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It has been 25 years since China began its economic reforms. The world has seen phenomenal economic changes and growth in China. Some say that there are more skyscrapers in the city of Shanghai than in some developed nations. But in the remote rural parts, families still live in mud houses, rickety homes. University education is becoming more accessible to the masses, but these rural families have a hard time paying the minimal fee for basic education of their children.
Healthcare in some of the major cities has reached first world standards. But
rural families have very little resource for basic healthcare. Giving birth at home is still common in some places.
The cycle of poverty needs to be broken somewhere.
It Takes a village
HOPE worldwide began the China Student Sponsorship Programme in 2001 based on the conviction that, for individuals, education plays a pivotal role in breaking the cycle of poverty. The programme relies on the compassion and generosity of thousands of individual sponsors and other partners. What began as a simple sponsorship programme has evolved to include school rebuilding and teacher training projects. More recently, HOPE worldwide has begun to provide small grants to schools to improve teaching resources and living
conditions of the students.
In reality, it takes multi-faceted efforts, consistently applied over an extended period to alleviate and eventually eliminate poverty. These efforts include decreasing dropout rates through education promotion, raising teaching standards, and improving school conditions. We believe that if a school has access to resources to improve its overall conditions, both teachers and students can focus on raising teaching and learning standards. Once that is achieved, there is hope for the people in these remote, rural areas to leave their lives of poverty.
One Step at a Time
There is a high school with 400 boarding students. With its limited cooking facilities and space, it can provide boiled water to only half of the students.
Over time, many of the students fall ill and are in poor health because they do not have access to safe drinking water.
Imagine how teaching and learning suffer because of poor health! With just
a little bit of extra resource, this challenge can be overcome easily.
HOPE worldwide began the school resource improvement programme at the end of 2004. Since then, 18 sponsored projects are spread through 10 rural schools. The first project was in Huining County, Gansu Province. HOPE worldwide
provided the funding to purchase sheep to be raised by family members of some
of the teachers. These sheep over time provided a source of income to benefit
the school and the entire community. Other projects include tree planting to
improve the school environment, vegetation planting to provide nutritious meals for poor students. And for the school mentioned above? A small donation bought the school more pots and expanded their cooking facilities.
We are very grateful to every one of our sponsors and partners. We will use
well the resources entrusted to us to meet the needs and improve the lives of
poor students in rural China. The way out of poverty may be long, but with your help, many have taken the first steps.
**Support HOPE worldwide in our China Education programme, you could send us donation by using Donation
Form or making On-line
Donation. Thank you very much.**
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