We are often moved by seeing volunteers teaching in remote countryside. But the reality is that we have a limited supply of volunteer teachers, and each one can stay with the children for only a limited time. So we must not overlook the more sustained and long-term role played by the hard-working and under-supported English teachers in the rural schools.

Since 2006, Stepping Stones has been committed to bringing high quality English teaching to disadvantaged children in China. But we recognise the limitations of volunteerism, and the importance of improving the daily English learning experience of the majority of Chinese children, who cannot all be reached by our volunteers.

With this in mind, we launched our VTT (Videolink Teacher Training) project, to train and support English teachers in remote rural areas, and to improve English education in the countryside permanently and sustainably.

The rural teachers value this training and support so highly that they are willing to sacrifice their weekend time, without any expectation of material reward. They are excited about this opportunity to improve their teaching and deliver a better education to their students. We feel inspired and rewarded by the passion and dedication of these teachers.

Now this program faces a crisis: by Chinese New Year, funding for this project will come to an end. We are determined to sustain this project so that we can train more teachers and in turn deliver a better education to many more rural students.

That’s why we are now raising money for next year’s training. We plan to train 30 more teachers in order to benefit 6,000 more students in 2020.

One rural teacher will educate on average at least 200 students per year. Therefore, to support one teacher’s training means to give 200 students a chance of better learning opportunities.

The training cost for each teacher is 7,000 yuan/year, including the cost of professional trainers to deliver 24 online training sessions, as well as 6 week-long site visits for monitoring and ensuring the effectiveness of the training.

This year, we are proud to work with Tencent “99 Giving Day” to raise the money. The fundraising event will last from 7 to 9 September. Our target is to raise 210,000 yuan to cover the training of 30 rural teachers for a year.

For the cost of just one cup of coffee per child, let’s give 6,000 children a bit of a head-start! It will cost only 6,000 cups of coffee!

A better education for one rural child for the cost of only one cup of coffee. 

Let’s do it!

For donation, please scan the QR

Time flies, and we are already past the mid-year point! We reviewed our programs at our mid-year team meeting, and have some encouraging updates to share with you!

Overall, we have exceeded most of our targets for the first half of 2019 – here are our program numbers so far:

We organized 482 volunteers to teach 3,230 classes, including 2,718 English classes and 512 computer classes, for 9,065 students in our teaching sites of Shanghai and other rural area across China. We also trained 55 English teachers in Shanghai migrant children schools and other rural schools.

Major Programs & Progress

Over the past Spring semester, the Shanghai English Teaching program has reached 25 teaching sites. With 248 volunteers involved, we taught 3,004 students and 1,775 lessons in total.

Ross Pitcairn, our former Training Director and Claire Ding, our Volunteer Training Manager, worked hard to update our curriculum and teaching materials, completing a full set of new lesson plans for our weekend and summer programs, as well as introducing progress check tests. All those improvements will make our classes more effective and active in the future.

We stepped further into rural China. In June, our Program Manager Sherry Jia visited a remote village in Gengma County, Yunnan Province, where we will establish a new Videolink site next term, bringing English classes to the children in local primary school for the first time in their life. The welcome we received was overwhelming, and we are now looking for funding to allow us to extend the Videolink program to more schools in the area.

Currently we have eight Videolink teaching sites covering over 1,000 migrant children and rural children, and the program is still growing. Before leaving Shanghai, Ross completed the full set of PPT lesson plans for the program, as well as overhauling the training materials, half a year ahead of the schedule!

On top of that, our volunteers continued to go into the countryside in person to teach English classes for local left-behind children. Despite all the difficulties including language barriers, our volunteers were always touched by children’ smiles and their excitement for contact with the external world.

Our rural group volunteer tours also broke new records. In the first half of 2019, we have already led over 100 volunteers from partner schools and companies to rural teaching sites and taught more than 600 English classes to almost 3,000 rural students.

In June, our Teacher Trainer Desi Nieto completed the third full year of our English Teacher Training Program in Shanghai, providing training to teachers at 9 schools for migrant children. 28 new teachers received training, and we continued to support 14 champion teachers selected from the previous trainings. 13 English teachers in rural Anhui were also trained through the internet. With continuous improvement in our training methods, our training was proved again to be very welcomed and well received. Teachers reported greater confidence in their English skills, and that they were using more English in their classes. This will potentially benefit over 5,500 students in total!

Good news also came from the Stepping Up program. More than 400 students have benefited from our new programin Jiaxing in the last six months, learning basic computer and life skills and becoming more able to connect and explore the world through the internet in safety.

Of course, we not only work; we also have fun. Walkathon, fundraising dinner, volunteers appreciation party … we, with hundreds of tireless volunteers and generous donors, experienced the joy of working hard to overcome challenges together.

In the latter half of 2019, let us continue to walk forward together!

On July 10th, Volunteers from Target spent a wonderful afternoon with the kids at Stepping Stones’ summer camp at Hongqiao International Logistics Centre in Minhang District, Shanghai.

Crafting is always one of the favourite activities of our summer camp students. On the day of the crafts lesson, volunteers from Target divided into five groups. In each group, the children used card boxes, scrap paper, other recycled materials, crayons, color pens, and pencils to create their dream houses, together, with the volunteers.

The volunteers encouraged the children to use their imagination for their ideal houses. Then, based on their sketches, volunteers helped the kids to realize their final designs. The finished houses were extremely creative. Some houses have swimming pools and ponds, and inside the ponds, there are beautiful lotuses and frogs. Some kids even decorated their chimneys with ping pong balls to replicate the smoke.

The lesson was great fun, and volunteers and children alike had a wonderful time.
This is just the latest example of Target and Stepping Stones’ successful collaboration. Target Foundation is one of Stepping Stones’ longest-term donors. Since 2012, Target Foundation has been donating US$20,000 – 25,000 per year to support Stepping Stones’ volunteer training program, as well as doing 2-3 volunteering activities with Stepping Stones each year. Target Foundation contributes similarly to many other educational NGOs throughout the world, displaying a sustained and high-impact commitment to corporate social responsibility.

Since 2017, Stepping Stones has been contracted by the Huacao Youth League to run two full-time summer camps in July and August to help disadvantaged children have a safe, happy, and enriched summer, providing these children numerous activities and lessons, including English, Computer, Arts and Crafts, Drama, Environment, Dance, Life Skills, Martial Arts, board games, etc.

On the eve of Children’s Day, the Stepping Stones launched the video link program in the Mangweng Primary School of Gengma County of Yunnan Province, with the support and assistance from Shanghai Shine Social Work Development Centre, Gengma County Bureau of Civil Affairs, Gengma County Bureau of Education, and Gengma Yijia Youth Affairs Social Work Service Centre.

The staff from Stepping Stones set up the equipment in the school, and the training director of Stepping Stones Ross taught the first remote English class to local pupils with teaching materials designed exclusively for local children. It is also the first English class that local children have had in their life.

Setting off from Shanghai, our staff spent 12 hours to get to the school in the remote mountainous area.

Located in the border area between China and Burma, though abundant in sugar cane and grapes, the county of southwestern China had been listed as a poor county until the April of 2019. Due to the terrible transportation, local farmers always find it difficult to deliver their sweet fruits to outside markets. For the same reason, local children have also been isolated by the mountains and have been keen to communicate with people.

Therefore, it is very impressive when our staff saw the children wearing their traditional ethnic costumes to celebrate the launch of their English class.

It is even more surprised when those children came up after the class to our staff, who were leaving for another teaching point, and pleaded them not to go as they had prepared performances to treat those guests.

Different from our previous experiences, the children in Mangweng School have never been reluctant to speak to strangers. Despite nil English before, they were proactive in the class. They were keen to follow the teacher and practice. It was amazing to find how hard they were working: even during the gap of dancing performances, they were repeating the English words and phrases they just learnt.

“It is really impressive,” Sherry Jia, the Programme Manager of Stepping Stones who had visited a number of remote rural schools and met thousands of rural children, said it made her feel “emotional”.

“Children in that area rarely receive information from outside and have little chance to communicate with people from outside. When strangers come, they would be very welcoming and hospitable. They are keen to communicate with you, because it is like you are opening a window to the outside world for them. “ She said.

From September 2019, the Video Link programme of Stepping Stones will formally open in the Mangweng Primary School. Children of the school will have two English Classes per week. We hope the class will open a window to the future for those children.

Do you want to help English teachers for migrant children improve their oral English confidence, thus helping them teach their students better? If so, our Teachers’ English Corner may be for you:

If you are resident in Shanghai, and have free time on weekdays, you can visit a group of English teachers at their school and do a conversation class with them.

A commitment of at least twice a month for a full semester is required. No experience necessary. Training will be provided. You are expected to volunteer in working hours during weekdays, most likely in the afternoon, the days of the week vary from one school to another.

If you’re interested, please contact Desi Nieto: teacher.training@steppingstoneschina.net

and don’t forget to register online.

Some brief updates:

Stepping Stones is recruiting:

Due to the departure of two key staff members, we now have vacancies for a Communications Manager as well as a Program Manager for our Shanghai English Teaching Program. You can find more information about the positions here.

Office: 

We have settled in well into our new office at Sandbox in Yangpu district, but unfortunately we have to leave in the summer. If anyone is able to provide affordable or free space to Stepping Stones later this year, we look forward to hearing from you!

New Video: 

A big thank you to long-term sponsor ID Creations for producing this beautiful video for us, which tells Stepping Stones’ story from our early days.

Please click here to find out how to donate and support our programs.

Thank you for all your support, and I wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year!

Corinne Hua

Executive Director

Executive Director

The Communications Manager reports to the Executive Director,  and:

• Works with the whole team to formulate and implement Stepping Stones’ Communications Strategy, which integrates message development, web presence, and social media.
• Collects stories and key messages from staff, volunteers and other stakeholders and produces English and Chinese language communications, including website, wechat posts, e-newsletters, other social media posts (facebook, weibo, etc), and videos.
• Designs marketing materials, such as presentations, annual reports, flyers, posters, greetings cards, etc.
• Manages, maintains and continuously improves Stepping Stones’ Chinese website, and gradually adapts the English website to match the Chinese one.
• Coordinates photography and videography work to capture high quality images and footage of Stepping Stones’ projects for promotion purposes.
• Manages the storage of Stepping Stones’ photo and video data.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Several years’ communications and design experience (corporate or non-profit sector);
• Good Chinese writing skills (native-level preferred) and fluency in English;
• Experienced with a range of different communications platforms, and different media, including photography and video;
• Technologically competent and quick to learn new technology;
• Ability to work independently as well as within a team, multi-task, stay well-organized and adapt in an ever-changing sector/environment;
• Interest in the non-profit/social/development sector;
• Excellent work ethic with a positive and flexible attitude.

Compensation and Benefits:

Compensation will be at local market levels in the non-profit sector and take into consideration the skills and experience of the successful applicant.  Stepping Stones will provide all statutory benefits for Chinese nationals, or medical insurance for expatriates, plus 12 days annual leave in the first year of employment.

Candidates already based in Shanghai are preferred, noting that Stepping Stones is unable to cover relocation costs or assist with accommodation. Stepping Stones can assist foreign nationals with work permit and visa applications.

Start Date:

The start date should ideally be no later than March 2019.  The initial contract would be full-time (40 hours per week) for one year, with an option to extend upon mutual agreement.

Work Location:

The Communications Manager will be based at Stepping Stones’ office, which is currently at Room 1110, Building 1, No. 1687, Changyang Road, Yangpu District, but will move elsewhere in Shanghai by summer 2019.  Occasional working from home may be possible.

Contact:

To apply for this position, please send your resume to hr@steppingstoneschina.net by 15th February 2019 with a cover letter to explain your suitability for this job position, and why you are interested in it. Applications can be in English, Chinese or both languages.

Please check out this touching video, which tells Stepping Stones’ story from the very beginning! A huge thank you to ID Creations, who have been making beautiful and highly professional videos for us since 2009, and all pro bono! Woohoo!! And a big thank you to all the volunteers and staff whose hard work has made this video, as well as Stepping Stones itself, a reality!

On the evening of Thursday 10th January, Stepping Stones’ staff and volunteers swapped their Stepping Stones t-shirts for fancy evening wear, and headed to Glam at M on the Bund to host a New Year Soirée for Stepping Stones’ top donors.

Guests mingled over a delicious champagne cocktail before sitting down for a fabulous four-course meal accompanied by M on the Bund’s very own Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc wines. Jazz singer Lulu accompanied by Ryan on the piano contributed to the cool ambiance.

Dragon TV presenter Mr. Yu Li kept guests entertained and kept the evening’s proceedings flowing smoothly.

British Consul General John Edwards presented the British Empire Medal certificate to Stepping Stones founder Corinne Hua, who was proudly wearing for the first time the medal that was presented to her in November by Prince Andrew.

Leading Chinese economist Professor Fan Gang gave a touching speech about his experiences teaching at a primary school in Hebei Province during the 1970s, and Rupert Hoogewerf (better known by his Chinese name Hu Run) talked about the joy of making a difference to children’s education.

Corinne Hua explained to guests what inspired her to study Chinese and the journey that led her to establishing Stepping Stones in Shanghai, and was excited to share with guests Stepping Stones’ ambition to establish a foundation in 2019.

Old friends of Stepping Stones enjoyed welcoming new supporters, and thanks to the intimate ambiance created by this small-scale dinner, numbering only 30 people, guests were surprised to find how much they had in common with people who they were meeting for the first time.  New friends vowed to stay in touch with each other and come together again in the near future to continue to help Stepping Stones with its 2019 goal to establish a foundation.

The generosity of our guests, along with other friends who were unable to attend the soirée, has totally exceeded our expectations. In just one evening, we received pledges for more than 1 million RMB, bringing Stepping Stones half way towards the 2 million RMB goal!

Our fundraising campaign will continue into the Spring, and we plan to hold a second event in early April. If you would like to get involved in the campaign or in the fundraising dinner in April, please get in touch.

Sincerest thanks to Fan Gang, Rupert Hoogewerf, John Edwards and Yu Li for supporting this event and  Michelle Garnaut for providing the fabulous venue, food and drinks. Thank you also to the volunteers and staff who worked tirelessly to organise a superb evening. All finally, thank you to our very generous donors. With your help, we believe Stepping Stones can do even greater things in 2019 and beyond.

Are you based in Shanghai and willing to dedicate time for English volunteering? Please check this opportunity below! If you are interested in this opportunity, please click here.