This is an ongoing project to pay fees for extremely poor children in rural China to go to middle and high school, which are the 7th through 12th years of schooling. Children in farming areas of China must walk hours one-way to schools in urban areas. Therefore, they must sleep in dormitories, and pay for cooked food provided by their schools. This project helps pay for their books, dorm fees, and food. Parents of eligible children must have income below US$1 per day per person in the family.
By law in China and Yunan province, school tuition is free for students attending middle school, which are the 7th through the 9th year of schooling. (It is also free for years 1 through 6.) But in rural China, where the parents are predominately subsistence farmers, students must live in the dormitories at school, because traveling to school can take hours or days. The parents must pay for books, room, and food. Poor farmers making $1 per day per person have little spare cash.
This project pays students of poor farmers US $150 per year for grades 7 to 9, and US $300 per year for grades 10 to 12. This is approximately half of the total dormitory fees owned by the parents, so the parents must pay the balance. This project also provides the students with some of the basic necessities: books required by the schools, clothes, pajamas, blankets, mosquito netting, etc. Also, medical checkups, vaccinations, eye exam, and eyeglasses are provided.
The PEACH Foundation was formed to give children from the poorest parts of China opportunities to complete an education because, without it, they must settle for unskilled urban or agricultural labor in order to make ends meet. Our hope is to help break the vicious cycle of poverty and, through increasing equality of opportunity, raise the educational standards of the regions in which the children live.
