Help students in rural China get an education!

“I’m fortunate. I believe that knowledge can change one’s fate. I understand it does not come easy for me to be in school. I treasure the opportunity and will make my best efforts.”

--Yang Jiao


Yang Jiao is a 12-year-old girl whose father lays paralyzed, whose mother abandoned her as a baby, and who desperately wants to become a doctor. Since her father cannot work, they live in extreme poverty, with barely enough money to pay for school. Education, however, is the only way out for the children of Yuzhong County, China.

Project Overview

Fighting for Education in Yuzhong aims to foster education for students in rural Yuzhong County, China. Many of these students want to go to school, but cannot pay for tuition, as the families mainly live off farming in arid, unfertile land. Unfortunately, the only way for a child to escape the poverty of Yuzhong is to get an education and go to college. In an effort to minimize the number of dropouts, especially in the transition from middle school to high school, Project FEY matches students in Yuzhong with sponsors. These sponsors help the students stay in school not only by subsidizing the 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

Yuzhong County, in Gansu Province, is an hour away from the nearest big city by car, but worlds away from the skyscrapers and booming technology of Beijing. In this mountainous region, only potatoes grow, and they do not sell for much, so even a good harvest means very little income. However, without any modern agricultural technology—without even irrigation—farmers simply lose the battle against drought, freezes, or pests. Supplemented by some short-contract labor in big cities, the total annual income for a family averages to about 5,200RMB (US $650). A family of four might live in house no larger than a shed, made of wood and clay.

The community in Yuzhong truly values education, so most students have been instilled with the desire to learn, but the burden of tuition can be too much for their families. Minus the cost of living, farming, and medicine, families are left with about 900RMB (US $112.50) a year. It costs a high school student at least 800RMB (US $100) per year to attend classes, often closer to 2,000RMB (US $250) when including textbooks, room, and board. Many students feel the pressure to drop out of school because of the burden on their families, especially before high school, because that is when the government stops waiving tuition for impoverished students.

Life in school is also a daily challenge for Yuzhong children. Students live twenty or thirty to a dorm room, with little heating besides a coal stove. Most children only have about 10RMB a week for living expenses, and school meals cost 1RMB, which hardly makes three meals a day. Some students also come from villages many miles away from school, so they will make the four-hour trek to and from school twice a week, in any weather.

Completing high school, and getting into college, however, is the only way for these students to escape the poverty around them. Without education, their fates will be similar to that of their parents, and many students have been orphaned at an early age. Other children have been abandoned by parents who could not bear the stress of living in such conditions. Some have become caregivers for a parent disabled by accidents at work. Even a high school education can increase the job prospects of a student, compared to dropping out after middle school.

Project FEY partners with the Hope Project, a non-profit governmental organization with a branch in Yuzhong, to reach these students. The Hope Project has long worked towards advancing the education of these students, whether by recruiting volunteer teachers or finding sponsors for students who need aid. It has established procedures for identifying students in need and funneling resources to those students, but it regularly receives more applications for aid than it can meet. Through Project FEY, more students can go to school and change their fates.

The Numbers

Most students in Yuzhong would not be able to afford school without the help of outsiders. On average, assuming a family of five:

As it can be seen, the net income per family would be around 900 RMB per year. However, one year of high school costs 2,600 RMB. You do the math.

More for the Migrant Kids (2005-present) ›

Back to Projects