让爱随图书传递——澳洲女孩Bronwyn的爱心计划

□ 李静

一个连接中外友谊的“图书角”计划，887本图书，一群来自五湖四海，黄皮肤、白皮肤、蓝眼睛、黑头发孩子们共同欢唱、学习交流，这样的温馨场面属于重庆九龙坡石板小学的学生们。可是谁能想到，这个计划竟然是由一位澳洲女孩发起的。

“一个孩子一本书”

来自澳大利亚的女孩Bronwyn，是一位热心的，喜爱中国的外国人，她一直从事写作和辅导大学生论文工作。来重庆的时间虽然不长，她却非常喜欢这座城市，更想为这里的人们做些什么。通过观察，她发现在重庆的外国人很多，而且都非常善意热心。而这是一个很不错的资源。如果让他们的孩子与重庆本地学校的孩子们结成友好伙伴，不仅可以拉近彼此的距离，也可以帮助到当地的一些贫困的孩子。有了这样的想法，Bronwyn便开始着手准备，很快，她就通过自己经营的一个叫The Research Den的网站设立了一个中国重庆学生图书馆项目。项目的主旨便是由这些年轻的在重庆学习生活的外籍学生来帮助当地的贫困孩子们，以此提高他们的生活和教育质量。

带着这样的想法，Bronwyn找到了重庆一所比较有名的国际学校耀中国际，希望让那里的学生加入到这个项目中来。她的想法得到了学校负责人的热烈回应和赞赏，而刚好耀中和石板小学是友好学校，有了他们的支持，Bronwyn的项目幸运地开了个好头。

“这个项目是通过三种形式来完成的。”Bronwyn兴致勃勃地讲述她的这个计划。“首先是学生之间的互帮互助。由国际学校理事会选出一个当地的学校一起合作举行，一个外籍学生帮助一个当地的孩子；其次是当地国际友人的支持，扩大影响和规模，与重庆外籍友人共同合作为当地学校建立一个图书馆或者读书角；第三是‘一个孩子一本书’，如果学校里有500个孩子，那么项目目标就应该有500本书；1000个孩子就应该有1000本书。” Bronwyn希望以此鼓励当地外籍友人为目前自己所居住的城市，为当地的人们贡献一份力量。

国际友人热情支持

可喜的是，图书馆计划一提出就得到了很多热心人士的帮助，也受到国际学校学生们的一致拥护，孩子们都跃跃欲试，迫不及待地希望加入其中。

对于这些外籍友人来说，项目最大的难题就是图书的来源和选购。“石板小学的老师告诉我们他们需要的图书种类，然后我们和耀中国际学校早教中心的老师商量，保证为孩子们的文化教育选出最合适最优质的图书。”Bronwyn表示，石板小学有700个学生，所以，700本图书是这次计划的目标。为了达到这个目标，外籍友人们都绞尽脑汁，一些美国家长还从国外选到很多不错的图书带回重庆；同时，重庆国际妇女社也积极为项目前期准备募捐，筹集资金，好购买更多图书。

经过一番努力，他们一共筹到887本图书。这些书包含了各个方面，同时还有一些教育类的游戏、益智玩具和挂在墙上的海报等，还有为老师们准备的卡片、百科全书和教学工具。第一次爱心行动就有如此不凡的成果，着实让每个人惊喜不已。

小小书架传心意

图书准备到位后，便是国际学校的孩子们自己动手，完成整个项目的时候了。为了让这些外国学生们发挥更大的主动性，Bronwyn以及其他几位国际友人都决定让他们自己完成这一个项目。“这就意味着他们需要在各个环节自己做出决定，包括设计书架、给书分类、组织成立仪式等。所以在这个计划中，过程与结果同等重要。” Bronwyn虽然有点担心，但仍然对孩子们充满信心。

于是，这些来自印度、澳大利亚、美国、英国、韩国等世界各个国家的孩子们开始参与进来，一场国际性的“联合行动”拉开帷幕。

来自耀中学校艺术小组的同学们负责为图书设计书架，他们分小组工作，设计出适龄3-5岁孩子的书架，他们的艺术老师Borrengasser曾学过家具装饰，于是担任起了孩子们的指导工作，他做了简单的调查，试图寻找适合年轻人的艺术设计。还鼓励学生们创新，将自己国家的文化特色融入到设计中去。

孩子们的天性是活泼开放的，很快就找到了设计的灵感，很快，几张五颜六色，布满鲜花、小鸟图案的设计图就呼之欲出了。学生们都很满意自己的作品。并开始着手自己调颜料漆，刷在书架上。得知这些书架和图书是提供给当地的小孩所在学校时，学生们都来了劲，一个个不知疲倦。在牺牲了无数个午休时间后，他们都把图书井井有条的分好类，同时为即将到来的成立仪式做好了准备。耀中学校的图书管理员Margie Netti也被孩子们的热情感动了，“看到学生们共同协助工作非常棒，令人欣慰，他们花了无数个午休的时间整理、分类图书，可以看出他们在这个项目上花了很多心思。”

爱无国界

举行图书角成立仪式的当天，石板小学的孩子们异常兴奋，早早地就站在教学楼上把小身子探出窗外期盼这些大姐姐大哥哥们的到来。虽然操着不同的语言，但是两个学校的孩子们聚在一起并不觉得陌生，反而激动地拉起对方的手，开心地交流起来。

三个漂亮的书架被分别安放在石板小学的三个早教教室里，成立仪式上，这些图书被罗列在教室外的桌上，每个孩子都被邀请到台上选出自己喜欢的两本书放在他们的教室里。这也是仪式中最有意义的部分。孩子们总会花上很长的时间仔细选择他们的图书，左看看右看看，小手一直不停地摸着书的封面。选好以后，他们便迫不及待地走进教室和耀中的学生们一起阅读起来。

Gautham Ramesh，一位来自印度的学生兴奋地表示，“看到他们拿到书时这么高兴，在成立仪式上玩得这么开心，我也很开心。我们和他们一起阅读，交流，真是意犹未尽。”

除了国际学校的学生们，还有很多热心的外籍人士也参与了当天的活动，他们和小孩子们一起，一字一句地教他们说英语和绘画，整个石板学校被这些不同国籍的友人们的爱心包围着。

耀中国际学校的合作校长 Matthew Nicholson也被眼前的情景感动了，“孩子们的热心感染了我。这个项目让学生们不仅学会了给予，同时也让他们体会到了赠人玫瑰，手留余香的快乐，我们的学生们很享受这样的体验，今后也将组织他们开展更多这样的活动。”

作为这个图书馆计划的发起人，Bronwyn觉得很有成就感，她希望将来会有更多这样的活动，让这些在中国学习的国际学校的学生在他们生活的城市成立更多图书角。“全世界有1000多所国际学校，而且大部分都在中国。想象一下，如果每一个国际学校都参与一个项目，那将会有多少中国孩子享受读书带来的乐趣。”从这位澳大利亚女孩湛蓝色的眼睛里，我们可以看到，这样的爱心接力才刚刚开始。

“图书角”成立仪式当天孩子们都很兴奋

石板小学的方校长很喜欢孩子们设计的书架

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在教小孩子们阅读

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.

国际友人Amber与学生们一起学习卡片

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.

来自耀中国际学校的澳大利亚籍老师Bert Hall 与学生愉快地交流

印度学生正和石板小学的学生认真交谈