Volunteering gives teen a fresh outlook

Yao Yao (R) a high school graduate from Nantong, Jiangsu province, and one of her students in a classroom in Laos where Yao participated in an international volunteering project during this year's summer holiday. [Photo/Provided to China Daily]

For most Chinese teenagers, the summer vacation after their college entrance exams is one of the happiest, as they are finally free from endless homework and revision.

At last, they can spend their days doing what they love or what interests them, instead of burying themselves away with busy study schedules. They have time to relax, to sleep in without setting an alarm, to catch up on TV shows and to get together with their friends.

Like her post-1990s generation peers, Yao Yao from Nantong, Jiangsu province, also enjoyed a lazy and free start to her summer. However, she soon became bored and wanted to do something special and meaningful.

Talking with one of her friends, who is going to the United States for college, Yao heard about international volunteering network International Volunteer HQ. She was so moved by the meaningful as well as colorful life of the international volunteers she decided to sign up for a volunteering project in Laos, one of the least developed countries in the world.

"I began to think about whether I could do something meaningful to enrich my summer vacation. It (the volunteering work in Laos) is a super excellent opportunity," Yao told local newspaper Jianghai Wanbao.

"Traveling itself is a meaningful thing and the IVHQ volunteers can also make contributions to alleviate poverty. So the volunteering work adds more value to the travel," she said.

However, it was not long before Yao's excitement turned into frustration as she came up against a series of obstacles, the first of which was the rejection of the idea by her parents.

As Yao was still under the age of 18 when she applied for the volunteer position, she needed to have approval from her parents who thought Laos was too unsafe for a teenage girl to travel alone in.

Although Laos has made significant progress alleviating poverty during the past two decades and the country's economy has developed rapidly, with average growth of more than seven percent for the past five years, it still has a poverty rate of 27.6 percent, according to United Nations Development Program statistics.

Laos is an inland country bordering Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam. About 6.8 million people live in its 18 provinces, with 63 percent of its population living in rural areas, some of which do not have asphalt roads or electricity.

A huge challenge for Laos is that there are still unexploded mines from the second Indochina War that continue to destroy lives and limit agricultural production and expansion.

More than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped across the country's provinces between 1964 and 1973, with 30 percent failing to detonate. The correlation between landmines and prevalent poverty is clear, with 42 of the 46 poorest districts affected, according to a UNDP report.

However, this has not deterred Yao. She downloaded large amounts of research material proving that IVHQ is a qualified international volunteering organization and working with them is safe. After all her efforts, Yao’s parents finally agreed to sign the documents so she could go to Laos.

Yao still had to deal with other challenges, as she had never traveled overseas alone before. It took her a month to prepare before she finally arrived in Laos for one week of volunteering.

Difficulties continued after Yao's arrival. She had difficulties communicating and was pushed to her physical limits working in temperatures above 35 C and walking along the muddy country roads to the volunteer sites.

"But I don't regret doing the volunteering work at all because I've learned so much," she said.

Yao said she felt fortunate to have experienced so many things for the first time- traveling abroad alone, helping some of the poorest people in the world, representing Chinese volunteers and engaging in an international culture. She said all this made her realize how big and diverse the world is.

Yao said the volunteeringwork also made her grow up and seeing people living in poverty made her think about her "expensive" and sometimes frivolous life.

"It is only the beginning," Yao said, adding that she would continue volunteering.

Contact the writers through dingcongrong@chinadaily.com.cn.