Australian
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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Margaret Ward in the Chinese city of Baoji in the province of Shaanxi where she worked as a volunteer for Medecins Sans Frontieres. Marg describes her reactions to Chinese society and discusses her position as the coordinator of a ‘street kids’ centre while images of the Great Wall and other historic landmarks are shown and Chinese music plays. Images of homeless children and footage of Marg visiting a vocational school follow. The clip concludes with Marg describing her success in securing placements at the school as ‘just beautiful’.

Educational value points

• In this clip, Marg is working as a volunteer for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders), a humanitarian, non-government organisation (NGO) that provides medical aid to developing countries. Most of its funding is derived from public donations. Its aim is to ‘provide essential medical-humanitarian aid to those who need it most, regardless of race, religion, gender or political affiliation’ (http://www.msf.org.au).

• MSF was established on 22 December 1971 by a group of 12 French doctors led by Dr Bernard Kouchner (at time of writing France’s Foreign Minister). During the 1967–70 Nigeria–Biafra civil war the doctors became frustrated by the level of bureaucracy and government intervention and as a result they became interested in establishing a humanitarian aid organisation that would be independent of government agendas.

• Marg Ward is one of approximately 3,000 volunteers sent to work on emergency medical programs by MSF each year. MSF recruits general practitioners, specialist doctors and nurses, surgeons, midwives, medical scientists and public health and nutrition experts as well as finance, administration and logistics professionals. Age limits do not apply to MSF (Marg says in the clip that she is 63) and placements last for an average of six months.

• In March 2001 MSF and the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs in Baoji opened the Baoji Children’s Centre, where Marg worked. The Children’s Centre was established to provide homeless children with food, education, medical and psychological attention and temporary accommodation. It also worked to reunite children with their families. In 2006 MSF withdrew from Baoji and handed over the management of the Children’s Centre to a local NGO.

• According to MSF, children are living on the streets throughout China because their families often reject them or they choose to leave home because they experience ‘neglect, abuse, hunger and social rejection’ (http://www.msf.org). The size of this underclass is mentioned in the clip as being about 200 million people, 'many of whom are children’. China’s one-child policy and a cultural preference for male offspring may also play a part.

• Chinese music is played throughout the clip to evoke the setting and establish the mood. At the beginning of the clip the music is cheerful but there is a distinct change in tone when the voice-over mentions the ‘200 million people who are basically vagrants in China’. Here the strings set a more sombre tone. The music regains an optimistic mood towards the end of the clip, reflecting the sentiments in Marg’s closing comments.

• The clip is taken from an episode of Australian Story, which is produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is aired weekly. Each 30-minute episode focuses on an individual Australian who tells her or his own story. The first program was aired in 1996 and the series has won seven Walkley Awards and four TV Week Logie Awards.

Chinese music plays over images of the Great Wall and other historic landmarks. An interview with Marg begins in voice-over and is intercut with observational footage of her living in China.
Marg Ward, Medecins Sans Frontieres volunteer (in voice-over) I couldn’t believe the infrastructure of China, the incredible beauty but also the incredible vastness. The city I’m in is called a clean, green city.

Marg is at her home in China.
Marg And I look out at the park. I go walking…

Marg (in voice-over) For me, this was a very different mission. I’m in a sixth-floor home unit. I just lead a normal life. It’s a city where there are very few foreigners so even when I walk down the street, many people stop, look, stare. I travel on the bus each day wearing business suits, mixing with incredible people.

On the street Marg greets several children, bending down to hug one of them.

Philippe is interviewed.
Philippe Tanguy, Marg’s boss So Marg’s role was, sort of, to be coordinating the overall activities of the street kids’ centre in Baoji.

Audio of an interview with Marg plays over images of her meeting with people and socialising with orphaned children.
Marg The biggest challenge for me in China has been working with the officials to provide the children with the services – medical, psychological, schooling and social investigation to find their parents or their parent.

An excerpt of an audio interview with a man is played over images of vagrants in China.
Man We’re talking about 200 million people who are basically vagrants in China.

Photos of orphaned children contine to be shown while we hear Marg’s interview. She is also shown visiting a vocational school.
Marg (in voice-over) Many of the children that come to the children’s centre have been abandoned at birth or sold at birth. For some of these children there’s no – there’s no family to go to. I asked the Civil Affairs if there was a vocational school where we wouldn’t have to pay for them to attend.

Marg answers a question from one of the students.
Marg How old am I? I’m 63.
Marg (in voice-over) We spent two hours at this school visiting all the sections.
Marg addresses a class of students.
Marg And we work with many children like you so maybe we can bring some of our children to meet you.

Marg is interviewed.
Marg I was told that we could have 100 placements for orphan kids so it was just beautiful.