Greetings to all from LSSC Changjiao.  Peace and Joy is within you. 

It is already past the middle of this year 2012.  The last time I wrote was at the end of March and so another three months had passed.  I ended that report saying “I am told LSSC will hit the news once again.”   Sure enough, we were front page news in Nanfang Ribao on 5th April 2012 and the series on LSSC went on for more than a week ( http://epaper.nfdaily.cn/html/2012-04/05/node_2.htm )  Unfortunately, the media publicity for LSSC so far are all in Chinese.  I will come back to this later.

Easter Holiday is long break for Hongkong.  Last year, the PTA of La Salle Primary School planned to visit LSSC but it was call off at the last minute.  This Easter Holiday they were determined to visit us and came in spite of the fact that LSSC was on holiday that particular weekend.  Thank God, on short notice, some of our students turned up to welcome our guests.  Though they were not able to observe our classes in action our students were able to give them a warm welcome at LSSC and they were treated to a small concert by Changjiao’s village Primary School.  We thank the LSP-PTA for their concern for LSSC and their constant support of this our Lasallian out-reach project.

On Sunday afternoon 15^th April, the Deputy Head of the Meizhou Education Bureau visited us and offered RMB50,000 to upgrade and extend the teaching facilities at LSSC. On Monday 16th April the Political Secretary of Dabu directed by the Political Secretary of Meizhou, visited LSSC and promised to contributed RMB100,000 in support of the education activities of LSSC.  How the contribution finally arrived and was made available for use by LSSC is a long story. 

Following closely on the media blitz by the Guandong based Nanfang Media Group, the top ten media groups from Beijing led by the Deputy Head of Overseas Chinese Affairs Ministry descended on LSSC on Sunday 22^nd April.  The result of this next wave of publicity led to two official recognitions, namely the County “Meizhou Hao Ren” followed by the Provincial “Guangdong Hao Ren”.  At the end of April, I was escorted by local Dabu officials to Zuhai to receive the Guandong Hao Ren (Good Man of Guangdong) award which was televised life on Zuhai TV.

Shortly after, I was told, the Political Secretary of Meizhou personally penned a directive to all government departments to learn from and follow the spirit and example “Guangdong Hao Ren Liao Le Nian” in public service.  Because of that directive, the Dabu local government organized a conference attended by the Dabu Political Secretary and all government officials in Dabu-Huliao (about 500 in all).  I turned down the invitation to talk about my work at LSSC Changjiao.  So they invited three persons, an officer of the local government, one of my students and a village officer each to deliver a 20 minutes talk on my contributions as an English teacher, the effect of my presence in the village in community development projects and the ripple effect of my presence in Dabu in the development of English learning at primary and secondary level. 

For those of you who can read Chinese and are interested in the media publicity about LSSC Changjiao, please type in the word <Baidu> into a search engine.  Once into “Baidu” either type in or cut-and paste the name <廖乐年〉and you will be able to follow the media reports and videos about LSSC Changjiao.  Another way to follow this media publicity is to go to www.lasallechina.com .

Just last week, on Saturday 30th June, Br. David Hawke of PARC and Br. Thomas Lavin of LEAD visited us.  Tom had visited us before so they had no difficulty getting to Meixian on their own.  I was there to meet them when they arrived and drove them back to LSSC Changjiao.  They spent two nights with us.  Br. D. Hawke wrote, “Changjiao is the ancestral village of Bro David and is situated not far from the city of Huliao in the District of Dabu in the County of Meizhou in Guangdong Province . In fact the teaching section of the La Salle Study Centre is located in Bro David's grandfather's house.  The China project now has three components: La Salle Study Centre (English Tuition), Scholarship Programme (University Fees Subsidy) and the Land Development Project (Community Development activities).”

With this short excerpt from Br. David Hawke comprehensive report of his visit I end this report.   We want to express our thanks to our many visitors and for their moral, spiritual, material and financial support without which we cannot sustain our English teaching and Community development mission in Changjiao.

 

Take care and God bless.

 

As always with love in the service of youth and nation through DLS, 

BDLiaoFSC
4^th July 2012