Friendship Summer Camp

Friendship Camp Summer Opportunities Friendship Summer Camp in Yangshuo Betty Cutts and Zhang Gongwen     The Yangshuo Education Department, Blessing Hands, Yangshuo County Government, and Sister Cities of Morehead are cooperating on a summer Friendship Camp in the middle of July 2012.      We are excited about this opportunity for our two Sister Cities to get to know one another better.  You can support this camp with your gift at this link. Apply to be a Camp Volunteer Li River in Yangshuo Come to China    We are looking for volunteer teachers and college students to be our counselors at the Friendship Camp. If you can teach or have talent, come share with our Yangshuo students.  Contact us for more details and apply before February 20th.     Our tentative plans are to have camp for a week with our Blessing Hands students, but we also plan to make room for other students, who can pay the camp fee, which will be about $50. US high school campers are welcome, if their parents are teachers or they are traveling with an adult. It would be an opportunity for students to exchange culture and language.     Volunteers will get their room and board free at the camp unless teachers want to stay in hotels at their own expense. College student counselors should be at least 19 and willing to pay their own way to China and sleep with students in the school dorm. The camp will be at a high school campus in Yangshuo.  Beautiful Yangshuo    Chinese translators for US counselors or teachers would get a small salary and room and board.           We are now taking applications for four college age English counselors and four college Chinese/English speaking counselors. We will need teachers also according to the talents of those that apply. If the teachers don't know Chinese, then we will also need translators to help the English speaking teachers. If you speak both English and Chinese, weespecially want you to apply to teach.  In This Issue Volunteers needed in China Cupcake Party a Success Chinese New Year Celebration Mayor Tan Quick Links Website Contact us Youtube Channel Blog Donations Cupcake Party Raised Enough for Two Water Purifiers Cupcake Party      Christina Zhang and her family hosted a wonderful Cupcake party with their friends and Blessing Hands supporters in Lexington, Kentucky recently. Donations were received for two water purification units for Yao minority schools in Du'an County. Christina's goal was at least one, so she really was blessed to be able to give two. Now we only lack one more purifier and two more steel tanks. You can still give toward a purifier at this link.     Below you can see a video of a water purifier being installed and another video of the Cupcake Party.  Cupcake Fund Raiser Clean Water Comes To Long Wang Primary Chinese New Year Celebration  Christina Zhang and Erting Pan at the New Year Celebration     I got to see old friends and make new ones at the Lexington Chinese New Year Festival recently. The celebration was hosted by the Kentucky Chinese American Association, which allowed us to have an information table about our Blessing Hands Kids.       Christina Zhang, Eric Zhang, and Erting Pan Scaggs were just a few of the volunteers who helped at the table. The program was wonderful and everyone had a great time.  Mayor Tan of Yangshuo Favors Blessing Hands Mayor Tan Feng of Yangshuo         Mayor Tan Feng of Yangshuo and his delegation visited Morehead in late December. Our board members were able to discuss future projects with him along with the Morehead Sister Cities Board. He gave encouragement for our planned HIV training and Friendship Camp in Yangshuo this summer.    Recently Mayor Tan assigned a liaison person to make it easier for us to communicate with government departments of Yangshuo. Amy Li, who speaks English, will be assisting Sister Cities, Blessing Hands and Yaya Luo with implementing projects in Yangshuo in July. That will make it easier for us to communicate with the schools and medical personnel. Mayor Tan even expressed the desire to volunteer with us after he retires.  Dr. Wang and his daughter, Xinyi with Leanna Gilliam at Liushan School in Du'an in 2011      Dr. Siying Wang has volunteered to teach the HIV training. He is presently a visiting scholar at theUniversity of Kentucky, but his home is Xi'an, China.  He helped us last summer with our Health Assistant Workshop in Du'an. I look forward to working with him and his daughter again. Mayor Tan will ask the medical professionals at their hospitals and Health Department to attend the one and one half day training. It has started off to be an excellent year.  We hope for many more blessings to come. We still have students who needs sponsors, and sponsors who have not given their spring support yet.  You can give on our website at this link!    Sincerely,   Betty Cutts  Director of Blessing Hands