Enable more people to equally enjoy educational resources

"Last autumn, under the organization's promotion, I participated in the 'One Foundation's Walk for Love' charity hike in Shenzhen and completed a 55-kilometer walk, hoping to contribute to the construction of 'One Playground' in mountainous schools, enabling children to grow up in a healthier and happier environment. I never thought that I would actually visit one of the schools I supported and see the impact of my actions in person, witnessing the children's smiling faces...”

If you ask everyone about their most profound public welfare memory in 2017, many will likely answer - "Walk for Love."

From July to November last year, 225 Talents from Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Changsha, alongside students and parents, formed 98 volunteer teams to participate in the 'Walk for Love' charity hike initiated by the One Foundation, supporting the 'One Playground' construction with every step, allowing more children in post-disaster and impoverished areas to grow healthily and happily in the playground.

The accumulated 6,189 kilometers of love distance united Talents in perseverance and dedication, creating a bond and connection with the children in playgrounds all over the country who are thousands of miles away.

Visit your 'One Playground'

Talents actively participated in the 'Walk for Love' charity hike, and their love and sweat were transformed into donations for multiple schools in impoverished areas, used to build 'One Playground' for children's happy growth. As an education enterprise, we hope to join hands with the One Foundation to do more for children in distress.

A year has passed, and it's autumn again. The TAL Public Welfare Foundation, carrying everyone's care and expectations, visited one of the project schools under the 'One Playground Public Welfare Plan.' On the morning of October 17, the TAL Public Welfare Foundation and four visiting representatives from different business units, along with partners from the One Foundation, visited Yuexi Central School in Huajing Town, Xuanhan County, Dazhou City, Sichuan Province.

Situated at the foot of the mountains, the school is surrounded by serene and beautiful scenery. Upon arrival, the visiting team, accompanied by the principal, toured the classrooms, laboratory, cafeteria, and dormitories. The love sports kits, exchanged for children by TAL partners in the 'Love Step Donation' initiative of the charity map, were also delivered and signed for confirmation at this time.

Children from the school enthusiastically greeted the visitors, with a chorus of courteous "Hello, teacher" resounding like birds chirping in the woods. To engage further with these lovely children, a sports interaction class was prepared for everyone to participate in together. In the joyful play and mutual cooperation, big friends and little friends quickly became close. TAL teachers communicated their care and affection for each child through their words and actions. During the shared lunch at the cafeteria, children and the visiting brothers and sisters laughed and bonded.

The home visits followed. Unlike the light-hearted morning, the home visits brought heavy hearts among the visitors. We found that the children were excellent and sensible, but their growing environments were distressfully tough. Some had lost both parents, or their father had passed away while their mother left, leaving them to be raised by their grandparents. Some parents were elderly or seriously ill, living in poverty and unable to care about their children's education... "It's good enough if they can read a few words after graduating from middle school," one child's father said.

The children's plight deeply moved everyone. How to help them and create a better growing environment became a serious consideration for the TAL Public Welfare Foundation and each visiting teacher. After returning to the school, the visiting team exchanged and summarized with the teachers, brainstorming future initiatives for the children's benefit.

Hope for a loving world

After the visit, four public welfare individuals shared their thoughts and actions in public welfare.

# This visit deeply touched my heart @ Xueersi Kunming Branch, Liu Hongjing

I remember when I participated in the TAL Public Welfare Foundation's 'Walk for Love' event in Shenzhen last year, my goal was to complete the 55-kilometer hike and raise funds for children in mountainous areas. That time, I was motivated by the goal and my own commitment. Unexpectedly, this year's visit deeply touched my heart. From the interactions with the children in the morning to their reluctance when leaving, and the constant greetings of 'Hello teacher' in the corridors, I was profoundly moved. The home visits in the afternoon were especially unforgettable. Thinking about these children's futures made me feel powerless. I hope everyone has a heart for public welfare and hope this world is filled with love. I am willing to contribute my part to enable more children in the mountains to grow up healthy and happy.

# Being a mountain child myself, I want to help them @ Shunshun Overseas Education Market, Xiao Chen

My strong desire to participate in public welfare comes from my own experiences. My elementary school was a hope primary school. I was able to leave the mountains, profoundly benefiting from public welfare. I also know that many people in mountainous and impoverished areas need societal help. Additionally, I have taught overseas for two years, where there were many poor children. Whether children are domestic or abroad, their thirst for knowledge deeply moved me. As a mountain child, I used to have no idea about my future; I only knew that studying hard was the way to leave the mountains, as knowledge changes fate. Now that I've left the mountains, I am willing to support public welfare and children in remote mountainous areas as much as I can.

# When I truly got involved in public welfare @ AILab Backend Engineer, Li Hao

The 'Walk for Love' I participated in October 2017 was my first offline public welfare event. Since then, I have paid more attention to public welfare. Seeing the 'One Playground' visit activity on the charity map a year later, I carefully reviewed the work content and believed I was fully capable while also eagerly wanting to know if last time's charity hike had a real impact on the children. When I truly involved myself in public welfare, I felt an intense sense of social responsibility. There are many areas with inadequate educational resources and urgent needs for assistance worldwide. Coding in front of a computer all day, I hope to drive educational progress with my work, but without hardware support, many tech products would remain unused. Therefore, the pressing need is to change the children's growing environment.

# As a father, I want to do more for them @ Shenzhen Xueersi, Zhang Chaoyong

Every child is very eager to succeed. Their academic achievements show, with award certificates as their highest recognition. Parents greatly value their children's education; though they live poorly, they do their best to provide learning opportunities, possibly knowing that knowledge can change their fate, even if they don't express it or use encouraging language. After participating in the 55-kilometer charity hike in 2017, the charity medal I brought home was particularly liked by my 2-year-old daughter. It felt very motivating, giving me a sense of 'I am fighting for my daughter!' It is likely that their parents feel similarly, working hard nationwide due to limited knowledge, simply wanting the best education for their children, though unspoken. So, all I can say to the children at that moment is: "Hope you live positively, study hard, and make your parents proud in the future."

These four visiting volunteers represent numerous TAL public welfare individuals. While actively participating in public welfare, contributing their love, time, and effort, they never anticipated one day meeting face-to-face with the children they supported, visibly seeing the improvement their small acts of love brought to the children's growing environments.

Therefore, please do not overlook any opportunity to engage in public welfare and help others in everyday life. Everyone can participate in public welfare anytime and anywhere. On the 'Charity Map' launched by the TAL Public Welfare Foundation for convenient public welfare participation, there are public activities like 'Sunshine School Ward' and 'Micro-waves Library' available for registration, as well as simple daily participation in the 'Love Step Donation.' We invite everyone to log in to the charity map and join the TAL public welfare family.

We hope to do more in the future

Over the past 15 years, TAL has persistently practiced social responsibility and participated in educational public welfare, especially with the establishment of the TAL Public Welfare Foundation in 2013, guiding public welfare towards professionalism, systemization, and depth. Promoting educational equity, supporting rural preschool education development, and improving family education... we continuously explore and strive.

We believe in the power of education, and that dedicated, sustained public welfare will yield results, feedback, value, and impact. In the future, we will continue to invest more, assuming our responsibility as education practitioners, spreading the seeds of educational public welfare even wider.

This visit might be over, but our care for children in distress continues. We will use the compassion exchanged through 'Love Step Donations' on the charity map to support One Foundation's 'Warm Packages' for children in freezing disaster-affected areas and orphans, helping them overcome the lack of winter supplies and ensuring they pass a warm winter!