Dear Friends,
This year, 2022, marks the 30th anniversary of Overseas China Education Foundation. It has been a long journey. After much consideration, and with great regret, we have made the decision to stop all fundraising activities, including our campaign on GlobalGiving.
In the past several years, due to the pandemic and new regulations, it has become increasingly difficult for us to carry out and follow up on our projects in China. Meanwhile, your support have stayed strong as ever. As a result, we have reached a point where we have more than we can spend. Starting from July 1st, 2022, we will no longer take any donations, but still continue to allocate existing funds.
Our project on GlobalGiving, “Improving Educational Equity in Rural China”, is almost nine years old. To date, our work have spread over 19 provinces in China. We have provided financial aid to thousands of students each year, as well as teachers and schools. We have bought everything from books, desks and chairs to toys, clothes and beds. We have introduced new educational resources such as online classes and training programs. Thanks to hundreds of our volunteers, we accomplished all these while keeping operational costs below 5% (detailed reports can be found on our official website). And like we have always said, none of these would be possible without your support. In less than nine years, about 3,000 of you pooled together over $500,000. You were the very ones that enabled us to do more. Because of your continuous generosity, tens of thousands of children now have more supportive learning environment and more diverse educational tools. We cannot thank you enough.
The sole mission of Overseas China Education Foundation is to help underprivileged children in impoverished areas of China receive quality education. We have remained and will always be loyal and dedicated to this mission. Looking back, it is touching to see how much we did together. You have our undying gratitude, for your trust, your kindness, and your will to empower children in need for a brighter future.
With love and best wishes,
Overseas China Education Foundation
Links:
Dear Donors,
This past winter we have worked with several schools in the areas near Pingliang, Gansu. In addition to Xiaoqin Elementary School that we introduced to you before, Qiaogou Elementary School was also one of the recipients of our book donations.
Qiaogou Elementary School currently has 112 students and 12 teachers. Most of the students are from Hui ethnic group and have parents that are rural migrant workers. Left in the care of elderly relatives or unsupervised, the children have to rely almost entirely on the school to get a positive reading experience, which is critical to their growth. The teachers at Qiaogou have long realized this; they first reached out to us in 2014, at which time we donated 400 books. Over the years, the books became old and insufficient to meet the students’ learning demand. This year, we delivered 532 new books to Qiaogou. The students not only can borrow the books at will but also have two classes each week dedicated to recreational reading. The teachers also implemented several new reading activities that have been well received.
Because of you, it became possible for students at Qiaogou to have good reading experience. We cannot thank you enough. Your generosity gave these children the resources and support they needed and truly made a difference.
Sincerely,
Overseas China Education Foundation
Links:
In the school year of 2020, from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021, we supported 58 high school students with the fund from GlobalGiving, who will get 2,400 Chinese Yuan in each year. They were from 2 high schools: Suichuan High School in Jiangxi province, and Haiyuan Huimin High School in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Jiangxi and Ningxia are two regions with underdeveloped economy. Many students are from single-parent families. They lost one of their parents in accidents or because of diseases. Ting, a girl from Suichuan High School, is a cancer survivor, but lost her right leg. Her mother isn’t very healthy and couldn’t work, and her father has to work very hard to support her and her younger brother. With your generous donations, we feel humble that we could provide her some financial aid and make her family lives a little bit better. Life is hard, but with love, we could be strong enough.
Each semester, each student could choose a book in their feedback forms. Our volunteers will buy and distribute the books to the students when they get their financial aid. Ting is a girl who loves reading novels. In the past 2 semesters, she got The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald and Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino. She will get The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo this semester. Among all the books that our students chose, the most popular books are Ordinary World by Lu Yao, How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky, and The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Many students also choose poetry books, history books etc. We are so glad that these students could get their favorite books twice in each year. All of these books come from your kind contribute to our GlobalGiving fund-raising project.
This fall, as the policy changes, we are very regretful that we couldn’t continue our projects in Haiyuan, Ningxia, but we will continue to support 22 students in Suichuan High School in Jiangxi. We will provide the feedback in our future project reports.
We also have a good news for our supported high school students, that we have decided to increase the financial-aid from 2,400 Chinese Yuan to 3,000 Yuan from this fall. With the high inflation in the past decade, we believe that increasing to 3,000 Yuan will give these students and families more help. Money won’t solve all the problems, but at least they could feel the love and caring from outside and overseas.
Again, life is hard, but with love, we could be strong enough.
Wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving!
Stay warm and safe!
Dear Donors,
Last month we finished setting up new books at Xiaoqin Elementary School and are now here to share our happiness with you.
Xiaoqin Elementary School is located about ten miles north of Pingliang city, Gansu. The school was built in 1937 and since then has been providing learning opportunities for children in the surrounding rural areas. Currently there are 11 teachers and 105 students at Xiaoqin.
In 2019, we had our first collaboration with Xiaoqin and donated 390 books to start their library project. During follow up visits, we were impressed by how much effort the faculty members invested in establishing good reading habits for the children. Earlier this year, we received a request from Xiaoqin for more books and were beyond excited. In May, we delivered 350 new books. For the past month, teachers have planned various reading activities and students have been very happy with the newly expanded book collection.
We could not have done this without your help. As always, thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Sincerely,
Overseas China Education Foundation
Links:
Dear Donors,
We are happy to announce that we have completed another project!
In addition to the Shitie School that we told you about last November, another school in Xuanhan County named Sansheng was also in need of new desks and chairs. Located in the town of Tuhuang, Sansheng School has long been in a state of desolation. The area is not only geographically difficult to access but also suffers from an economic collapse that could be traced back to 2003. Despite all the hardships, the faculty at Sansheng stayed. Currently there are 38 full time teachers, providing education for over 500 students.
Due to financial difficulty, Sansheng reached out to us. We worked together and installed 400 sets of new desks and chairs. Now the students are able to study in a much cleaner and more comfortable environment. The project costed approximately $5,400, which all came from your donations. We are very fortunate to have your continuous support. Thank you so much.
Please stay healthy and stay safe.
Sincerely,
Overseas China Education Foundation
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
