Teaching a class

Love has driven Rachel Gilmour (Chinese name Mo Ruijie), a special-education teacher, from Australia to China to help Chinese children with special needs. She says love is her reason for teaching the kids, because "love knows no limits."

Gilmour, 35, worked as a primary school teacher in Australia from 2008 to 2010, after she received her bachelor's degree, in primary education, from Sydney University. She taught third-grade students at a small, regional school, and one of her students was challenged intellectually.

While she was teaching in Australia, Gilmour realized she "had a love for China." Says Gilmour: "I have heard a lot of stories about China and Chinese culture. I really love China, and I want to give my love to China."

Given her passion for China, Gilmour gave up her career in Australia and in 2011 moved to Dali, in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Soon after she arrived in Dali, she began working for a special-education organization, where she helped organize summer camps for children with special needs. She also studied the Chinese language.

One day, during the summer of 2011, Gilmour visited a children's welfare center, for the first time in her life, and she was overwhelmed when she saw that each child had a disability. She was moved by her compassion, and her heart filled with the desire to do everything she could to help Chinese children with disabilities.

To effectively help this special group of children, Gilmour decided to pursue further studies, in special education.

In 2018, she obtained her master's degree, in special education, from Macquarie University's online master's program. She completed the master's program while working full time, managing an early intervention center for children with autism, in Kunming.

Rachel Gilmour prepares a lesson.

In 2019, Gilmour moved to Shenzhen, in South China's Guangdong Province, to join the staff at Sunshine Academy, in Bao'an District. She is now special-education director at the facility, and she is responsible for training special-education teachers.

In March 2020, Sunshine Academy reached an agreement with Zhangzhou Social Welfare Center, in Zhangzhou, in Southeast China's Fujian Province. Gilmour and a colleague were sent to the center to help train the center's teachers, so they could more effectively help and teach the special-needs children. Most of the children at the center are afflicted with physical and/or intellectual challenges.

Gilmour remembers the first time she entered the center. "The thing that struck me about the children was how well-mannered they were, and how happy they were. The children clearly have teachers who love them, and a director who really cares about them. I was super moved on the first day ... You could tell as the children had smiles on their faces," Gilmour says.

"The director of the center is like a father to the children. He says we should love these children wholeheartedly. The center is full of love. I feel confident that I can offer better help to the children, in cooperation with the team of the center," she adds.

Gilmour equipped the teachers with special-education methodologies, helped them establish a special-education school, and taught in-class lessons to the children.

Gilmour always carried cards with her, as pictures on the cards were a special way for her to communicate with the children. "These children are amazing. I don't think they notice that I am a foreigner, like I don't think they are different," she says.

Communicating with a child

Gilmour and the center's teachers would periodically discuss ways to solve problems, such as teaching the children how to count. "You tried for six months, a year, two years, and you still haven't got there," she explained, stressing they were a team. "Then we came up with a solution that impacted the lives of the kids in really positive ways."

Gilmour says feeling they were loved was the most important thing for the children. "You need an ability to see their value, because each kid has incredible value, like they've been created ... even though maybe the world doesn't see it because of their disability," she says, emotionally.

Gilmour feels rewarded every time one of the children achieves something. "There are so many stories of the children, like they couldn't go to the bathroom and now they can, or they couldn't communicate their needs and now they can," she says. Last November, the teachers succeeded in helping one of the children become independent.

Teaching a class

Lu Nengna, one of the center's teachers, says Gilmour works very hard. "She helps us in many aspects. She is a dedicated teacher and she has strong sense of responsibility."

Xie Junbo, director of Zhangzhou Social Welfare Center, describes Gilmour as "loving and friendly," and adds, "she is on very good terms with all the teachers and children here."

Gilmour enjoys working at the center, where she has meals every day with her colleagues and the children. She also plays with the children, and sometimes lets them watch when she practices her cello.

"I feel like I have gained so much from working alongside the team of teachers here," Gilmour says. "Love knows no limits. It is a language that everyone can speak."

Photos Supplied by Interviewee and Fu Min

(Women of China English Monthly January 2022 issue)