic Expats also got involved in the activities of the day, they taught them English and painting, the entire school was surrounded by love and laugh.

“The Library Project was a fantastic practical way for our international students to not only give, but to experience first hand what it feels like to do something good for someone else.Our students loved the experience and we would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to get involved in the future to do so." Matthew Nicholson, the Co–Principal of YCIS Chongqing said.

As the founder of this library plan, Bronwyn feels a great sense of achievement , she hopes that in future there will be more such activities going on and open up more libraries.“There are 1000's of international schools around the world and many within China. Imagine how many Chinese children could enjoy the magic of books if every international school took on a project.” From the twinkle in the Australian girl’s blue colored eyes, we can tell that this has just begun.

來自耀中國際學(xué)校的澳大利亞籍老師Bert Hall 與學(xué)生愉快地交流

印度學(xué)生正和石板小學(xué)的學(xué)生認(rèn)真交談