Orphans appear in many of Roald Dahl’s books often surrounded by darkness and in terribly challenging circumstances. When I spoke to the youngest FIS volunteers before arriving at the Sunbeam Village in Baiwan, Guangzhou, for this year’s Sunbeam Summer Camp, that was certainly what they were expecting. It didn’t take long for them to realise, once we had arrived, that the Sunbeam Village is, in fact, quite the opposite. It is a place of smiles, warm hospitality and friendship.

This is the fifth year that Darren Durkin, Year 6 Teacher, International Stream, has been leading the camp and the third year that French International School parents from both streams have been sponsoring our visits. Last year, our FIS community raised nearly $150,000 for Sunbeam through various fundraising efforts: The Sunbeam Fun Run; bake sales and swimathons. A small portion of this goes to running the Sunbeam Summer Camp with the remainder going towards supporting the over 80 children being cared for at the Sunbeam Village many of whom are now studying or about to move into higher education.

We doubled the number of volunteers this year with parents, teachers and their families from both streams signing up to run activities and expose the Sunbeam residents to a week of unique and fun experiences.

• Ryan Harper (bilingual teacher), Philippine Campion (ESL teacher) and Gabrielle Pepino (ESL teacher) ran an English programme that focused on drama and English games.
• Jane Wakeman (Year 6 teacher) ran a craft programme with the children making rubber band powered boats, jewellery and hand sewn stuffed toys.
• Michael Braehler (Year 7 parent) created an ICT programme that built upon the previous four years that he has been volunteering, exposing the children to new technology and ideas.
• Elaine Morgan (bilingual teacher) introduced the children to scientific ideas and concepts through practical activities such as slime making, exploding rockets and propeller powered cars.
• Yi Lai (Mandarin teacher, French Stream) worked with the preschool children as well as using her language skills to assist the other activity leaders.
• Jovy Law (lunchtime supervisor) used her talents as a tennis coach to teach the children to improve their forehand technique building upon the introduction to tennis from last year’s camp.

With the support of additional volunteers we were also able to teach cooking classes, ballroom dancing, sport and art. It was an incredibly rewarding week in a very special and happy place.

My thanks go to the FIS accounts team for their help in collecting and managing the donations; the volunteer staff, parents and teachers for their energy and talents during the camp; the FIS student volunteers who acted in an assistant teacher role; and the FIS parents who have donated so generously allowing the camp to take place.

If you would like to find out more about the Sunbeam Children’s Foundation or the Sunbeam Summer Camp please contact Darren Durkin here or visit the Sunbeam website here.