The Amway Education Aid Program

In the southeast of Guizhou Province, there is a small town called Pai Diao. The only middle school there, Pai Diao Middle School, receives support from the Amway Education Aid Program.

Five volunteers from Guizhou University including Yan Fei became teachers of Pai Diao Middle School through the Amway Education Aid Program. As they began teaching they were most surprised by the condition of local education there.

"I still remembered, in the first assessment test, someone got six points and two essays got zeros." said Wang Yucheng, an education aid volunteer, "to see six points gradually go up to 16 points, then to 36 points, now to 96 points, some even above 120 points, I am very pleased. It is heartfelt happiness. "

Located in remote mountainous areas, Pai Diao Middle School provides room and board to the children of Guizhou Province, which has the lowest per capita GDP nationwide. Due to limited space, all the children are crowded in the classroom and sleep on their desks at night. In 2005, Amway funded the construction of a dormitory in Pai Diao Middle School. Finally, the students would no longer worry about falling from their desks while sleeping.

In an essay assignment titled "Choice", ninety percent of children expressed the desire to leave the mountains as most of them had never visited even the county town. Urban highly-educated volunteers went to these children to encourage them and share about the outside world to help spark their desire for learning.

"Our aspiration is to tell them how to learn so they will learn themselves and go change their own destiny," said a volunteer. "After six-months teaching, I conclude that it is necessary for children in rural areas to master their own life. We bring hope as well as knowledge to them, and gradually help them find the most necessary things, so that they can look for and find their way to future."

Since 2002, Amway China has sponsored 22 well-known institutions of higher education and organized 571 graduate volunteers to launch the Amway Education Aid Program in 21 poverty-stricken counties within 14 provinces and regions. More than 50,000 students benefit from this program each year.