My experiences as a volunteer in Beijing

It has already been almost two weeks ago since I left Beijing. Right now I am starting a new and totally different adventure as I am going to spend one semester as an exchange student in Taipei! Although I am excited to be in a new and different place on this incredible island, I still constantly think of the wonderful time I had in Beijing. Not only was it a great experience to live in the bustling city for a month, but on top of that, I have made some very great and interesting friends during this memorable experience, volunteering abroad for the first time. 

Together with China Inside, I visited three different NGO's in and around Beijing:

Huiling, a day care center for intellectually disabled people;

a home for children whos parents are detained;

a retail store which was created for people to donate their belongings so they could resell it and give all the profits to the numerous charity that this store gives aid to. 

By visiting these different NGO's and taking photos and witnessing what each of these projects try to achieve, I have created a flyer for China Inside. Our next step is to send these flyers back home to Holland with the goal of inspiring other young people like me to take a chance at coming to Beijing to work as a volunteer with China Inside. 

What was most special about visiting these different NGO's is that all these projects have a very strong emotional value, and by learning about how these projects initiated, I have gained a lot of admiration for the people behind these projects. 

As a MilleniumDo-er, I think it is difficult to say how I contributed to achieving the millenium goals. Hopefully, by creating these flyers and reaching more people and even telling people about my own experiences, this will inspire others and piece by piece achieve a little extra effort towards the MilleniumGoals. For instance, the home for children of detainees shows a wonderful example of efforts to reduce Child Mortality. This village forms a home for numerous children that will otherwise have no parents to take care of them and are left homeless at a very young age. Together with Beijing Huiling, I found these two projects very special as they are set up to support groups that have less in society and would otherwise not have gained any or very little attention. The retail store really pays attention to all kinds of different projects and problems in society by giving financial aid to numerous ones in Beijing and other parts of China.

Finally I would like to say that I find it very special that China Inside had brought me to work at such an unusual project as Beijing Huiling. The trainees here at Huiling belong to a group in society which do not gain a lot of attention in general and it is especially in China, difficult for them to have a 'regular' life like everybody else. This is really a cheerful place and I very much enjoyed getting to know the trainees. Especially after spending most of my time at Beijing Huiling, being a volunteer there for about five days a week, I will certainly miss joining in on all the activities with them. 

Being a volunteer has made travelling a lot more interesting and unusual for me. I wanted to come to Beijing to see the city and to learn more about the language and culture and volunteering here has really enhanced that experience. For me, this was the best way to get to know the locals and I hope to repeat this experience again!