Everyone is having lunch when I arrive at HOPE on a Sunday afternoon. It’s a simple meal of tea eggs, soup, glass noodles, and vegetable baozi, which I fill my bowl with as I sit down to observe the scene. I am here to interview three 11-year-old volunteers whom I had the pleasure of meeting at an inclusive school event earlier this year. They were lunching alongside the beneficiaries of HOPE – a non-profit that provides equine-related therapy for kids with special needs.
I wave hi to two of the girls, Miya Wang Bodin and Liya Fan when they see me, and Mulan Ning greets me as she passes by, riding a toy horse. The three girls all seem tall to me, and slender, even with the puffy winter jackets they are wearing. I watch them as they play and converse with others, inwardly impressed as they effortlessly switch between Chinese, French, and English. Mulan’s parents are there too, and I find out from her mother, Ning Fei, that it was Mulan who wanted to be present today so that she could take part in the art activity organized by HOPE. I don’t get to meet Mulan’s father, Jerome, because he is deep in conversation with a young girl from HOPE, who is taking the opportunity to practice her English-speaking skills with the French native.
At some point, the girls all go outside where I find them playing with a litter of puppies. Liya is allergic to fur and stays away, but Mulan and Miya each cuddle a little brown bundle in their lap. I ask them how the activity that morning went, and they say it was good. They learned to cut leather into different shapes, part of the process they would need to undertake in order to complete the craft at the next session. The last time they were here, they painted horse head sculptures which were then sold to raise funds for the group. Mulan’s painted horse head had sold the very next day, for RMB 700.
It isn’t long before I learn that this group of volunteers all started with Mulan. She had invited her friends from school to join a Mid-Autumn Festival event at Auesome Place – an educational center for expat kids with special needs – and they had been volunteering ever since. Her friends, Liya and Miya, have taken part in craft activities at HOPE, and had signed up to attend the Halloween event at Auesome Place, only for it to be canceled after a resurgence of COVID-19 in Beijing. Mulan herself had begun working with kids with special needs when she was just a toddler, as her parents would bring her to an association that paired neurotypical children up with those on the autism spectrum for playdates. In her mom’s own words, “As a child, Mulan just thought it was fun to play with other kids. She didn’t know, or care, that they were different.”
For Miya as well, it isn’t the first time she’s encountered differently-abled children. In her class at the International French School here in Beijing, there was a blind and autistic classmate. “Everyone at the school helped this classmate to get around and do stuff,” Miya says. It is heartening to see that the spirit of inclusivity that the girls exemplify is also a product of the community around them.
Fun was a word I heard a lot during the interview with Mulan, Miya, and Liya. The three girls felt that what they do at HOPE and Auesome Place boils down, quite simply, to having fun with the people there. That’s how Mulan got her friends in on the act – by telling them to just join in the fun and participate together. The girls take part in all sorts of activities with the beneficiaries of these organizations, from craft-making and horse-riding to playing the piano and simply drawing.
But it isn’t just the fun and games that draws them back time after time. The young girls recognize the difficulties of their interactions as well. “Sometimes, they don’t listen to you so it gets a bit annoying.” When that happens, they dig deep into their patience reserves, as they understand that these children need a little more of that. This explains the “mental tiredness” Mulan sometimes feels after volunteering. But all three girls, especially Liya, added that they were “happy and tired” and also proud of themselves.
Despite the challenges, the girls are determined to continue attending activities and events for people with special needs. When faced with the choice of going out to a movie with their friends or taking part in an event at HOPE or Auesome Place, their answers were clearly in favor of volunteering. In fact, Mulan went so far as to say “I would convince my friends to skip the movie and come with me!”
Since the girls define volunteering as “doing something to help others but you don’t get money,” I ask what they do get out of it. Their answers were simple: “[The people] are always so happy to see us! We’re happy to help and have fun too!” It really doesn’t get more simple than that – when giving back to others gives you the ultimate joy in return.
This article appeared in the jingkids 2021 November-December issue
