Children’s Village The Children’s Village is a foster home in Shunyi for kids whose parents has been detained for their run in with the law. The home is both shelter and school for the children to stay for the duration of their parents’ sentence. Formed by Zhang Shuqin a 52 year old prison officer in Xi’an, the home expanded to Beijing some short time ago enabling Interact to get involved and help out. Children’s Village takes in parentless children from all over China, but priorities are given to those abandoned in the farther reaches of Chinese society where traditional customs that discourage helping and encourage mistreatment of convicts children.
Interact tries to visit the Children’s Village at least twice a month on weekends to play and interact with the kids. Interact donates various supplies, from school accessories to clothing to toys. By visiting the Children’s Village, students’ receive a broader perspective of the Beijing community and gain greater appreciation of their living standards.
East Timor Project During September, Interact hosted a month long school supply drive for the needy children of East Timor. Cardboard boxes were placed around campus and students were encouraged to donate whatever school supplies they can spare. The donated supplies were then wrapped in numerous small packages and sent to East Timor for distribution.
Tutoring since the beginning of the school year, high school students have participated in a tutoring program to educate elementary and middle school kids. Working for CAS or for personal gratification these intrepid young teachers educated their pupils for one hour sessions after school in the library on various subjects such as, English, math and the sciences.
Fundraising project for Katherine In October Interact and Roots & Shoots members conducted a two day fundraising project to raise money for Katherine, a one year old baby girl born with a congenital heart disorder. Katherine’s operation is placed at an estimated 10,000 USD. Through profits made from refreshment sales during China Cup Tournament and generous donations by many parents, Interact and Roots & Shoots was able to raise over 3,000 RMB for her cause. Going beyond the line of duty, Interact members Jonathan Wei and Ryan Loong also collected donations from door to door at Beijing Riviera, raising and additional 1,000 RMB.
Battery Collection A battery collection was put into session last year to collect used batteries so they maybe recycled and reused. Special containers were places around the campus and everyone is encouraged to bring in their used batteries. The battery collection is an ongoing effort to help reduce wastes such as zinc, lead, nickel, alkaline, manganese, cadmium, silver, and mercury caused by improperly recycled batteries and also to conserve natural resources as the batteries can be scavenged for their metal casings.
Soda Cans Collection Interact has placed numerous recycle bins for soda cans around the campus so that they maybe properly recycled. Made out of aluminum, soda cans can be recycled to make many different things such as cars, airplanes or baseball bats. Recycling soda cans for aluminum is a much more cost-effective and cleans method to harvest this natural resource compared to mining which apart from being expensive, also causes air and water pollution.
Monkey Cans Every year, many monkeys are rescued from all over China in restaurants and other unnatural habitats. Traumatized by their experiences of seeing fellow monkeys murdered for human consumption or being mistreated as an exotic pet, most of the survivors are unable to live independently once released in the wild. To save our closest cousin, Interact and Roots & Shoots has placed Monkey shaped cans were placed in shops like Jenny Lous for donations. The money will go to build a shelter for the rescued monkeys.