Overview

After school, the children can come here without any worry. Here, they can finish their homework, eat a good meal, have someone to talk to or play games with, and learn special lessons. This is the UMC Shengxin After-School Tutoring Center located in the urban area of Hsinchu, which entered its 7th year in 2020.

Since 2005, UMC has promoted the "Seeds of Hope-Education Assistance for Children of Underprivileged Families" project, integrating various resources in Hsinchu and Tainan to provide school children with free tutoring services. With the change of social patterns, in 2013 the tutoring center in Hsinchu was transformed into a community-based operation. Fortunately, with the support of Father Sun Da from the Catholic Society of Jesus, nearly 200 m2 of space was provided for free, which was re-organized by UMC. With the financial support and the manpower provided by UMC, the new Tutoring Center was established.

As long as there are families in need, such as single-parent families, foreign-spouse families, grandparenting families, families with economic disadvantages, etc., and families referred by schools or the department of social welfare, no proof is required for children to attend the tutoring class for free. We interview the parents and the children, and confirm that the children are willing to attend the class. Seven years ago, A-Hong and Xiao-Hui were in first grade. Now, they are junior high school students and yet they are still familiar with everything at the center. Also, A-Dong just returned to Taiwan from Thailand more than a year ago. Since he left Taiwan in first grade and stayed in Thailand for three years, he only remembered the phonetic symbols and a few Chinese characters that he had learned a long time ago. However, with the hard work of A-Dong and the effort of the volunteer teachers, A-Dong’s Chinese has improved significantly this year. In this month’s Chinese examination, he got a score of 83. In addition to his hard work in academic study, A-Dong is also good at painting. During their daily interactions, both the teacher and student have been receiving positive energy. A fourth grade four student named Xiao-Min is another example. He lives with his mother. He is sweet and caring. After finishing his homework in the tutoring class, he needs to go home right away to help his mother. Even if sometimes we want to persuade his mother to allow Xiao-Min to stay late to attend different lessons, due to the real-life needs, we have to let him go. I can only admire Xiao-Min's strength and bless his family. Some of the children who come here have been diagnosed with interpersonal interaction difficulty. However, every child who comes to the Center can always be accompanied by someone.

Of course, not all stories have a happy ending. In the past seven years, among the children who have come here, some have seized the opportunities for growth, and some have run away from their homes due to various reasons. They struggle every day between going to school to study and joining gangs. There are children who cannot withstand the temptations of the outside world and prefer to be alone at home; therefore, they give up the opportunity to learn and grow. There have been many examples of desperation over the years. A little boy even used "suicide" as a reason to persuade his mother who had divorced from his father. Several bright little girls who liked to sing Vietnamese songs had to move to the suburban area and could no longer attend the class due to their economic situation. There are also some fourth grade students who had just returned to Taiwan from Vietnam, and it is difficult to help them catch up with formal Taiwan education. These regrettable instances which we think are unlikely to happen all occurred in Hsinchu.

Who cares about these children and where do volunteers come from?
UMC hires full-time staff to handle the operation of the center and take care of the students' daily lives after school. Depending on the number of students, the tutor match-making process will be carried out to pick the appropriate Chinese, Mathematics or Art tutors for the children. In addition, a flexible course on Friday also invites professional teachers to teach the children drama, critical thinking, speaking and life education. At the beginning of the center’s establishment, volunteers from UMC included members of the UMC clubs, Ukulele Club, UMC Drum Team, and Candlelight Club, who spent Christmas with the children. In addition, social volunteers and college students also came to the center to interact with the children. Over the past few years, we have collaborated with National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University, and nearly forty to fifty students from both universities per semester come here to do service-learning. This semester, we have students from the St. Peter Senior High School to join us to help tutor the children. In addition to helping the children one-on-one with their homework, some UMC employees sent their children who are about to graduate from universities to the center to learn to give back to society by being the volunteers during their one-month summer vocation. We see the irreplaceable value and feel the warmth in this small miniature society. This is really a beautiful platform that gathers everyone's love.

We are all learning how to serve
During the past seven years, the UMC Shengxin After-School Tutoring Center has become more and more stable with everyone’s hard work. Although we have encountered difficulties and setbacks, we are also learning and growing through them. Since we have UMC’s substantial support, we can continue to try various changes, allowing everyone to connect with love and achieving this wonderful result. There are also volunteers who not only come here to offer guidance to the children, but also quietly pay the tuition fees for the children for two years. Here, the children not only receive knowledge, but also learn how to take care of their daily lives; a self- service bar was recently set up in the center to offer dinner to the children. Under such circumstances, the children learned gratitude and contribution by working together to clean up the environment after class every day. Here, regardless of adults or children, they serve each other, learn from each other, and grow together.

Accompanying the children to grow up, creating a second home for the children
For the past seven years, more than 2,000 days, we have observed the different results produced by different aspects of the society. Various difficulties exist in the children’s families of origin. The space or companionship that we take for granted may be extremely precious for some children in the city we live in. In the UMC Shengxin After-School Tutoring Center, different studying partners have been added to the growing process of these children. Accompanied by various adults when growing up, the children not only have examples to learn, but also have received caring and warmth. In addition to various ways of gathering, such as birthday parties, different units in the society also offer care for the Center. Here, we offer passion and a plan to help the children grow, allowing their growth to be more fulfilling. We want to cultivate hope, which is an element of life that nourishes them to unleash their future possibilities.