Our Free Sky is a nonprofit volunteer organization formed on a voluntary basis, initiated by a group of OFS volunteers from all over the country of China and Chinese overseas. OFS’s campaigns include organizing book donations, building one-to-one help relations to provide financial assistance for young children who otherwise were forced to drop school in western China, and organizing volunteer teaching in west of China.
Xx,Rah)X3 mlLx!5h= Since Wang Yi worked in the field, he has been fascinated by natural scenes and developed a great passion for nature. At the same time, he was shocked by the extreme poverty and the consequent insufficient basic education in some regions in western China. Three years ago he decided to do something to help the situation. In 2004, he started the preparation and made an outline. Last year, he established a nonprofit volunteer organization, named Our Free Sky (OFS), based on website
www.ourfreesky.org. There are more than 3000 registered members and nearly 100 volunteers from all over the country up to the present.
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>sg] 9s4>hw@u Achievements xcE2hK/+ <I 0 EjV The western schools, such as Geza village primary school in Shangri-La County, Ludian village middle school, Xinzhu, Chufeng, Anle, Ludian and Taiping village primary school in Yulong County, YunNan Province; Baiyi and Dingbo village primary school in Xiangcheng County, SiChuan Province; Wujia Ying primary school in Lueyang County, Shaanxi Province, have received more than 5000 books, donated by OFS volunteers, up to today.
6qR5 A+|; _J&IL!S2 Up to today, nearly 100 primary and middle school minority students in YunNan and SiChuan Province have received One-to-One-continual financial aids through OFS and continued their education otherwise in jeopardy.
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4Fj +k;][VC[ O 14 OFS volunteer teachers have been to Shangri-la County, YunNan Province to carry on volunteer teaching for half a year to one year. More OFS volunteers are preparing for this campaign.
y/Ui6D ` |p8zV * E|#g ak _n Currently we have the following campaigns sW] >#e M#}k@
;L3 1. Centers of Book Donation for Love h^v+d*R
N The Centers of Book Donation for love are built mainly to help primary school and middle school students in depressed western mountainous areas such as in YunNan, SiChuan, ShaanXi, GanSu, or motivated children with financial difficulty, disabled children, convicts, recoverer in drug rehabilitation centers from the nation. We will collect books from local community donations, and donate them to focal schools in western depressed regions, or community and individuals in need in a planned, organized fashion. Our Free Sky has established book donation centers in 11 provinces, including BeiJing, ShangHai, ShaanXi, GuangDong, AnHui, YunNan, SiChuan, HeiLongjiang, JiLin, LiaoNing, ShanDong. The main responsibilities of the book donation group include: to contact the persons in charge of the book donation centers in different local areas, to register and organize collected books, to announce the time and place for each donation event, and to make public the whereabouts of donated books and the detailed list in time after each event.
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TR 2. Volunteer Teaching for Love m^$KDrkD The main purpose of the volunteer teaching is to alleviate the shortage of teachers in western areas, to assist local compulsory education and associated studies, and to boost the development of local education cause in provinces such as YunNan, SiChuan, ShaanXi, GanSu. In the spring of 2007, 9 OFS volunteers have been in ShangJiang village, Shangri-La county YunNan province to carry on volunteer teaching for half a year to one year. The main responsibilities of the volunteer teaching group include: to provide information on local regions of volunteer teaching, including information about the school and about what to prepare before setting off; to recruit volunteer teachers and to provide training to the volunteers when condition permits; to contact the volunteers and the host schools.
\=c@ >)t-Zh:n 3. One-To-One Help +8}8b_bgH The purpose of One-To-One Help is to build connection between student in financial need for tuitions and fees and volunteer helper. The main responsibilities of the One-To-One Help group include: to provide detailed information about the student in need obtained through personal investigation of OFS volunteers (basic family financial condition, academic records etc.), to pair helper with student, to make public detailed list on a regular basis. We hope all individual or group volunteer helpers, once choosing a long term receiver (school or individual), would provide continuous spiritual as well as financial support (we think the former is just as important or even more so). For instance, regular mail communication could be established. The two parties could hold hands and grow together.
bQ`2ll*( Il]p >B 4. Volunteer Activity 7*eIs2aY The volunteer activities will be mainly carried out and popularized in the cities. Activities can be organized in various ways, starting from local community level. They mainly include:
("s!t?!&YS (1) Charity activities: to contact persons in charge of different cities for information on local events and put it in reports on a regular basis, to provide them with collected information on formats, ways and preceding examples of charity activities; to participate in planning local activities; to assist activities in book donation, volunteer teaching and One-To-One Help; or to organize activities together with schools, institutions or other volunteer organizations; to organize volunteers for short term western visits, and so on.
&ox5eX ( (2) Information collection and activity summary: to assist volunteer teaching group to collect information on preparation materials before teaching (see "Prepare For Volunteer Teaching" forum for more details); to organize information on local school visits in depressed areas obtained by OFS volunteers and to assist the related work of the volunteer teaching group; to collect stories about OFS volunteers and write them up as exchanges and references for other volunteers - motivational writings should also be included.
AzMX~cd (3) Spreading the words: We need the hard work of our volunteers behind the stage to make progress in our cause of love. We also need publicity for the continuation of our cause. We popularize our work via different ways, such as designing logos, flags, publicizing cards and writing documentations to spread the words.
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!b~vrr^ a\m0X@Q Notes &[t} /+) Financial donation: Our organization does not accept financial donations directly. We are only responsible for monitoring financial aid funding, funds from in-kind donations through our website, and making public the statistics.
@NYlVk2 1}q(Pn2 Bq~?!~\?. Every volunteer in Our Free Sky firmly believes we will reap what we sow. We will spread love from society to more children in depressed mountainous areas through our effort. Little sparks kindle great fires. We Our Free Sky volunteers cordially welcome more people with a kind heart to join us. For the future happiness of the children in depressed regions today, for our fellow countrymen still in poverty, let's hold our hands together and make our contributions!
R[W'LRh~:1 kS62]v] Our strengths are gathering. Our love is extending!
我们的自由天空 公益助学项目组（OFS，桃李天）>Spread The Word· 宣 传 推 广>Our Free Sky Volunteer Organization Outline(2007/07)
