Students head to China thanks to Santander Universities

The trip was funded by the Santander Universities student mobility programme

THREE Huddersfield students made headline news in China after they paid a special visit to a children’s charity in the South West Guizhou province to donate the money raised by students and staff at the University of Huddersfield’s Chinese Spring Festival celebrations.

Students Anisha Kalam, Chelsea Barclay and Neha Rodrigues travelled to the province’s Anqing Primary School to deliver a cheque for the sum of £1737.70 to the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund, a charity which supports the school.

The charity raises money to care, foster and educate children and teenagers and assist in developing their education and welfare in the less affluent and remote regions of China.

The primary school has over 500 children who are either orphans or whose parents have left the remote region to seek work in the big cities and accepting the cheque was the Head of Anqing Primary School Fu Xiang.

The trio's visit made front page news in one of the national newspapers, China Daily, with the headline UK university program is a class act for pupils.  You can view highlights in this video posted onto the University's International Facebook page.

The trip was fully funded by Santander Universities as part of their student mobility programme and was organised by the University’s China Office based in Beijing. The China Office, which also has regional recruitment teams based in Shanghai and Guangzhou, supports other charity projects including the China Social Welfare Foundation (CSWEF) that aims to help young girls in remote areas with sexual abuse awareness and physical hygiene skills.

Accompanying the three students on the four-day trip were the University’s International Student Experience Manager Alan Tobi who led the group,  the President of Huddersfield’s Chinese Student and Scholar Association Yong Jia Xu and Huddersfield’s Student Union Community Officer Tom Bowden.

The group spent a full day at the school, working with the children in the classroom and participating in sports. Meeting the school children proved to be the students’ favourite part of the whole visit.

“I loved going to the school and spending time with the kids,” said psychology student Anisha.  “They really have made an impression in my heart and I truly will never forget them.

“I’m so glad I was able to go on this trip and see the true beauty of another culture.  I learnt so much, ranging from little facts, to even learning some Mandarin,” she said.

Their schedule meant they were also able to take in some of China’s iconic tourist destinations, such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Beijing’s famous 2008 Olympic Stadium.

Alan Tobi said: “The University remains committed to promoting student mobility while continuing to honour its support of community projects.  This trip gave some our students the opportunity to experience a new culture while gaining an insight into one of the University’s charity projects.

“We believe it is very important to widen our students’ global mind-set and give them the chance to develop their skill-set to better prepare them for life after graduation.  We value our relationship with Santander Universities which gives University of Huddersfield students further opportunity to benefit from overseas projects such as this one.”

In addition to the funds raised in Huddersfield, the University’s China Office arranged for a charity song to be created by Songbingyang and Wangyajun, both well known in China.

The track entitled Heartwarming has been broadcast online over 37 million times since its release in mid-May and came about after the two musicians formed links with Allen Qi, the University's Chief Brand Officer based in Shanghai.  They too paid a visit to Anqing Primary School and were extremely moved by the experience. The song can be downloaded from the Chinese music platforms QQ Music, KugouMusic, KuwoMusic and Migu Music.