Since 2006, the Chinese government has implemented a 9-year state-sponsored education scheme and at the same time offered subsidies on related expenses such as costs of dormitory and textbooks. While this makes basic education possible for all, attending senior high school and higher means of education remains out of reach for the impoverished. Drop-out rate post junior high school reaches as high as 30% and the main attributing factor is financial difficulties.
To reflect the change in education policies, our student support focus has evolved to helping those in senior high school and university, in the form of living and learning expense assistance. At the moment, we are concentrating our effort in Yunnan, Gansu, Sichuan and Guizhou.
In 2016, we learned through cable news that a privately run high school in Nanning is closing due to financial difficulties and its students, many of whom are of humble means, will need to drop out involuntary. After 3 months of evaluation and discussions, Sowers Action decided to start sponsoring the school. In Sep of the same year, the school was renamed as “Nanning Sowers Action Hua Guang Girls High School” and became the only school in China sponsored by a non-government welfare entity that caters to girls living in poverty, and many of whom are from an ethnic minority origin.
Females in China indigenous clans normally occupy a low social status. To help alleviate this inequality, Hua Guang has offered tuition assistance to and declared its mission in helping ethnic minority females to promote equal rights in education.
Hua Guang education principles emphasize character development and a comprehensive development, focusing on personal value and positive behavior, cultural development, and the learning of foreign languages. Since 2010, student performance has improved steadily and many went on to study in higher education institutes in China as well as overseas like the United World College and Asian University for Women, and were awarded scholarships to study in the US.
