Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

ZHANG SHAOYAN is a sophomore at Shenzhen Polytechnic. Along with 27 of his fellow students, he is spending time with over 100 lonely seniors at a nursing home in Pingxiang, Luxi County in Jiangxi Province.

“What I find interesting is that each of the seniors has led a legendary life or has experiences to share and they just need people to listen to them,” said the student, who is one of the photographers for this weeklong volunteering campaign to keep the lonely seniors company.

The student is a newcomer to Shenzhen from North China. He said that Shenzhen’s spirit of volunteering is quite different from other cities in China and he was impressed when he first came here to study.

The 28 students, who come from the Faculty of Arts, entertained the elderly people at the nursing home with a show on the first day of their arrival.

It has become a tradition that each year all of the faculties at Shenzhen Polytechnic will organize students to do various kinds of volunteer work during the summer holiday, said Zhang Yizhe, a teacher from the faculty who has been taking students to do volunteer work in Jiangxi for six years.

“By organizing such volunteering camps, we believe the students can find joy and gain meaningful memories by helping others,” said the teacher. Zhang said that Shenzhen is famous for its spirit of volunteering and their university has carried out various volunteering projects.

“There are a total of 14 faculties at our university and each one has a volunteering organization,” Zhang said. The teacher also said proudly that over 90 percent of the students from Shenzhen Polytechnic are registered as Shenzhen volunteers, and many of them have participated in large-scale activities such as marathons, exhibition fairs and so on.

Like the university students, many school students are also devoting their time to helping others during the summer holiday. Many students, and sometimes their parents, can be seen volunteering at public venues in Shenzhen, such as train stations, the airport and libraries.

In the Qiaoxiangcun residential compound in Futian District, a group of graduating students who just wrapped up their high school life has volunteered to tutor their successors, who will be going into their final year of high school in September.

These students are from Shenzhen Foreign Languages School. It’s been years since the school started organizing students to volunteer over school holidays, and tutoring younger students is just one of many volunteering opportunities. Students are also arranged to help passengers and tourists at Shenzhen International Airport, Shenzhen North Railway Station and Shekou Cruise Center.

From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., students wearing red vests endeavor to assist staff in checking tickets, carrying luggage for passengers and answering the questions of visitors.

For younger volunteers, like primary school students, their parents are also keen on getting involved in helping out on different occasions. A graduation ceremony was held to see off the six-graders at Binhai Primary School in Bao’an District. Many parents volunteered to arrange the venue and assist during the ceremony earlier this month.

A parent, surnamed Liao, said he often uses his spare time to volunteer at the school so that his child will see his example and always lend a hand to others.