The school year is coming to an end.
For the Danian office, it’s the beginning of the collection of school results. It’s a lot of work.
First of all, we check once again the addresses held in Paris for the sponsors and the sponsorships which are underway, on the basis of information supplied by representatives and intermediaries.
We then edit for each sponsored child a form completed previously with the address of the sponsor and a description of the girl’s situation.
The forms for the primary and middle school children are sent by the office to the establishments: over 100 schools, spread across the mountain range; 5 152 pupils to monitor.
The teachers transcribe the school results on to the prepared forms and the sponsored girls write a short note or do a little drawing (the younger girls are not able to write in Chinese characters).
The forms are then collected by the Danian office, who log the returns and send a reminder to the schools which are late in returning the forms.
The older ones, secondary school and college students, come themselves to the Danian office to provide their school results and to send a letter of thanks to their sponsors.
Once again, the office logs the forms as required. The secondary school and college students who don’t come are considered to have abandoned their studies.
Finally, the forms are divided into categories (China, Hong Kong and outside of China), put in envelopes and posted. Some are photocopied for back-up. They are all logged in order that they can be traced.
This work lasts all summer. Once the students who are changing school have been identified (going from primary to middle school, middle school to secondary school, secondary to further education), a new photo is taken and sent to the sponsor.
The Chinese postal system is reasonably reliable. But we often have returns with the words ‘No longer lives at this address’, sometimes for incomprehensible reasons. Future development of the website will allow sponsors to update their own address details and thereby reduce the rate of these returns.
Don’t forget to renew your sponsorship! And please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the outcome for your sponsored girl.
You can write to our sponsorship management service:HERE
Download the sponsorship renewal form: here (it is also included in bulletin no. 59 sent by post).
translation : Juliette Rutherford
