Preschools of the Future/ “POF” in Ximeng, Puer received a grant of 601.816RMB from China Charities Aid Foundation for Children to beautify 15 POF schools in Ximeng. The duration of the grant runs from 1st of August 2016 to 31st of January 2017. The grant includes both “old” preschools already established and new schools opening September 2016. The grant is mainly targeted on decorating preschool classrooms and buying teaching materials and toys for the preschool children. The project also aims at organizing parents to help in renovating the preschools. The renovation and decoration of our preschools is a welcomed initiative, since the appearance of the classrooms of course have influence on the children’s well-being and learning environment. Certain requirements have been designed by China Charities Foundation for Children, for example: All schools will have a beautiful tree painted on the wall.

                                        Many materials were bought to beautify the schools

                                             Cross checking the list of delivered materials

                                   Making sure everything is ready before schools open

                                          Preschool children need beds to rest on in the break

                                                               A beautiful tree on the wall

The project staff had since the beginning of August been involved in renovating and decorating preschool classrooms. When I spoke to the Project Leader Hao Xiaopeng, in September last year he told me  what was  going on since they started the renovations:

“We worked hard since the beginning of August and managed to establish 5 new preschools, Wangmo, Mowo 1, Mowo2, Bangqin and Woyang. We did some renovations and decorations for the classes in preparation for the opening of schools. We are still going ahead with the renovations, because we have to buy materials and finish renovation and decoration of all the preschools. So far we have finished 12 preschools but we are facing a lot of challenges. At times we only have 4-5 people doing the job, 2 from the project and 2 or 3 villagers to assist. It is very difficult work because we lack manpower especially in periods when the villagers don’t have time to help. If we are to hire people to work with us we have to pay per day for each person, so at times we just have to do the work ourselves. We are expecting to beat the target of finishing the renovations before the end of the year. It was a great relief to have Ji Xiaolong to come and help us”. Ji Xiaolong is one of the HPP employees who have been running some of our preschools in Longling. “He has helped a lot and his efforts have speeded up our work.  I am happy to be doing this work because it will be nice to see the children learning in such a beautiful environment. I can see that there is a great difference from when the classrooms were not painted and decorated until now when it looks as good as new, beautiful and inviting. Many parents have visited the schools to see what we are doing and they are happy that such effort is being done for their children. I am glad also that we are doing this to uplift the standard of our preschools. I believe both the teachers and children will be proud of their new learning environment.”

                                 When schools open, all things should be “spic and span”

                  All the things to be set when the preschool children start the new semester


                                                 The arrangement is nice and inviting

NB: The project has completed the renovations, decorations and buying of materials for 13 classrooms and both the teachers, parents and children are happy with the new appearance of the classrooms.

Brief Summary of the project:
The Preschools of the Future/POF project in Ximeng is funded by Shanghai based Huang Yicong Charities Foundation and executed by Humana People to People China. The project aims to support 540, 3-6 year old children (now we support 309) in natural villages of Ximeng County, Puer City. Over the course of 3 years, the project intends to train teachers and build both the teachers’ and community’s management capacity of the POFs.

The project also pays attention to children’s health and nutrition issues. It provides nutritional meals to children and helps to develop children’s good hygiene habits in the preschool. The project aims to be sustainable by developing the community’s capacity in order to take over the POF schools after 3 years intensive project support followed by a 1 year phasing-out period.


     
This project is funded by  Shanghai based Huang Yicong Charities Foundation and executed by Humana People to People China.
Content in this article reflects only the views of the authors and not those of the funder.