The Why of Service-Learning for the Masses

Many service-learning programs are designed for the elite students: strongly motivated, with the resources (time, finances, skills) needed.  This is particularly true for challenging projects in far away places.  There are many reasons for it.  Many educators believe that service-learning should be voluntary.  It is also easier to design and manage projects for students who are motivated and have the resources, obviously.  

At PolyU, we cater for these elites students.  But we also make SL accessible to all other students. In fact, we make it compulsory for all undergraduate students, which is unusual.  The biggest reason is that we believe SL benefits all students.  And the world needs leaders at all levels who care about the common good.  There is research which tells us that the smartest in government and industry do not necessarily have similarly strong interest in the common good.  Service-Learning has demonstrated benefits in nurturing students with a stronger commitment to social responsibility.  If we can nurture more university graduates with a stronger interest in the common good, it can create a bugger impact in society, as opposed to leaving SL to the small number of elite students.  This is the fundamental reason behind our push for SL for the masses.  

This objective, needless to say, create big challenges. One of the most obvious is that our teams can be big, quite a bit bigger than what many people are used to, even for challenging projects in far away places.  For example, in summer 2023, we plan to send ~100 staff and students to Rwanda, comprised of multiple teams from PolyU and several of our partner universities from across multiple countries, and high school students in Hong Kong. There are also going to be relatively large teams sent to Cambodia, and other countries.  

It is hugely challenging to find partners and project sites that can accommodate such large teams. Just transporting, feeding and finding accommodation for such large teams is a big challenge, particularly in the poorer communities where the need is the greatest.  But the benefits are also obvious.  With larger, multi-national and multi-talented teams, more can be done, and more students can benefit.  For this reason, we are willing to work hard, very hard, to make it happen.    

Setting up Service-Learning for the Masses

I had realised it early on, but have also become more and more convinced, that many service-learning program are designed for, and carried out by, self-motivated, resourceful, civic-minded students.  Most are voluntary, which, by definition, is designed for the self-motivated.  Often the student has to provide a significant amount of the funding, particularly for those in far away, foreign countries.  That creates a significant entry barrier for those who are less affluent.  A typical project is carried out by a small team (less than 10 students) for a relatively long period of time (1-3 months).  That long period of commitment rules out many students.  

In contrast, our SL program at PolyU is designed for all our undergraduates (4,500 per year).  Many projects require a relatively short duration (7-10 days) of intense (full day) service, making it easier for busy students to participate.  We also provide the bulk of the funding even for projects in countries far away from Hong Kong (such as Rwanda in East Africa).  Ultimately, we also provide a framework and appropriate guidance so that students who are only moderately-motivated can also perform effectively.  It is fair to say, our model is service-learning for the masses (of students) - as opposed to the student elites.  Despite all that, we continue to aim at making the biggest possible impact on the community, e.g., installing solar panels for the largest number of households possible, for the poorest communities reachable in some of the poorest countries in the world.   Hence the teams also tend to be big (e.g., up to 40 students in one team and often multiple teams working together).

That objective, making service-learning accessible for the masses to make the biggest impact, comes with a heavy price.  Such projects are much harder to design, makes much bigger demands of resources and support, requires carefully chosen organisation partners and communities, and much reticulate preparation, training and support from the teaching team.  

This is what our advance team has been trying to do in the 10-days sweep through South Africa, Rwanda and Tanzania.  Where to do that project?  How to travel to the site and where to sleep and eat?  What risks are faced and are they manageable? What project to do and whether we have the funding?  Who to partner with - do they have the commitment and the expertise required?  How do we convince them we are credible and worthy partners?  At the end of the trip, we believe we have largely satisfactory answers for the projects in South Africa and Rwanda for 2023.  For Tanzania we have some promising leads but another trip is needed before we can be sure.  Fortunately, the Tanzania project will not take place until 2024, so we still have time.  All in all, it has been a tiring 10 days which is largely successful.  Tomorrow is another day full of exciting challenges. 

  

Self-Help Pineapple + Electricity

After checking out a new site for this summer’s solar panel project, the advance team went back to Rubona to visit a self-help group, in the villages were our team installed solar panels for 200 households. 

This particular self-help group grows pineapples.  The 20 members of the group (mostly women with a few men) learned to grow pineapples, bought two pieces of land suitable for planting pineapples, and went to work.  They use vegetation as organic fertiliser and rain for watering the pineapple.  The pineapple takes 18 months to ripen.  They stagger the planting so that they a batch ready for the market every three months.  They use bicycles to carry the pineapples to the nearby markets.  

They work hard on the field and are now making tidy profits, which are then distributed evenly among the members.  Prior to the pineapple business, the women have to ask their husband for money to send the children to school and other expenses.  School is free, but they still have to pay for uniforms, books, lunch, etc. Now they can pay for these expenses from their own income, and contribute to the family’s finances in other areas.  They are earning respect from their husband and others.  This is doing wonders for their self esteem, which is evident in the way they laugh at and enthusiastically answer our questions about respect from their husband.  

We visited the home of an elderly lady where we had installed a solar panel system last year.  The system is run ning well and she is  eye happy.  Some families seem to have some problems, such as the electricity running our after only a few hours in the evening.  Part of the problem may be the dust built up on the solar panels, which reduce the efficiency of the panels.  The problem could also be some issues with the wiring.  We have to find a way to help them sort them out.  One of the solutions is, obviously, to clean the panels often.  The other is to train a team of local youths who can then run around fixing problems, perhaps for a small fee. We have to discuss with our local partners how that can happen.  

All in all, the villagers are happy with the solar panels, and the self-help groups are doing a great job in empowering the poor, particularly the women.  

Minigrids

Students learn the most from Service-Learning when they find then this trie project challenging and meaningful, when the people they serve appreciate what they do.  Generating electricity with solar panels is more of the most effective services in terms of achieving these goals.  The joy and gratitude expressed by the people who can turn on a lightbulb in their house for their house is one of the most purely enjoyable experiences.  

For these reasons we always aim to provide electricity for more households, and in a more efficient way.  We also aim to train local young people to do the installation and the maintenance, so that they can continue to work after we have left.  Since starting in 2015, we have tried several different designs, depending on the local situation.  When houses are far apart from each other, we install small, individual, complete systems for each house. This way each house is independent, but they cannot share resources.  We have also designed solutions where each house gets a battery and indoor wiring with lights, etc.  They then take their batteries to charging station with larger capacity to be charged.  This way they share the solar panels, which are relatively expensive, but they have to carry the battery to be charged.  

One of the objectives of this advance team is to identity situation where we can install mini-grids.  This is a system where one set of a larger number of solar panels, with a large capacity battery or multiple batteries, serve a number of houses by connecting them together with electrical cables.  For this design to work, the houses have to be clustered in proximity.  Yesterday we went with the local government official and our partner African Evangelical Enterprise to a cell composing of many villages called Bicaca.  There we have quickly identified two clusters of houses suitable for implementing this design. One has ~60 houses and the other has ~40.  

When we return to HK, we will work with the professor in Electrical Engineering who is leading the team that will install mini-grids to come up with a more detailed design.  This way many more households can share the solar panels and batteries  We are all excited about the prospect to do more with the same amount of resources. 

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is a truly great man.  Not only because his statue at Union Buildings Gardens in Pretoria, South Africa, stands 5 times taller than I am.  This is my third visit to South Africa, also my third pilgrimage to his house in Soweto near Johannesburg.  All my three visits are for the sake of service-learning. And Mandela is an inspirational model for service to the community, civic engagement and much more. 

When he was young, he was advocating violent overthrow of the apartheid systems in South Africa.  For that he was sentenced to a long prison term.  Counterintuitively, he renounced violence while spending 20+ years in prison, without giving up or compromising on the dismantling of apartheid.  Against all odds, he succeeded, and became president of the new South Africa.  Even more so, the long-dreaded racial bloodbath feared by so may did not happen, mainly due to his efforts of reconciling the two sides.  He actively embraced the Springboks, the national rugby team beloved of the whites.  He turned sports into a unifying force.  South Africa continues to face great challenges.  But grave tragedies had been averted, and South Africa is among the most prosperous countries in Africa.  

Soweto was a symbol of racial segregation, violent protests and conflicts, and great casualties throughout the half century of apartheid, particularly during the 1970s and 80s.  I have never thought I would dare to visit Soweto.  Let alone three times.  

We have started online service-learning projects in collaboration with University of Pretoria largely because it is the country of Nelson Mandela.  We want our students to  learn from the example of Nelson Mandela and his South Africa.  We want them to learn that even tremendous conflict and deep-seated hatred can be overcome, with great efforts of reconciliation.  We hope to soon bring our students here in person.  

A Bittersweet Lunar New Year’s Eve

On the Eve of Lunar (Chinese) New Year, my wife cooked a delicious dinner for the two of us, and we had an enjoyable, peaceful time.  

At the same time, we missed our three daughters, who have all moved away from home, from Hong Kong.  How we would love to have them with us for the dinner, to be home.

At the same time, we are happy that they are safe, free and pursuing their dreams.  They are at a stage similar to what we were at their age.  We are so happy for them, so proud of them, to have dreams and the courage to pursue them.  Each of them face their own challenges, and have suffered for having the courage to pursue their dreams.  

We are sad that they are not home in person.  But we are happy that they are safe, free and pursuing their dreams.  That we are still bonded.