“I’ve never seen a picture book before” – thanks Darling Downs Christian School in Australia

Tso Shong Kindergarten is located in a very remote region in Western China. The villagers here mainly live by farming. Very little traffic enters this village which has created isolation for these families. Their income is not enough to cover daily life expenses such as food, clothes and oil to burn. Medical care and education is very expensive and out of reach from the family budget. These families live a very basic life and as you can see in the photo below, the school is very sparsely furnished. Like all mothers, they want to provide their children with a good life and they become discouraged when they are unable to.

Thanks to Darling Downs Christian School, each of the 40 children received a school bag, pencils, gloves and fun, colourful books just in time to celebrate International Children’s Day. They were especially excited to receive the colourful picture books. They have never seen one before and they spend a lot of time looking at the pictures and learning to read the words. These children have a new appreciation for learning and are enthusiastic to continue learning new things.

Cairang Dondrubg, the happy boy at the front left [photo on left], is about to start his third year at the kindergarten. He hasn’t had a new school bag for two years and his mother couldn’t get a new one for him because she doesn’t have any money. “I like to have a new school bag, and good looking shoes and nice, new clothes like others, but my mother says that we do not have money and I should not be asking too much. I never ask for all these because I know my mother is facing a difficult life and she has to work a lot. I do not want my mother getting tired and unhappy. Now I have a new bag, many pencils, exciting books and even gloves for the winter. My mother is very happy that I have all these. Thank you so much for all these” said Cairang Dondrub with a grateful, big smile.

Thank you to Darling Downs Christian School for making all this possible and for showing these children that they are special and important.