Improve Educational Equity in Rural China

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:

• OCEF
• OCEF facebook

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!