More than 100 students from three elementary schools in Pingtung County that were damaged by Typhoon Morakot started a five-day study tour at four elementary schools in Taipei County yesterday.
As clean-up work is still under way at their own schools, the 111 students, invited by the Taipei County Government, are participating in a series of unusual five-day extra-curricular activities at four elementary schools in the northern county.
Led by teachers and volunteers, the students from Wenzi, Laiyi and Qiangyuan elementary schools are participating in river tracing and pottery courses at Jian-An Elementary School, snorkeling and cycling at Fulien Elementary School, a guided tour of riverbank ecology arranged by Cyuchih Elementary School and a geological tour and canoeing outing organized by Yeliou Elementary School.
The activities have been designed to help the students recover from the trauma they suffered as a result of the typhoon disaster, county government officials said.
To show his support for the program, Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) paid a visit to Jian-An Elementary School in the town of Sansia (三峽) and distributed school bags containing stationery and textbooks, as well as croissants — a specialty of the town.
Chou said the county government would provide school bags for all the typhoon victims enrolled in the county’s schools and would raise funds to help them pay for stationery and other school items.
In related news, a local Christian organization yesterday unveiled a plan to launch a mobile after-school tutoring program for children affected by Typhoon Morakot in Taitung County.
Under the program, volunteers from the Chinese Christian Relief Association will move around Taimali Township’s (太麻里) Dawang Village (大王), Dawu Township’s Dawu Village (大武), Jinfong Township’s (金峰) Jialan village (嘉蘭) and Daren Township’s (達仁) Tuban Village to provide tutoring to help the children there keep up with their schoolwork, said Lou Yu-cheng (婁玉誠), chief of the association’s eastern Taiwan division.
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