Creative lessons by Jaguar Land Rover add color to children's lives

One morning, a group of school pupils in Zhaotong, a small city in China's far-flung Yunnan province, did something unforgettable.

The children painted pictures and designs onto a brand-new Land Rover Defender parked on the campus－but they were not punished.

In fact, they were encouraged and applauded in the presence of teachers and with guidance from a well-known contemporary artist as well as volunteers who flew, drove and hiked to join them in Caopidi village of Mashu township in Qiaojia county, which is 2,500 meters above sea level and surrounded by evergreen mountains.

It was all part of a painting class on Oct 23 for more than 500 students organized by Jaguar Land Rover China and Nippon Paint China. The lesson was designed to offer local students access to modern art.

Together with volunteers and staff members from both companies, the students had an art lesson given by Nippon Paint-sponsored artist Liao Xinmin and Jaguar Land Rover employee Matt Anderson.

Wang Yan, executive vice-president of public relations and corporate communications at Jaguar Land Rover China, said: "It has been our unchanging aspiration to improve the teaching environment and enable rural children to have access to quality education as their urban counterparts."

"We hope art can inspire and ignite their dreams, and we would like to join hands with people from different walks of life in terms of corporate social responsibility and give a hand to those children in need," she added.

Jaguar Land Rover dealers and owners were also involved. The carmaker said soon after it came up with the idea for the event, 10 car owner clubs across the country and two local dealers in Yunnan province said they were in.

Car owner representatives contacted the school, pooled money for computers, printers as well as stationery, and drove over 2,000 kilometers to the campus.

Jaguar Land Rover China as well as its dealers and owners have developed a special bond with the school since a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the city of Zhaotong on Aug 3,2014.

The earthquake killed 615 people and destroyed many buildings, affecting the lives of more than 1 million people in the region. It included those in Caopidi village, where the primary school was shaken to the ground.

After Jaguar Land Rover learned the news, it sent donations worth 5 million yuan ($750,000) for the rebuilding of the school. A year later, the building was finished and the school was renamed after the British carmaker in honor of its contributions.

The two have since forged a relationship that has become closer over the years.

Since 2015, Jaguar Land Rover offered warm clothes and improved the campus facilities to help pupils over the winter, in partnership with its employees, dealers and volunteers.

From 2016, the British carmaker partnered with the local NGO Teach Future China to send eight volunteer teachers every year. Each volunteer will work there for two years, as part of efforts to improve local teaching quality.

Their lessons of English, music and physical education are gaining in popularity. The volunteer teachers also organize diverse extracurricular activities that are common in urban schools but rare in rural areas.

Statistics show that the ratio of teachers to students in the school has doubled from 1-to-40 in 2016 to 1-to-20 now. The school has made it into the top five list in the township in terms of academic excellence.

Considering a lot of the students are left-behind children, whose parents work faraway, Jaguar Land Rover has established a unit at the school to offer them counseling and help, cutting the number of dropouts.

Chen Youshu, the school's principal, said he is grateful for the help from Jaguar Land Rover as well as its dealers and car owners.

"We have received a lot of help from Jaguar Land Rover: it has paid for our teaching building, dormitory, bathrooms etc. And more importantly, the volunteer teachers have improved not only the pupils' academic results, but helped open a door for them to the outside world," said Chen.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the company's entry into China. Over this period, Jaguar Land Rover has not only expanded its market presence, but committed itself to social development in China. Corporate social responsibility is a pillar of its development strategy in the world's largest automotive market.

In partnership with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, the carmaker established the Children and Youth Dream Fund in 2014, which has helped more than 470,000 young people.

The two expanded the fund in April 2018, and Jaguar Land Rover announced it will invest another 30 million yuan to enable youths in the country to pursue their dreams.