各位热心的同事和朋友：

看看，我们捐建的村小已经初现雏形了，这是我们在村小施工当地的监督方王校长寄来的最新照片。

• 在建工地

•  
  • 如照片所示，村小主体工程完成四分之三，砖墙接近完成。
  • 由于四川近来阴雨连绵，工地建设进展不如预想顺利。不过经再三确认，工程队保证今夏九月前竣工以确保下学期投入使用。

• 后续计划

•  
  • 在村小主体工程完成验收后，我会联系明日中华教育基金会汇给王校长五万元人民币，由王校长分批付给施工方。
  • 大家可能注意到，我们在募捐倡议书里提过，准备在学校的介绍铭牌刻上捐款达到或超过1000元（或200美元）的热心朋友的名字。随着学校的建设进展，现在需要征集捐的款达到或超过1000元（或200美元）的捐助人对此的意愿以及镌刻的姓名（比如以您可爱女儿的名义）。
  • 微软亚太研发集团关于公益慈善活动的七月初通讯，将会介绍这一项目，这是公司其他同事对于我们这一努力的认可，到时大家可以骄傲地向家人、朋友和其他同事展示宣传。感谢Jane Zheng的辛勤工作和对于项目的支持。
  • 提议原计划七月组织的项目讨论会延迟到八月底九月初，讨论大家关心的话题，包括第二阶段募捐、捐款使用、实地考察和支教安排。原因如下：

•  
  •  
    • 不少同事安排在七月份休假，所以在七月份组织项目讨论会和募捐的效果可能会不够理想。
    • 人力资源部将在九月初组织一次微软上海园区范围的爱心拍卖/义卖活动，形式与去年STBC为地震组织的爱心拍卖/义卖相似，我正与组织者协商争取将此项目作为受益项目。在此之前安排一次项目讨论会，有利于我们在爱心拍卖/义卖活动中更好地展示项目，争取人气，招募更多九月份去村小实地考察和志愿支教的朋友。

以前的项目进度报告，您可以在此找到：http://sharepointasia/sites/SichuanSchool。如果您有任何建议和意见，请联系我。

谢谢!

Hi, dear warmhearted colleagues and friends:

Look, you can see the rough shape of our village school now! J The photos are sent by Mr. Wang, the local supervisor for the school construction:

• Construction

•  
  • As shown in photos, ¾ of the main framework has been completed. The brick walls have almost been done.
  • The progress is a little bit slower than expected because there were many rainy days there. But I double checked with Mr. Wang that the construction team promises to complete the school construction before this September so that it can be used of the coming semester.

• Next Step

•  
  • After main framework is finished and checked, I will contact CTEF to send another 50K RMB to Mr. Wang, and then Mr. Wang will give it to construction team in different batches.
  • As you known, the “Call for Donation” letter mentioned that we plan to make a plaque listing the donor names above $200 (or 1000 RMB). Along with the school building process, now we’d like to check whether and whose name you wish to put on the plaque for yourself, e.g. it can be in the name of your lovely daughter.
  • Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D group will have a charity focus newsletter at the beginning of the coming July, introducing this project. This is truly a recognition from other colleague for our effort. Please feel free to share the story with your family members, friends and other colleagues with proud! And thanks to Jane Zheng’s hard work on this and support for our project.
  • Propose to postpone the “July” project meeting to the end of August, discussing all topics interesting to you, such as fund raising, donation usage, school visit and volunteering teaching arrangement. The reasons behind this change are:

•  
  •  
    • Some colleagues have arranged July as vacation time, so the meeting and the 2^nd milestone of “call for donation” might not go as well as wished.
    • HR department is planning a charity auction event on early September, across all groups in Microsoft Shanghai campus. It will be pretty much like the one we had for earthquake last year in STBC. I’m discussing with the event organizer, and working on making our project as the target beneficiary. If scheduling a project discussion meeting right before that, it will help us prepare well to showcase the project, earn more eyeball and potentially recruit more friends for the school visiting and volunteering teaching on September.

You can find all previous status email on http://sharepointasia/sites/SichuanSchool. Feel free to contact me if you have concerns, suggestions or questions.

Thanks.

Zhen Wei

Editor’s note: This blog is written by our volunteer, Zhen Wei (魏臻), who is working for the Microsoft Technical Computing group in Shanghai, China. His group and CTEF are building a school in his hometown – Nanchong, Sichuan. He revisited the school recently and sent us this progress report. Click here to see his previous post on this school.

各位热心的同事和朋友：

我在4月30日探访了我们捐建村小的在建工地和在租用民房里学习的孩子们，具体情况和照片如下:  

• 在建工地
  • 村委会和工程队于四月份签订工程合同，约定工程完成时间为七月底，对材料规格等进行了细化设计和规定，并将教室宽度由原计划的6.5米改为国家教室标准的6米，符合实际需要。
  • 准备工作和辅助事宜
    • 征地完成，村小新校址就在现租用民房旁。
    • 简单修缮了连接公路和村小校址的乡村公路，以便从公路运送来的建筑材料能够经过小货车的二次搬运运到工地。
    • 工地用水准备就绪。
  • 工地：地基挖坑完成，地基石料运送在此后一天内完成。工地进度比预想的略慢，主要原因是四月中下旬当地下雨较多，简陋的乡村公路雨天泥泞，无法通车。
• 村小现状：
  • 村小现租用一楼一底两间民房作为教室，由照片可见比我们第一次去考察时教室条件稍有改善，因为房东去年在听说我们有意捐助村小后，改造原房屋以期夫妻教师用我们的捐款买或租做教室。考虑到改造后的房屋在通风采光和安全等方面不能达到正规教室的标准，而且如此办学对房东的依赖性太大，去年我和县教育局和乡中心小学老师去访问时拒绝了房东的提议。
  • 4月30日我达到时，村小刚好准备要放五一和农忙假，所以我只简单在二三年级合用的教室里拍了两张照片和一段视频。
• 捐款情况:
  • 我们项目在当地的监管代理方--乡完小王副校长出具10万元人民币首批工程款的收据，我已由挂号信寄给CTEF在杭州的副主席罗绍伟。
  • 我们在第一阶段捐款募集了约合10万人民币，加上公司的等额匹配刚好达到20万的村小建设预算。我准备在七月份村小接近竣工时，再发起一次较大规模的捐款倡议，以解决村小的桌椅和运动器材等。
  • 捐款情况，和以前的项目进展报告，请访问项目网站：http://sharepointasia/sites/SichuanSchool（公司内网）或http://blogs.technet.com/chinahpc/（外部网站）。
• 后续计划
  • 我会每两至三周发一次在建工地照片。
  • 七月组织一次项目讨论会，讨论大家关心的话题，包括募捐、捐款使用、实地考察和支教安排。

如果您有任何建议和意见，请联系我。

谢谢!

魏臻 四川山区村小项目经理

Hi, dear warmhearted colleagues and friends:

On 30th, April, I went to visit our village school in construction and lovely students studying in rented houses. Here comes the details and photos:

• Construction
  • The village committee has signed contract with a local construction team. The construction will be completed by the end of July; Some construction details such as material specification are designed and written down; The classroom width is changed from 6.5 meters of original plan to 6 meters, which is the national classroom standard and meets real requirement.
  • Preparation work
    • The land for new village school has been requisitioned for free. The new location is besides the current rented classrooms.
    • The country road, connecting road and the school, has been roughly fixed so that construction materials can be carried from road to school by small truck.
    • Water supply has been completed.
  • Main construction work: the ground foundation is almost done. The progress is a little bit slower than expected because there were many rainy days in April there, so that the country road is too bad for truck to get through.
• The current situation of the village school
  • The school is renting 2 classrooms from a peasant. If you look at the photo, the classrooms look a little bit better than the first time we saw them. This is because the landlord knew that we want to support the school, and then improved the houses, in order to sell or rent his houses to the couple teachers. However, the houses are still not qualified for standard classrooms even after improvement, and it will make the school take a hard dependency on landlord if the couple teachers accept his offer. As a result, we rejected this offer when county education bureau officer, village central teachers and I went to investigate the village school last year.
  • At my arrival time, the school is about to start the May Day holiday and busy farming vacation. So I just took 2 photos and one short video in one of the 2 classrooms.
• Donation:
  • Our local coordinator has written a receipt for the first project expense 100k RMB. And I have mailed it to vice president of CTEF Waisiu in Hangzhou.
  • We have raised about 100k RMB in the first fund raising milestone. Counting in company’s match, it’s about what we need for construction – 200k RMB. I plan to initial another wave of fund raising in July, in order to buy desks, chairs, sports apparatus, etc.
  • Please find the donation progress and previous status reports at the project website: http://sharepointasia/sites/SichuanSchool (Intranet) or http://blogs.technet.com/chinahpc/ (Extranet).
• Next Step
  • I will send construction photos every 2 to 3 weeks.
  • Have a project meeting in July, discussing all topics interesting to you, such as fund raising, donation usage, school visit and volunteering teaching arrangement.

Feel free to contact me if you have concerns, suggestions or questions.

Thanks!

Zhen Wei, Sichuan School Project Manager

春节快乐！CTEF wishes all of our donors and friends a prosperous year of Tiger!

In 2009, CTEF approved 27 projects in 6 provinces, with the budget of over $248,000. Below is a brief summary of the projects.

Drinking status

Gaoyu Elementary School has 42 students. It has no water supply. There is a reservoir in the village which is 200 meters away from school. The students have to fetch water from this reservoir.

Gaoyu village is lack of water due to its high altitude. More than 400 people in the village have to share one well, so water resource is limited. The village reservoir is dry during fall and winter. People then have to go to another well which is farther away and can only collect less than half ton of water in 24 hours.

The village and the school are both very interested in water diversion project. This project not only benefits the school, it also brings more water to the village. The balance of GUI0904 funding shall be used to purchase materials and pay for the skill labor charges. The villagers will devote their labor for non-skill tasks like digging tunnels and burying pipes.

Project map：

Description:

A: “水源”: new water spring which water to be channeled to school.

B: “旧水池”: existing village reservoir which does not hold enough supply.

C: “水池”: new reservoir proposed in the school.

Proposal

1. Build two reservoirs, one at the new water spring and the other in the school.

2. Channel water to the existing village reservoir with 1400 meters plastic pipes. All pipes are to be buried in the ground. Channel water from the village reservoir to the new school reservoir.

3. Build a hand washing pool in the school and channel water to school’s kitchen.

Budget

Total Budget is RMB 5,717yuan. RMB 4,217yuan is from CTEF donation. The remaining expense is to be supported through local donation.

Related picture

Figure1. Village cadre and village elder climbed the mountain to find suitable water resource.

Figure2. Water resource

Figure3. White-haired Village elder searched for water resource.

This is one of the letters CTEF received for the 150 students we supported. Some are very touching. One student (grade 9) talked about with our help, he was able to buy books (non-text) to read. One little girl needs someone to talk to and Fang Fang volunteered to pen-palling with her.

四川5.12受助学生信件（李思辰） 

The Joint Project between CTEF and RainEduc is aimed to help high school and college students to complete their education. On October 23 blog, we posted 7 students that need help to get your feedbacks on the project. We have received very valuable feedbacks and some interest in helping the students. Today we are posting a few more students that need your help.

How can you help?

You have two options:

Option 1: You pick a student and form a 1:1 sponsorship with this student.

Read the information about the students in the list, donate to CTEF and write the student’s name in the comment with your donation. You will receive an email from the student to update you her study and life in school after she receives your donation. You will know how your money and care is helping a student in China.

Suggested donation amount: $75 for a high school student or $200 for a college student. (Microsoft will match your donation, so the total amount will pay about 50% of the tuition for the student. The tuition for high school is about RMB 2000 per year, for college is RMB 5000-7000 per year.)

Option 2: You donate to the pool with no 1:1 sponsorship with students.

If you’d rather just donate to the RainEduc project, you can donate your money to CTEF and write RainEudc in the comment area. CTEF and RainEudc will make sure your money will sent directly to the students. You will not communicate directly with the students.

Suggested donation amount: any amount will be very helpful.

Below are some students that the project selected from Heilong Jiang Yanshou County No. 1 Middle School.

陈 华： 女，家住延寿青川乡种子站屯。今年刚高三毕业, 新入学大庆师范学小学教育。家有六口人，四个孩子，姐姐大学今年刚毕业，弟弟妹妹又同时进入高三。

困难原因：种地收入有限，孩子多学费多，父母劳累过度疾病在身，常年吃药，母亲气管炎，呼吸困难，不能劳动。

Chen Hua: female, from Yanshou County Qingchuan Xiang Zhongzizhan Tun. Graduated from high school in the summer of 2009, and started college majored in Education. Her family has 6 people, including 4 children. Her elder sister just graduated from college this summer, and a brother and a younger sister are in the last year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: her family has very limited income from farming; a lot of tuition needs to cover for the 4 children; her parents have chronic disease and need medication all year long (in China these people don’t have medical insurance to cover the cost); mother has poor health situation and cannot work.

周 鹏：女，今年新入高中四班学生。家住延寿柳河福山村，四口人。

困难原因：父母均有病，家有十亩地都在河边，近几年经常被淹，有的年头竟颗粒无收，曾为姐姐凑大学学费辍学一年。

Zhou Peng: female, start high school this year. Live in Yanshou Liuhe Fushan village, 4 people in her family.

Reason for financial difficulty: parents have chronic disease; her family works some farming land near a river that was flooded frequently, so some years has no income from farming; Zhou Peng had dropped school for a year because her family needed to pay her elder sister’s college tuition.

车得安：男，高一六班学生，延寿六团人。

困难原因：三岁时母亲因精神不正常走失，父亲外出打工居所不定，一直在寄人篱下状态下长大，始终被接济中。

Che De-an: male, 1^st year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: mother has mental disorder and left home when he was 3-year old; father does temporary labor work in other cities; he grew up with help from neighbors, depends on financial aids for living cost.

高姗姗：女，延寿一中高三八班学生。三口之家。父亲，还有一妹妹。

困难原因：母亲风湿性心脏病去世，家里为给母亲手术借个高额债务；父亲是下岗工人，打零工养家；妹妹也在高中上学。

Gao Shanshan: female, 3^rd year in high school. Three people in family: Father, younger sister and her.

Reason for financial difficulty: Mother passed away due to heart disease, her family is under huge amount debt because the money borrowed for mother’s heart operation; Father lost job and is doing some temporary labor work to earn small income; her younger sister is in high school too.

何海宁：男，延寿一中高三八学生。

困难原因：家在寿山乡却没土地，父亲一直打零工，母亲身体不好。高一时家里为供他上学卖掉了房子。

He Haining: male, 3^rd year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: Father earns small income by doing temporary labor work; mother is in poor health situation. His family sold their house when he was in the 1^st year in high school to support his education.

赵雪竹：女，延寿一中高三三班学生。太安乡黎明人。

困难原因：家庭人口多，爷爷奶奶、父母、姐弟三人。因没有耕地，父亲外出打工二氧化碳中毒落下残疾，姐姐辍学和妈妈妈妈打工养家，供孩子赡养老人。

Zhao Xuezhu: female, 3^rd year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: big family with many mouths to feed: grandpa, grandma, father, mother, three children. Father is handicapped from an accident, her elder sister dropped school to help mother earning money to support the family.

李雪新：女， 延寿一中高三三班学生，中和镇万江人。

困难原因：家没有房子，地少，四口人，奶奶、姑姑、父亲。父亲有风湿病，全家收入的来源就是几亩田地。

Li Xuexin: female, 3rd year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: The family does not have the house, few, four people, paternal grandmother, paternal aunt, father. The father has rheumatism, entire family income origin is several Chinese acres paddies.

沙岩峰；男，延寿一中高三九班学生，家在玉河新城长富屯。

困难原因：土地少，三个孩子，父亲腰间盘突出饱受折磨，不能干重活，两个姐姐无奈辍学。

Sha Yanfeng: 3rd year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: The family lives on a small farming land, three children, the father waist plate fully suffered prominently suffer, not the competent heavy labor, two elder sisters discontinue studies reluctantly due to financial issues.

卢美余：女，家在鹤岗市南山区，鹤岗市第三中学高一十班（奥赛班）学生。

困难原因：父母均是下岗工人，又因病欠下债务，至今仍租房。

Lu Meiyu: Female, Haogang City No. 3 Middle School, 1st year in high school.

Reason for financial difficulty: The parents are laid-off workers still have no job, and further because sickness owes the debt, until now still rented a room.

RainEduc (http://raineduc.org/) is committed to provide small education grants to poor but competent students. Here is background information of some students it would like to sponsor.  CTEF teams up with RainEduc to raise funds for these kids.  Please help us to extend the support! You can direct the support to specific student as one to one sponsorship, as well as the project in general. Please contact Xin.Ge@ctef.org  or michelle.zou@hotmail.com if you have any questions for this project.

徐宏梅 / Xu Hong Mei  大四学生 / 4th year in University

就读吉林省长春师范学院.  父母均是残疾人，没有收入，妹妹读中学。

________________________________________________________________________________________

朱艳伟 / Zhu Yan Wei  大二学生/2nd year in University

Parents are peasants without land thus no income. Mother and I were in serious illness and we are in high debt. From the harsh of life, I learned to appreciate life, and gained courage to face difficulties. I will never give up as far as I am living.

父母皆是外乡人，后来到延寿安家。因为是外来的，所以没有分到土地，全家就靠父亲在外做工过话。母亲为了我和弟弟能上学，在山坡开了几亩荒田，没想到被林业局收回了，父亲也被扣留，母亲和亲友们奔波了一个多月，父亲才回来，这时家里已经欠下了不少债了。苦难的家庭总是祸不单行。初四那年，本来就体弱多病的我又得了场重病，父亲带我四处求医，结果都是徒劳，只有休学。经年的时间休养，我终于回到课堂的时候，妈妈又染上了出血热，经过治疗，妈妈拣回了一条命，家里又为此负债两万元。我的生活多苦多难都无所谓，只要老天给我一线希望。我从不会说放弃。苦难是最好的老师，他让我懂得珍惜，懂得了感恩，也让我学会了面对苦难的勇气。_______________________________________________________________________________________

张明玉 / Zhang Ming Yu 大三学生/3rd year in University

My family has 4 people; we are peasants making a living from a small piece of land in a village. When I was in high school my father lost eyesight and totally lost capability to work. We are depending on my mother to support the family.  My 16 year old younger brother had to quit school to work in another town to support me for school.  Many times I wanted to quit school to earn money, but my parents stopped me. I cried and decided I would study hard. I have to let my mother feel it is worthy to support me for school. I will open the door to the future, not only for my parents and brother, but also for those poor children like me. 

成绩优秀; 我家在延河镇兴旺村居住，四口人，靠种地为生，但是我高中时父亲因病导致一支眼睛失明，另一支眼睛勉强看见点光，完全丧失劳动能力，生活不能自理，现在只能靠妈妈干活维持这个家。无奈只有十六岁的小弟第辍学到外地打工帮妈妈供我读书，每当我看到一家人为了我的学习而辛苦操劳，几次想不念书了，都被父母制止了，自己暗地里流了很多泪，决心刻苦读书。我必须给妈妈一个坚强的理由，我只有用坚忍和不屈去打开生命的未来之门，不仅为了父母和弟弟，也为了那些像我这样穷家子弟。________________________________________________________________________________________

贾龙 / Jia Long 大三学生/3rd year in University

 Merit student.  My family has 4 people, my grandpa is old and can't move around by himself; my mother has heart problem and can't do physical work; all the family is depending my father to support. We have little land and the income from that is not enough to support our living. Father also works as a labor besides farming.  My relatives supported me to get through the living cost for middle school. Because I have good score entered into high school, I am waved for tuition. Now my family and I are facing the crisis of paying tuition for college every year.

成绩优秀; 我家有四口人，爷爷年岁已高，行动不便；母亲心脏不好，不能从事体力劳动；全家靠父亲一个人维持生计。家里共有七亩田，仅靠种地的收入是难以支撑生活的，父亲就在种地之余，打零工赚钱贴补家用。我的中学学业都是在亲戚们的帮助下完成的，考入高中后，因为成绩好，不用拿学费，家境所缓和。如今又无力为我支付上大学的学费了。

________________________________________________________________________________________

王立综 / Wang Li Zong  大三学生/3rd year in University

Merit student. My family saves every penny on food. My father has serious stomach disease and he has no money to see a doctor. He is handicapped now and can't work. My family cannot support me to school now. I am eager to finish school and continue higher education; because I know only knowledge can help to change the poor situation. I hope can get help, give me a chance, let me go to realize my dreams and the value of my life.

________________________________________________________________________________________

张宇/Zhang Yu 大一学生/1st year in University

Leader in the class; responsible with high integrity.  Willing to help others.  I believe when you are accepting help, you are accepting a responsibility of helping others.  When you returned to the sunshine, don't forget those still standing in the dark, you should try your best to bring those in the dark to the sunshine.  I have experienced the time that lost the hope of life, so I am willing to be a seed to send love and warmth to others, use my heart to help and warm other poor children want to get education. 

 班干部，成绩优秀。有责任心，有正义感。人人都需要帮助，无论何时，不管何地。当一个人接受帮助的同时，他/她也随之承担起了一份责任和义务——当自己重新站在了阳光下，不要忘了还有许多人被困于黑暗中，你应该想办法将他们带向光明。其实，这也是我人生追求的一大愿望。我感受过黑暗将一个人的心灵活生生的吞噬的那一幕，让人感到了生命的绝望。因此，我愿成为一颗被爱心点燃的火种将爱心传递，用自己的光和热去照亮和温暖在困境中求学的孩子。

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王立晗 / Wang Li Han 大二学生/2nd year in University

Parents are hard working peasants, with annual income less than $1200.  Difficult to support me for school. I want to study hard and use knowledge to help change the poor and improve people's lives. 

班干部，有理想有抱负。我是一个从山里走出的农村孩子。从我记事起，就知道家里生活一直很拮据。因为地少，整日奔波劳作的父母忙了一年才有不到万元的收入。年年除去种地和日常生活的开销，没有剩余的钱，供我上学更是捉襟见肘。好强的我暗下决心，一定要发奋读书，用知识来改变贫穷和落后。我把“有志者事竟成”“苦心人天不负”的古语镌刻在心中，时时勉励自己进取不息。

(Anita & Dennis)

Through the partnership with the Our Free Sky (OFS), China Tomorrow Education Foundation (CTEF) has donated over 20,000 books to 9 school libraries in some of the most remote and poorest regions in China.

OFS (http://www.ourfreesky.org/) is a non-profit organization based in Beijing, China. Similar to CTEF, OFS has the mission to improve the education in rural China by providing volunteer teachers, funding scholarships, and donating books. CTEF first started collaborating with OFS on two earthquake-impacted schools in Pengzhou, Sichuan in September 2008 (see the link here). After the initial success, CTEF and OFS soon extended their partnership in other regions. So far, CTEF and OFS have donated books worth of RMB 106,000 to 9 schools in Sichuan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces, helping 3656 students. Below is a complete list of these schools:

Thank-You letters and handicraft from Schools and Students

Students enjoying the books

Teaming up with 温暖1+1 助学网 (http://www.wnzx.org/), CTEF recently donated 850 books to six schools in Guizhou. 

Book delivery



Receiving the books!

New books on the shelf

Thanks giving--book with CTEF LOGO

News paper report