Qichun New Hope Preschool Project is a 3 year program funded by China Merchant Charitable Foundation (CMCF) and implemented by Humana People to People (HPP). The first phase of the project lasts 6 months from July 1st to December 31st 2016. So far 5 POF (Preschools of the Future) have been established. In 2015 China Merchant Charitable Foundation and Humana People to People decided to cooperate about the POF project and soon after representatives from CMCF and HPP visited Qichun together. This year in April a baseline survey was carried out in Qichun and a plan for starting of the project was made. The 5 new POF Schools have each their own parents committee. Each committee has in cooperation with the rest of the parents chosen a local person to be trained as teacher. By organizing parents meetings, parent committee meetings and trainings, the teachers and project staff improve the parents’ knowledge on early childhood care. The project will improve the nutrition and health status of the preschool children by teaching the parents about healthy food, health and hygiene. Furthermore an annual health check will be arranged which will help in early identification of problems like malnutrition and make it possible to take action in time.

Project leader Wu Jiangbo is experienced after being involved in opening a number of preschools in Zhenkang County in Yunnan Province. Soon after graduating from Frontline Institute, a project management training institute in Africa, she took the responsibility of starting POF Schools in Zhenkang.

The Project Leader Wu Jiangbo introducing the program to the Qichun community

Official opening of  Tongxinwenquan Preschool

Parents and children attend the official opening of the Preschool

Below is a discussion I had with Wu Jiangbo in August last year soon after she started POF Qichun where she told about her experiences when she started up POF Qichun in July. .

“Our first 5 preschools now comprehend a total of 104 children and 5 teachers. It was not easy to introduce the program because the parents did not understand our POF concept. Some were in doubt and others were keen to understand more. Some of the parents believe that education should be paid for by the government, or that Humana People to People should just pay for everything. It took a lot of discussions until the parents understood our concept – for example that parents should pay a stipulated amount for food and also for the teachers’ salary The use of videos from some of our POF projects in Sichuan and Zhenkang helped the parents to get an understanding. Communication was also a challenge since I cannot speak the local language, but I believe with time we will be able to communicate very well, after I learn the language. The local leaders are very supportive and happy to have HPP starting preschools within the community. One challenge we have right now is that the some parents are mostly focused on their children learning to read and write. Some parents think that if children are involved in other activities, such as singing and dancing, it is a waste of time. Through continuous parents trainings/meetings and their participation in different activities such as Children’s day, sports etc, I hope the parents will understand the importance of teaching small children dancing and singing.

Soon after the introductions we found a project office, which we then furnished with all the necessary furniture we will use throughout the project period. After securing the 5 POFs we also bought materials for the classrooms. With the help of the community/parents in Qichun, we managed to put all the materials in the respective classrooms and made sure everything in the classrooms was in order, ready for the children to start their classes.”

Furniture and other materials ready to be transported to the preschools

Parents and teachers busy in making sure the classrooms are ready for the opening

NB: POF Qichun now runs a total of 11 preschools which are benefitting 300 children. Most of the children are left behind children living with their grandparents whilst parents are out on migrant work.


This POF project is funded by China Merchants Charitable Foundation (www.cmcf.org.cn)
Content in this article reflects only the views of the authors and not those of the funder.