Gifts for Children at Suzhou Children’s Hospital

Over the past 3 weeks, the Year 7 students have been working hard to wrap and fill shoeboxes for the Soochow University affiliated Children’s Hospital in SIP.  The shoeboxes are being presented to the hospital ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday, and the nurses will distribute the boxes to the children in the wards, who will likely be spending the festive period in the hospital.

This is a wonderful project for the Year 7 students, and it was fantastic to see them all engaged in the activity.  On the final Tuesday’s WAY lesson all Year 7’s gathered in the sports hall to complete the final checks and distribute out the gifts, ensuring that each box had a similar amount in for the children to receive.  

They signed and wrote messages in the cards for the children and staff as well, all taking on different roles to get the job completed. 

This project has allowed students to recognize the importance of giving and how to collaborate with each other, alongside more specific skills such as wrapping the shoeboxes and design Chinese New Year themed cards. 

On Thursday 19th January, 9 students went along for a short visit to the hospital with Dr Jones and me to hand over the shoeboxes.  Students interacted with the staff and unloaded the 40 shoeboxes that had been completed onto a hospital trolley and wished the nurses and doctors ‘Happy New Year’.  The staff were extremely grateful for our generosity and the work that the students have put into this project.  We look forward to seeing the photos from the hospital of the children opening their shoeboxes.