In November 2008, CTEF sponsored four Stanford University MBA students, Amy Gu, Chen Ou, Andrew Tam, and Rachel Zimet, to visit the Sichuan earthquake site for earthquake relief opportunity research. They visited schools in Deyang, Mianzhu, and Shifang in Sichuan Province and introduced a project to CTEF – sponsoring 150 students who suffered the most from the earthquake through the partnership with China’s Committee for the wellbeing of the Youth (关心下一代工作委员会) in Deyang.

  Stanford students in Sichuan

After months of contract preparation and selection of students, CTEF reached an agreement with Deyang’s Committee for the wellbeing of the Youth and committed to provide RMB 100 per student per month to cover the cost of study and living allowance for 150 students, who were seriously injured or lost their family in the earthquake. 

The first batch of money has been delivered to these 150 students in July 2009. Below are a few thank-you letters from some of them (the student names have been removed to respect their privacy).

Teaming with Sowers Action (http://www.sowers.org.hk/), CTEF donated RMB 378,000 (USD $55,588) and rebuilt the Wangyuan Village Elementary School in the Qingcheng County of Gansu Province (甘肃庆城县土桥乡王塬村小学), which was seriously damaged by the 5.12 earthquake. The project involved two classroom buildings (362.4 square meters), one dormitory building (181.2 square meters), and 90student desks and chairs. The project was started on October 6, 2008, and completed on April 28, 2009. The school is now named after CTEF and Sowers Action (王塬村明日中华苗圃希望小学).

Before:

After:

Zheng Shan Kou Central School is about 45 miles to the southwest of Sichuan capital, Chengdu. It provides education from the first grade to ninth grade for more than 450 students from 9 villages. Many students walked over 12 miles of hilly road each way to reach school, bringing flash lights and sticks since the sky was dark when they came back to home.

The school buildings were seriously damaged by the earthquake. CTEF has committed over 819,000 RMB (USD $120,000) to improve the dorm, student bathrooms, dining hall, and a playground.

Before:

Under construction:

China Tomorrow Education Foundation (CTEF) partnered with Our Free Sky (OFS, http://www.ourfreesky.org/ ), a non-profit organization in China, and donated thousands of books to two earthquake impacted schools in Pengzhou, Sichuan.

In late June 2008, just six weeks after the 5.12 earthquake, a team of OFS volunteers visited Guangyuan, Mianyan and Pengzhou, three cities in Sichuan that were hit hard by the earthquake (http://www.ourfreesky.org/ofs/projects/512zoufang0806.html ). While temporary classrooms were being built for the local schools, most of them didn’t have libraries for the students. 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. 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.

“This is only the beginning of our collaboration with OFS. There are many more schools that need our help. We will also try to pair the school children in China with the American students who donated some of the money, and let them build friendship with each other,” said CTEF president Dennis Su.

Books with CTEF and OFS stamps

Books were being sent to schools by OFS volunteers

Pengzhou Guihua School (彭州桂花镇中心小学)

Pengzhou Hongyan School (彭州红岩镇中心小学)