Project background
Zhenkang County belongs to Lincang city. It is located in Southwest Yunnan, and in the West of Lincang City. It borders Myanmar. There are 23 ethnic groups including Han, Wa, Dai, Deang etc. As time goes by, many school buildings in natural villages of this county which had been converted to community preschools started to have various problems.

Over 70% of preschools in the POF Zhenkang project are former repaired village schools. Most of the schools have not been used for many years. Some basic facilities such as water supply, toilets could not function properly. The head teacher of Tangtiezhai preschool class Zi Xiaosi said, there was no water, he carried the water from home to the school for boiling soybean milk every morning, cooking lunch and washing hand. Due to limited project budget, we applied for funds from China Charities Aid Foundation for Children in April, 2015 by using its website fundraising platform. We launched “Repairing the old school, we need you” project in Tecent website and raised funds for the 12 preschool classes which needed to repair the classrooms.

Since April 2, the fundraising event gets big support from the society. Enough money is collected within only 2 months. 5705 people participated in the donation and 151600 yuan in total was raised.

Specific activities for repairing the school were:
Guganzhai and Dalinge preschool class were a bit different. Mid June the rainy season started in Zhenkang and the roof leaked and it severely influenced normal operation of the preschool class. Therefore, village committee and the villagers all agreed to give credit for construction materials and advance part of construction fee. A roof made of sheets of corrugated iron was put above the original roof. It was completed on July 7. Teachers and children all said happily that they did not need to worry about rains in the future. Due to limitation of the playground, children in Dalinge preschool class could not do outdoor exercises, village committee and villagers giver credits and advance part of the money to harden the playground. It was completed at the end of May. Children could spend a happy Children’s Day on the flat playground. The Construction of the enclosing wall has been completed. 

Wanzitian, Lashuyakou, Mangtuozhai, Tangtiezhai, Qingtang, Malilin, Luoshuiba, Ma’anshan and Pingzizhai preschool classes all finished repairing all the work items earlier than applied for. Tangshangshui preschool also reached an improved level and looks better than ever before.

On behalf of the preschool children we thank all people involved in providing the funds and also all people in the villages providing the labor for these community initiatives – more villages and more children are out there and need our collective support! We hope you join again our next preschool repair fundraiser in January!


Mangtuozhai preschool class, before repairing


Mangtuozhai preschool class, after repairing


Qingtang preschool class, before repairing


Qingtang preschool class, after repairing

 
Tangshangshui preschool class the broken wall and loose door

 
Tangshangshui preschool class the new wall and door after repairing