A disastrous earthquake hit South China on May 12th, 2008. It was a tragic moment but it brought together all the Chinese--home and abroad. People in CTEF did not hesitate to donate money and also looking to help in other ways. Among many, they discovered that most of the temporary schools didn’t have libraries for the students. Books were badly needed. In many schools in remote and poor regions of China, students don’t have one single book to read except the textbook.
With the common goal of helping the school children in the region who have suffered from the tragedy, OFS and CTEF decided to work together and donate books to these schools. In late June, just six weeks after the earthquake, a team of volunteers from our partner OFS (Our Free Sky) visited Guangyuan, Mianyan and Pengzhou, three cities in Sichuan that were hit hard by the earthquake. Students were thrilled to have the new books. These books open a new world to the students.
On September 8, 2008, the CTEF board approved the OFS book projects and decided to donate 5420 books, worth of 27,327 RMB (US $4,019), to Pengzhou Guihua School (彭州桂花镇中心小学), and 4213 books, worth of 20,949 RMB (US $3,080), to Pengzhou Hongyan School (彭州红岩镇中心小学), respectively. The books were sent to these two schools by OFS volunteers on October 7, 2008, marking the beginning of a long-term collaboration between CTEF and OFS on the library project.
Within one year, by Aug 9th, 2009, CTEF and OFS donated 20,331 books, worth of $15153.71, to 9 schools in Sichuan and Yunnan, benefitting 3656 students in all.
One student wrote: Thank you for the books! I feel I'm soaked in the ocean of knowledge.
Starting from this year, CTEF has been contacting a migrant workers' kids school in Daxing District, Beijing. Those kids living on the edge of the cosmopolitan capital, forming an essential part of the city landscape, but are more often than not ignored and unacknowledged. CTEF is looking to help them in possible ways, and as a first step, we are going to donate dictionaries to the school.
CTEF believes by providing books to the students, we equip them with knowledge and power for their better future and for China's better future! That's the wish cherished by all the CTEF volunteers.
