Dormitory gives boarding school students a new lease of life

Eleven-year-old Pu Mingzhi and 8-year-old Pu Mingtao, students at Liufeng Primary School, are looking forward to moving into a new dormitory built by German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG and local education authorities.

The cousins are among 31 students at the school who have to board because their families live too far away.

The school, tucked away in a mountainous area, is in Mouding county in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The pupils have been living in the teaching building as the school's old dormitory had become too dilapidated to sleep in. Some students have to share a single bed because of the limited space.

Liang Qinglin, one of the school's six teachers, said he was "very grateful" to Bayer, which has helped build a new two-story dormitory for the students.

Two years ago, Yunnan members of the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party and local education authorities asked Dihon Pharmaceutical Group Co to help build a new dormitory for the pupils.

The Yunnan-based pharmaceutical manufacturer donated 300,000 yuan ($48,302) to help build the dormitory on July 25 last year and Bayer continued the project after acquiring Dihon in November.

A dozen Bayer volunteers visited Liufeng Primary School on June 11 and 12 to paint the walls, play games and install bookshelves to celebrate the completion of the dormitory with the pupils.

The students will probably move into the new dormitory by the end of June, according to Meng Shaocheng, president of Liufeng Primary School.

Liang said the pupils' accommodation conditions had been even worse before the teaching building was completed in November 2013.

Some classrooms were separated by just a curtain, with classes held on one side and the other side used as a dormitory where four pupils would sleep in two-square-meter area.

When it rained, the tile roof usually leaked and students had to use basins to catch rainwater, Liang said.

Pu Mingzhi and Pu Mingtao beamed when they were asked how they felt about the new dormitory and what Bayer's volunteers did for them. They said they hoped the volunteers would visit again.

"Supporting globally educational development is an important part of our corporate social responsibilities," said Celina Chew, president of Bayer Greater China Group, at the completion ceremony of the dormitory on June 12.

She added that Bayer would donate a further 320,000 yuan to provide the school with beds, multimedia teaching equipment, sports facilities and teacher training.

Bayer AG was set up in 1863 and now focuses on life science business, namely, Bayer HealthCare and Bayer Crop-Science. Sales of the company in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan hit 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) in 2014 and it has more than 15,500 members of staff in the regions.

The company carried out a poverty-relief project in Wanzhou district in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality from 2012 to 2014. Part of that was assistance in education.

Bayer donated 50,000 yuan to buy pupils in Longtou Village Primary School in Wanzhou, chairs, desks, basketball stands and a computer, and spent 20,000 yuan helping Yudu Village Primary School repair dilapidated classrooms.

It also set up and funded student clubs in the two schools, where Bayer's volunteers helped teach pupils calligraphy, singing, dancing, handicrafts, painting and sport.

Bayer founded its volunteer association in 2007 and the association has had nearly 4,316 members in China by Dec 31, 2014.

In total, the members have spent 54,550 hours on 478 visits to Bayer projects.

In late August, Yan Weiyu, chief of the Yunnan branch of Bayer's volunteer association, and its members plan to go to Huodehong village in Yunnan, which was hit by an earthquake last year.

They will share their knowledge and information about hygiene and safety at temporary shelters in the area, play games with children and teach singing and painting.

Yan said she would definitely go to Liufeng Primary School again with the volunteers to play with the pupils and provide them with a better learning environment.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/19/2015 page15)