A Shenzhen high school student's charity practice journal

As a student from an international school in Shenzhen, I have been collaborating on the charity program “The World in Your Eyes” with the Shenzhen Longhua Disabled Persons Service Association ever since November 2024. This ongoing program to help the disabled is entering its fourth term, and I have grown a lot throughout it, starting from the anxious feeling I had when first facing children with disabilities, to now being affectionately called “Brother Yurui” by the children. This journey has made me realize the reciprocal healing power of charity.

Henry Wu Stands with children with disabilities in an event. Photos courtesy from Henry Wu

Lesson One: Understanding the Cognitive Revolution of "Difference"

When I learned that there were 4,526 registered disabled families in the Longhua district, I was shocked by the scale of this group. In the first lesson on “empathy,” 15 families from Guanlan Xintian Primary School interacted one-on-one with 15 invited disabled families. Children who seemed to be the same as each other may require additional assistance due to cognitive differences or other concentration issues. The most touching words during the event came from a mother of a physically disabled child: “This is my child’s first time attending a group sports activity.” This sentence completely altered the way I perceived “help” – what we thought was a brief moment of joy turned out to be the precious first time for another family.

Henry Wu in the charity program “The World in Your Eyes”.

From Christmas Cookies to Career Enlightenment

In the Christmas-themed event at the Hard Rock Hotel, children with disabilities carefully kneaded dough and stuffed the cookies into their parents' mouths. These steps, which might seem simple to other children, required us to break down the instructions into much more detailed steps with a lot of patience. A visit to JYYP Plastic Factory in January this year allowed me to see more of the harsh reality: when a company lecturer demonstrated the product quality inspection process, a father looked at his son, who has Down syndrome, and murmured, "How long will it take him to learn the procedures?" This complex emotion, filled with hope and anxiety, is what 4,526 families face every day in Longhua.

Children with disabilities carefully make cookies in the Christmas-themed event at the Hard Rock Hotel.

"Cloud Theory" and Sustainable Care

I often think back to the concept of "neurodiversity" we learned in biology class – just like the various shapes of clouds in the sky, children with disabilities perceive the world in different ways. Currently, we are trying to integrate the CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) module from international curricula with activities for helping the disabled. For example, we are organizing students to record bilingual (Chinese and English) "career guidance short videos" to help disabled youth understand the operation process of simple jobs. Perhaps, as the UK charity Scope advocates with its slogan "Nothing About Us Without Us," true empowerment should be about hearing their voices, rather than providing assistance in a one-way direction.