On 4 March, 2022, RCE Hangzhou held the 'First Class of New Semester' event at Hangzhou Xuejun Primary School, together with other organisations such as the Zhejiang Provincial Teacher and Cadre Training Center, Alibaba Foundation. This event was held under the 'Pre-Charity' program (the 2022 Adolescent Sustainable Development Public Welfare Program), whereby student representatives from nine primary schools presented the practical activities they completed during the previous Winter break, all designed on the 17 SDGs.

RCE Hangzhou Director, Prof. Weidong Wu, RCE Hangzhou Deputy Director, Hao Xin, and Junlin Zhang and Dominik Sprenger attended the event. Director Wu commented that the 'Pre-Charity' program will continue to develop the courses in a more sustainable, international and scalable way to become an influential project in future.

Zhou Zichen from the First Affiliated Primary School of Hangzhou Normal University shared his understanding about natural disasters such as mudslides and landslides after completing a soil water absorption experiment. He noted that these natural disasters caused by the destruction of vegetation have seriously endangered human life, production and safety, calling on everyone to pay attention to SDG 13 (climate action). Students from Wenzhou Nanpu Primary School, Wang Yueting, Huang Dale, Zhou Zheyin, Xia Yize, and Chen Huahan, shared the proposal they submitted to the police for building a zebra crossing in front of the school. Their idea came from the topic of SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), which they hope will help to build a child-friendly city through this action. Liu Yilin from Hangzhou Xuejun Primary School painted an artwork titled 'Welcome to the Asian Games' based on the idea of SDG 17 (partnership for the goals). In this painting, a dove flies over iconic buildings across China carrying the good news of the Asian Games, finally arriving at Hangzhou, meaning that all people are heart-to-heart, gathering together in Hangzhou. Zhang Lefan and Yu Xintong from Baizhang Town Central Primary School showed the audience how to record a descriptive video for blind people to enjoy the movie, building on their learning of reducing inequalities from SDG 10.

In order to encourage more schools to participate in education for sustainable development, teachers of primary and secondary schools in Zhejiang Province developed a series of demonstration courses for sustainable development during the school Winter break, with all of these courses compiled into a curriculum series, 'Pre-Charity – the Adolescent SDGs Public Welfare Program'. This book will be promoted to more than 80 schools participating in the International Coalition for Education for Understanding and Sustainable Development Alliance in Zhejiang Province. The publication of the curriculum series is hoped to attract more schools to participate in education for sustainable development in the future.

(Photo: Group photo of student representatives. Credit: RCE Hangzhou)