HELP’s found, Wei Liu remembers clearly what happened after the success of the 2006 project: “I had a lot of thoughts, after returning to Michigan State University.  I really didn’t expect the donation would receive so much positive outcome and didn’t realize such small efforts would be so much appreciated by the local people.  Naturally the question came to my mind: ‘why not do more of this for other kids in the reserve? If Carmen and her high school students can, why can’t I raise some fund for this?’  I discussed this primitive idea with several other fellow graduate students at CSIS, and soon the idea became a project – MSU-HELP.”

Inspired by the work in summer 2006, Wei, after returning to the United States to continue his Ph. D. program, worked with his colleagues in the Center for System Integration and Sustainability and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University to establish a student-run project on poverty alleviation and environment protection in Wolong Nature Reserve, named Health and Education for Local People in Wolong (MSU-HELP).  The initial team members include four graduate students in the center, Vanessa Hull, Chris Yu Li, Mao-ning Tuan Mu, and Wei, all supervised by Dr. Jianguo (Jack) Liu, a well-known ecologist on complex human-environment issues.

Since February 2007 the team MSU-HELP has been conducting its cross-year fund-raising activities to help local people in Wolong Nature Reserve improve their education and health conditions, with the confidence that such efforts would eventually benefit the natural system in the area.  From the beginning the team was greatly supported by both the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University and also the local government and villages in Wolong.

By summer 2007, MSU-HELP raised over $6,000 for its annual program in Wolong.  The fund was used for three projects to help the three large central elementary schools and the only middle/high school inside the reserve: (A) to buy over 2,500 books for the schools (about 500 each for three elementary schools and about 1,000 for the middle/high school) ; (B) to help the schools with a full year of subscription to various magazines and newspapers; (C) to provide scholarships for 15 primary school students (about $70 each per year) and 10 middle and high school students (about $140 each per year) to partially cover their food expenses in the schools.

The project turned out to be very efficient and successful. As one of the main co-founders of the project, Wei confided the following to his colleagues: “I’ve spent more than 19 months in Wolong over the last four years There have been many great memories, including watching the baby pandas playing in the largest panda breeding center of the world, observing the group of more than one hundred rare golden monkeys in natural forests, and seeing the famous Four Girls Snow Mountain from only a couple kilometers away. But the best of them would be the moments that I spent with the kids, reading books with them and listening to them reading the books.  Really it was definitely one of the greatest types of happiness that one can have, to see that his/her efforts are appreciated and may positively affect the future of the younger generations.”

Students from other classrooms came over to see the new books.

Wei Liu with the students and the teacher.

Wei Liu confided the following to his colleagues: “There have been many great memories …. But the best of them would be the moments that I spent with the kids, reading books with them and listening to them reading the books.  Really it was definitely one of the greatest types of happiness that one can have, to see that his/her efforts are appreciated and may positively affect the future of the younger generations.”