China Wenjing Overcomes Childhood Scars
Left with scars caused by hot water scalding at the age of 2, Li Wenjing (right of photo) who is now 11 years old, has always been introverted by nature. Ashamed of the physical marks left by the burn, she used to hide behind doors, away from other children, at a Save the Children’s “Home of the Children”. The only people she felt comfortable being around with were her 3 younger siblings.
Under continuous encouragement of Save the Children volunteers at the centre, Wenjing brought her siblings along to the centre got ukulele and sing-along sessions. This led to huge encouragement between herself and everyone else at centre and now, Wenjing is the lead musician of a band made up of children from the centre called “Dream Band” that has already performed around the village.
The accomplishments did not stop there. In 2015, Wenjing and a fellow bandmate were chosen to participate in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province.
“Ever since I joined “Home of the Children”, I feel really happy.” Wenjing shared, “I started to really like drawing, and have gained much knowledge, especially to play the ukulele.” My younger sisters have also changed after coming to the centre. They have learnt how to sing, dance and write. We really hope the centre will be here forever.”
Wenjing is still a core member of the children’s committee of the centre and is responsible in assisting the volunteers on taking care of the younger children in their activities.
On the 22nd of March, Save the Children in China successfully conducted a sharing session on the project construction of the “Home of the Children” project. Participants included various representatives from governmental departments and community groups from 3 different counties, partners from Save the Children, as well as local “Home of the Children” volunteer and teacher representatives, with about 120 participants attending the event.
From August 2014 to March 2016, Save the Children supported a total of 17 “Home of the Children” projects in Ludian and Qiaojia counties. After a year of successful completions of disaster relief efforts, a big result of the completion of the “Home of the Children” project was finding and exploring a pathway involving multiple agencies in promoting child protection and growth.
These “Home of the Children” projects provided children with interesting activities, which involved personal hygiene, life skills, child participation and various other relevant topics. These activities also provided an important platform for child protection, development and participation rights during rebuilding and reconstruction efforts. Under our support, the children created a “Children Management Committee”, and participated in central management and activity design.
