We are all back in Shanghai now and already a long way from our students in Baibi. However, one of the important parts of IWA projects is that we want to build sustainable and long term connections between students with access to educational resources and those that don’t. It is important for us to continue to support these girls and give them as many opportunities as we can. Here are our plans…

 1.      We will continue to contact the girls and ensure that they know they have friends and mentors who are interested in their progress in the studies.
 2.      We will start to fundraise to allow us to replace the rather old second hand computers which we left with them, with newer versions which will allow them to be more connected.
 3.      We will seek to connect them with mentors who can help them with their English, maths and Chinese.
 4.      We will start to plan our next visit so we keep the momentum.
 
Finally IWA would like to thank the mentors (Annie, Iris, Stephanie, Edie, Cherry and Mr  and Mrs Gao) who gave up their time and did an absolutely fantastic job. They worked continuously to help the girls with their education and everyday included new students into their classes. 
 
We hope this project illustrates the model which IWA is promoting and supporting, and can be an inspiration to all the IWA Clubs globally.

Then our final activity, The Baibi International Film Festival where the students showed their movie about the village to the people of the village. Despite an initial lack of electricity and speakers which weren't really loud enough, it was clear that the people of the village were excited to see themselves on film!
We then ended with some singing and pass the parcel games out in the school yard.
Fantastic memories!

Today was spent making the final preparations for the Baibi International Film Festival.

Today the students prepared for their Baibi International Film Festival 2013! At this event they plan to show the village the video they have produced.

We took advantage of being in a town with restaurants to  treat the girls to a hot-pot meal out.

The day started with both groups gaining numbers. The older students worked on brainstorming their next video project, to promote their village, and then started to film sections in Chinese and English.

Edie, a student mentor from Suzhou started with us today and took her first lesson with the group. She's a natural a teacher!

One of the highlights of the day was watching May's mother watch her daughter and herself on the video May had helped produce. It was clear she loved it!

Watch one of the full interview videos made by the students.

Our group grows steadily each day, normally with girls looking in through the window and deciding they would like to get involved. Our team members are quick to accommodate them and make them feel part of the team.

The older girls worked on editing their interview videos and adding subtitles in Chinese. For most of them it was only their first or second day on a computer. Their mentors added subtitles in English and the results are incredible!

Here is a clip from the video the students are making. Unfortunately the videos are too big to fully upload from the location the team is in now.

The students today were asked to take photos of their village and show the world some of its interesting features. They wrote descriptions in Chinese and tomorrow will build these into a website page and write some simple descriptions in English. We hope they will appreciate the power of the internet to connect them with people outside their normal circle.

The students description of the house above...
这就是苗家木房，也叫苗家吊脚楼，从上到下来看，铺在屋顶上面的是瓦片，最顶层放稻谷。中间凸出来的房间叫堂屋，每个房子不管多小都有堂屋，所以堂屋可以说是主要的，但堂屋一般不放东西，因此一个房子从左到右都有两部分以上，像这个是三部分，

Lily and Mia being shown how to use a computer for the first time by Annie. They were soon putting together pictures and text about their village.