Global Health Club to partake in annual Beijing Immersion Program

Last September, junior Julia Deng browsed through her Facebook feed, checking class groups and scrolling through various posts. Suddenly, the globe icon in the corner of her screen lit up, bringing with it a notification that immediately brought a smile to her face.

Xiu Xiu, an orphan girl from China whom Deng had grown attached to that summer, had just been adopted by an American family. During the summer, Deng, along with several other students from the school, had the opportunity to spend time with Xiu Xiu and many other orphans.

The program that provided Deng with this opportunity was Global Health Club’s Beijing Immersion Program. During the annual program, students fly to Beijing and spend 16 days teaching and caring for 25 orphaned children. Volunteers also get a chance to visit Little Home of Children’s Hope, a residence for children visiting Beijing for surgery.

This summer’s Beijing Immersion Program will take place from July 22-Aug. 6. Volunteers are provided meals, transportation, dormitory-style accommodation and tours while they tend to orphans at Children’s Home.

During the program, which is in collaboration with Children’s Hope International (CHI), students will help provide homes, health care and hope to children. The program is part of CHI’s mission to help orphans and children with special needs.

Activities vary from keeping orphans company to creating short curriculums on any activity, allowing students to share their passions and knowledge.  

Volunteers also get a first-hand experience on how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) deliver medical care and provide lasting changes in the communities they operate.

The cost of the program itself is $2,000. On top of this, students are responsible for round-trip airfare to Beijing, passport and visa fees, and personal expenses such as weekend and after-hour activities.

Normally, Global Health Club selects five students to represent Saratoga High in the program, but the club has only selected two students to attend the program so far.

The students who have been selected to attend the two-week program are sophomores Cameron Chow and Ivy Qian.  Students who apply are encouraged to have enough prior knowledge of Mandarin to be able to have a basic conversation.

Through these interactions, volunteers will learn how to interact with orphaned children with disabilities. One of the positive experiences volunteers gain is the ability to connect to children in difficult circumstances, Deng said.

“The children in China love having older students there to spend time with them,” Deng said. “Without parental figures in their lives, they only have a limited number of workers in the home that care about them.”

Having attended last summer, Deng values maintaining contact with the orphans she had cared for before. She said the best part of staying in touch is following their adoption into loving families.

Qian, who is attending the program for the first time, sees it as an opportunity to gain experience in medical check-ups and care. Because she in interested in pursuing a career in medicine, Qian decided that attending the program would have been a worthwhile experience.

Even with the program a month away, Chow and Qian are looking forward to their experience in China, and they hope that other students are inspired to provide service and care for those who aren’t able to help themselves.

“I like helping people out and I'm not really good with children, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get more experience that way,” Qian said. “I'm most excited about meeting the children and helping them.”