Overview

PEACH (Promoting Education Across China) aims to help impoverished youth from rural backgrounds in China afford high school fees and pursue a higher quality of life. Towards this goal, PEACH connects sponsors to Chinese students in a support system that subsidizes the cost of tuition, fosters cultural understanding, and creates personal relationships. Many of these students want to go to school, but cannot pay for tuition, as their families mainly live off farming in arid, unfertile land. Unfortunately, the only way for a child to escape continued poverty is to get an education and go to college. Sponsors help the students stay in school not only by subsidizing their tuition, but also by giving them the confidence that comes with knowing someone cares. In return, the students write letters to their sponsors, and the correspondences back and forth will hopefully create a meaningful relationship between sponsor and student.

Background

(To be added)

Progress Updates

Fall 2010

PEACH devoted most of fall quarter to recruiting new members and getting them excited about our mission. As a group, we set up goals for the rest of the year, and brainstormed ideas to publicize and expand our project. We also contacted the high school in Yuzhong that we collaborate with, sending them the final sponsors list and all of the sponsor letters. Near the end of the quarter, we started researching on local high schools, trying to find clubs and classes that might be interested in working with us to fundraise or find sponsors.

Winter 2011

During winter quarter we are contacting local high schools and setting up times to present there. Our goal is to host at least five presentations and find sponsors for at least ten students. By the end of the quarter, we plan to get in touch with TECC chapters in China, to tell them more about PEACH and get their input and suggestions.