2018年1月底，番茄计划团队在项目负责人谈丽君的带领下，走进广西融水苗族自治县中学。

融水县以山地为主，自古有“九山半水半分田”之说。所以那里的成年人多半选择外出务工，留下子女与大山为伴，与爷爷奶奶相依为命。融水苗族自治县中学的同学们就是这样一群孩子。

这一次，我们的志愿者团队为这里的孩子们带来了为期两天的面对面艺术教学。一行人到校后，北京电影学院表演系毕业的谭羽君，解放军艺术学院的声乐研究生杨清琪，创作型歌手谈丽君和韩永健等志愿者，一一向同学们进行了破冰介绍。随后由融水中学的同学们，根据自己的兴趣爱好反选老师，组成冬令营趣味小组。有针对性地开始了课程学习。

第一天，我们的主题是“用艺术解放天性”。上午教授孩子们台词常识，普通话正音和绕口令训练。下午进行了舞台基本技巧训练、表演基础训练，并排练了歌舞《跳舞的意义》。

第二天，主题活动是“原来我们也可以”。上午依旧是各个老师针对学生们兴趣爱好基本训练。下午，期盼已久的学生片段演出上场。孩子们分别演出了《弟子规总叙》、《道德经第一章》、《你的理想是什么》、《跳舞的意义》、《我的赛场》等精彩片段。

演出结束后，学校负责人、大学生义工、志愿者和孩子们一道，举行了“结营仪式”。当晚，全体人员共进晚餐。

两天时间，我们能教授的东西太少，但却从孩子们身上学到太多。

学生反馈：

蒙同学：这是我上高中以来最开心的两天……韩永健老师，谢谢能够遇见你，您教会了我们很多人生道理，让我们在这个迷茫的阶段明白了许多事，希望我们以后还会有机会见面。老师，我们是您永远的粉丝，爱您！

石同学：①不管做什么事都不要怕，不要太过于在乎别人的言语，要相信自己，勇敢的做自己就好了。②知恩图报。③知识改变命运，人可以相互帮助共同进步。④坚定理想信念，像向日葵每天都望着太阳一样。

兰同学：很高兴能认识你们，我知道你们都在一线城市工作，很感谢你们能来这里帮助我们，传授知识给我们。我们这边条件比较差，教室里没有暖气，看着你们手冻得红红的真的很心疼，但同时也很感动。虽然只相处了短短的两天，但是真的好舍不得你们，可这天下没有不散的宴席。谢谢你们，在跟你们相处的这两天我学到了很多新知识。我会继续努力学习，争取将来做一个像你们一样帮助所要帮助的人。谢谢你们，你们辛苦了，祝你们新年快乐，工作顺利！

梁同学：让我懂得人生路上有许多挫折，但不止一条路可以行得通，要学会选择还要有目标。韩老师给我们讲了他自己的经历和过程中的艰辛，也给予我很大的帮助，谢谢韩老师。

吴同学：首先让自己更好的与他人交流，也可以说知道怎么和他人在见面时冲破隔阂吧。还有就是学习别人优秀的地方来与自己的特点结合，从而让自己更加完善，让自己能有信心参与集体活动，为集体的荣誉而努力，培养自己团队意识。还有就是让自己知道学会感恩，学会对待每一个人、每一件事。

黄同学：学习到了一些有关音乐的知识，大致知道应该怎么唱歌。还知道了棋棋老师的经历以及她的演出，然后棋棋老师还和我们分享了她追求梦想路上的艰苦和坚持，也教会了我们只要敢想一切都不是梦，一定可以成为那个自己想要成为的人。在棋棋老师的笑容里看到了自信和肯定，爱笑的人运气不会差哦！“不管你的人生中遇到了什么困难，它都有好的一面和坏的一面，坚持下来就能看到曙光了”这是棋棋老师告诉我们的哦！谢谢棋棋老师！真的很开心！

张同学：两天，好似弹指一瞬，虽然短暂，但每个人都非常开心，在这过程中我们与老师们结下了深厚的友谊，即使在与老师们离别时有很多不舍，但我已经感到很满足很幸福了。这两天我也收获了不少，老师教我们练声发音，我知道了以前没有学过的技巧，这让是我在音乐方面的一些收获，老师不仅教唱歌，还给我们谈她的人生经历、学习方法，教会我在人生的道路上坚持自己的梦想，很多的鼓励和支持给了我很大的信心，我也相信我会一直坚持心中的理想，闯一闯属于自己的人生。在此，我更多的是感激，感谢义工团队的帮助，感谢海外基金会的帮助，不仅在资金方面，还在精神上给我支持，更教会我感恩，让我懂得做人的道理。心怀感恩，我一定会努力再努力！

龙同学：我想对谈老师说:在这两天里我很开心，我很幸运成为你的学生，谢谢你教会了我唱歌的时候要找到感觉，放开自我，让我做最酷的少年，去寻找最美的期待。我知道现在的我还有很多赛场，但是我会将一切困难打败的，冲向最后的胜利。老师，谢谢您，我永远都是你最忠诚的粉丝，希望以后多保持联系。

孩子们的话，让我们觉得，我们总还可以多做一点什么。真的走到他们身边，才发现他们需要的关爱，对未知信息的渴求，对山外世界的向往，远大于我们的想象。

尽我们所能，将他们接触不到的东西带给他们，比如表演和拍摄。他们就能通过艺术，将我们看不到的世界展示给我们。

星点之火，也能点燃孩子心中的光。

不使青年少年儿童失望，是我们成年人的使命。我们的精力有限，人员有限，财力有限，能做到的不足万中之一，但只要有一个孩子需要，我们就不会停下来。我们始终坚信，就算救不了沙坑里所有的鱼，但我们能帮助到的这条小鱼在乎，这条小鱼在乎，这条小鱼也在乎……

有孩子问，你们还会来吗？

我们说，当然。

也真诚地希望更多的朋友加入到我们番茄计划当中，我们可以依托OCEF网络等一些留守儿童接触不到的艺术课程，将电影、美术、摄影等带给他们。还是那句老生常谈，“授之以鱼不如授之以渔”，孩子们学习到了本领，手上有了能力，心中便有了力量。也正如融水中学的校训：“立德树人，自强不息。”

感谢OCEF，感谢高校素食联盟，还有一直默默支持我们的老师、校长、志愿者朋友们。    今时今日，就用梁启超先生的话作为我们的结束语吧——今日之责任，不在他人，而全在我少年。少年智则国智，少年富则国富，少年强则国强，少年独立则国独立，少年自由则国自由，少年进步则国进步。

加油，孩子们。

加油，我们。

番茄计划旨在联合身边各行各业做艺术的朋友将农村孩子们创作的作品做成视频，办成音乐会、艺术展览，并以此募集更多资金，让孩子们看到自己作品的价值。

文案：盼盼
图片：小梁

In late January, 2018, the Tomato Project team visited the Rongshui Miao Autonomous County High School in Guangxi, headed by Tan Lijun, the project lead.

Rongshui is located in a mountainous region, where the land surface is 90% mountains, 5% water, and 5% farmland, as the old saying goes. Most of the adults choose to take jobs elsewhere, leaving their children to live with the grandparents. The students at this school are just like that.

On this visit our volunteers brought the children two days of face-to-face art education. Four volunteers broke the ice with an introduction. They are Tan Yujun, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy with a major in performance; Yang Qingqi, a vocal arts graduate student at the PLA Art Institute; and singer-songwriters Tan Lijun and Han Yongjian. After that, each student got a chance to choose a teacher based on their interests and formed winter camp groups with targeted study.

Our theme on the first day of the program was “Liberate Yourself with Arts.” In the morning, we taught fundamentals of reciting and proper mandarin pronunciation, and conducted tongue twister practice. The afternoon classes were devoted to fundamentals of stage performance and rehearsing a song-and-dance routine called The Purpose of Dance.

Theme for the second day was “Actually, We Can, Too.”

The morning sessions were still focused on fundamentals the specific needs and interest of individual students. In the afternoon, the long anticipated students performances were on—quite a few excellent pieces to showcase their talent.

After the performance, the school officials joined the volunteers and the students in a closing celebration, and everyone gathered together for dinner that night.

Over the course of two short days, little did we teach and much did we learn.

Here are some snippets of feedback from the students:

Meng: “These are my two happiest days in high school… Thank you, Teacher Han Yongjian! You taught us a lot about life and help us see through many of the confusions in this stage of life. I hope we’ll cross path again sometime in the future. We’ll be life-long fans of yours. Love you!”

Lan: “Even though we have been together only for two days, it is so hard to say good-bye. Thank you! I have learned so much from you over the two days. I will continue to study hard and hopefully I will be someone like you to help others when I grow up.”

Huang: “I learned much knowledge about music and about how to sing. Teacher Qiqi shared with us her struggles and persistence while pursuing her dream, and taught us that nothing is impossible as long as we dare to dream.”

These words from the kids made us think that we could have done more. Only when we got very close did we really know how much they longed to be loved and to learn about unknown world outside the mountains. Their thirst far exceeded our imagination.

If we do our best to expose the kids to things that they would normally have no opportunity to enjoy, such as stage performance and photography, they will in turn show us a world that we normally would not see.

Even a spark of fire can ignite the light in a child’s heart.

It is our mission as grown-ups not to let down our youth. Even if what we can accomplish is limited, we will never stop as long as there are children in need.

One kid asked: Are you coming back?

We said: Of course!

We invite more of our friends to join us in the Tomato Project. We can bring movies, arts, photography to these “stay-behind” kids through the OCEF web platform. As the old saying goes, it is better to teach someone to fish than to give him a fish. When kids learn, they gain strength. As the motto of Rongshui High School says: “Cultivate Character, Always Improve Yourself.”

We would like to thank OCEF, the College Vegetarian Alliance, and all the teachers, school principals and volunteers for supporting us. At this time, let us conclude with what Maestro Liang Qichao once said: “The responsibility today rests on the shoulders of nobody but our youth: with intelligent youth we have an intelligent nation, with wealthy youth we have a wealthy nation, with strong youth we have a strong nation, with independent youth we have an independent nation, with free youth we have a free nation, and with progressive youth we have a progressive nation.”

Give it all, our youth!

Give it all, all of us!

With the help of our friends from all artistic professions, the Tomato Project seeks to turn art created by rural children into videos, music performances, and exhibitions, thereby raising more funds to help the children see the value of their creativity.

Text by Panpan; photographs by Liang

2015年OCEF大芝加哥地区第一次助学义卖活动受到了许多当地朋友的欢迎与支持，成为大家期待的年度活动。2017年，义卖筹集了近两千美元，全部用来资助与改善乡村贫困地区的教育。2018年第四年度的义卖助学活动现在开始了，具体安排如下：

捐物时间：2018年6月5日前。
接受物品：比较新的小件家庭用品，比如小孩玩具、自行车、小型运动器材、小型电器、工艺品、装饰品等家庭用品。
不接受物品：car seat，high chair，衣服，家具和大件物品。
捐物接收站：现已在Chicago Downtown, Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Naperville等地设有。
捐助方式：请扫描邮件末尾微信二维码，OCEF义工会与您联系安排具体事宜。捐赠者将收到OCEF收据。
义卖时间、地点：6月9日上午10点到下午3点在Prairie View Train Station（2701 N. Main Street, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089）的Vernon Township Community Garage Sale，摊位号105-108。

和往年一样，我们会同时举办烘烤义卖。欢迎孩子们来展示烘烤本领，也欢迎大家赞助小点心、饮料等等。

更多信息请查看http://www.ocef.org/chicago或者发邮件到 该E-mail地址已受到防止垃圾邮件机器人的保护，您必须启用浏览器的Java Script才能看到。 。

In 2015, the Greater Chicago area chapter of OCEF launched the first charity sale and received overwhelming support from the local community. Since then, the charity sale has become an annual event that many look forward to. In 2017 nearly $2,000 were raised through the charity sale and all of the proceeds were used to improve education in impoverished rural areas. The 4th annual charity sale of 2018 has now arrived, and we look forward to your participation!

Donation Period: Up to June 5, 2018.
Items Accepted: Small household items in good condition, such as toys, bicycles, small exercise equipment, small electronics, crafts, and home décor.
Items Not Accepted: Car seats, high chairs, clothes, furniture, and bulky items.
Where to Donate: Downtown Chicago, Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, and Naperville.
How to Donate: Scan the QR code below and a volunteer will contact you for specifics. OCEF will provide receipts to donors.

Time and Place of the Charity Sale: 10:00 am to 3:00 pm on June 9, 2018, Vernon Township Community Garage Sale at the Prairie View Train Station (2701 N. Main Street, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089), Space Nos. 105-108.

As in past years, we will also have a bake sale at the same time. We welcome your kids to show off their baking skills and encourage you to donate small pastry, drinks, etc.

For further details, please visit http://www.ocef.org/chicago or contact us at  该E-mail地址已受到防止垃圾邮件机器人的保护，您必须启用浏览器的Java Script才能看到。 .

第33期（2018年5月）/No. 33 (May 2018)
翻译：何雪炀     编校：汤柏
Translated by He Xueyang      Edited by Tang Bai

海外中国教育基金会/Overseas China Education Foundation

地址/Address: P. O. Box 772436, Houston, Texas 77215-2436, USA
电话/Telephone: (281) 506-2018 电子邮件/e-mail: 该E-mail地址已受到防止垃圾邮件机器人的保护，您必须启用浏览器的Java Script才能看到。

捐款链接/To make a donation to OCEF: http://ocef.org/donation

了解更多OCEF义工工作/To learn more about OCEF volunteers and their work：
http://www.ocef.org/publication/vol-newsflash