"A Fantastic Experience": Bertelsmann China Invites Hope School Students To Expo 2010

“We visited seven pavilions. My favorite was the Brazilian one – it had a huge football in it!” Wang Dongli, a fifth-grader at the “Bertelsmann Da Long Hua Hope School” in China, and three of his classmates were the lucky kids invited by Bertelsmann China for a one-of-a-kind experience: a visit to the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, the largest world fair ever. Together with their headmaster, they spent a full day – exhausting but exciting – exploring the Expo grounds: ”Spending a day at the Expo was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to go back to my hometown to tell my friends and classmates about this trip! ” Wang Dongli said happily.

His headmaster, Tong Rongxi was equally delighted with the trip: “ As headmaster, I’m happy that the kids got this opportunity to visit the famed Shanghai Expo ,” he said, adding that this sort of visit is more educational than just reading books because it visually demonstrates the development of science and technology and the development of the modern world.

Various future projects are already in planning at the school in the Yi County region. In September there will be a drawing contest in which kids will be asked to draw their dreams on paper. Several of the drawings will then be selected to grace Bertelsmann China’s New Year’s cards.

At the end of 2008, several Bertelsmann companies in China, including Arvato, G+J, Fremantle Media, the local Corporate Center and the Bertelsmann Asia Investments fund, had donated a total of €25,000 plus in-kind gifts such as computers to support the Beijing Youth Development relief agency’s “Hope School” project with the local government (see BeNet report). Most of the schoolchildren in Yi County, which is about 120 kilometers from Beijing, come from families who are too poor to be able to invest in their children’s education. Bertelsmann also sponsors another educational institution in China, Guangping Middle School in the Shaanxi region. (benet)