Promoting Education, Art, and Community Harvest
PEACH FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER
August
2015, issue No. 41
Translated by Peggy Liou
Dear
Friends,
Thank
you for all your help. We have already secured sponsorship for about 700 of the
900 new students we accepted in 2015. Please help spread the word among your
friends and families as we are working hard to find sponsors for the remaining
students.
Summer
Camp – We
have conducted a total of 29 sessions of summer camps since 2004. It is the
love and support from our volunteers that makes the project such a success.
Thank you for bringing your caring hearts to these children in the rural areas
to strengthen the belief that “Education Changes Lives.”
From
July 13 to August 1st, 2015, we held two successful summer camps sessions in
YuanYang and LiJiang where 93 volunteer teachers and 785 PEACH students
participated. This year’s LiJiang Summer Camp broke a new record in terms of
attendees: we had 60 volunteer teachers and 490 students. During the 7-day
camp, we witnessed unbelievable changes in these children. They recited
classical poems with pride, they interacted with their teachers in good
spirits, and their performances in the talent show were amazing. Saying goodbye
was extremely difficult because the children and teachers had built such strong
bonds during the camp.
New Site –PEACH is expanding to a new
site - HuiZe County in Yunnan Province. We have completed two inspection trips
to HuiZe County during March and July 2015. HuiZe County has a population of
over one million, and it is the third largest county in Yunnan Province. Most farmers live in high elevation, in
the LiangZi and CaoZi mountain ranges, with very harsh living conditions. These
areas have challenging weather and inaccessible roads. Only crops like corn and
potatoes can survive there. We learned that corn is the staple for most
families there. For the children, the geography also presents great challenges
to attend school.
During
one of our visits, the teacher from MaLu Middle School told us that the
distance between a child’s home and school is about 15 kilometers, and should
take us about 30 minutes to get there. Our driver drove us on these 
seemly endless, dangerous
winding roads for a long time. We passed one mountain ridge and the teacher
said that we were almost there. Then, we passed another mountain ridge, and the
teacher said the same thing: “We’re almost there.” Finally, we arrived at the student’s
home and we asked him how did he calculate the distance? He answered with a
little embarrassment, “My father and I had never had chance to ride a car to
town. When we go out, we usually leave 5:
On
another trip, we visited a child’s home in a small town called ZhiChang, which
was severely damaged during an earthquake on August 19, 2014. The recovery efforts are still in
progress. The families who had savings are rebuilding their homes with
subsidies from the government; however, the poor families are unable to rebuild
because they do not qualify for any subsidies, as they have no money to meet
the government’s requirements.
The
little girl was waiting for us when we arrived. Her home was built inside a
cave as if it was an abandoned temple. There was one structure built with mud
on the left, and a few more on the right hand side. We entered carefully into
the cave where the walls were blackened from years of smoke. Finally, a large
space opened up in front of us, and we could see that this was their kitchen.
Her family was having lunch and there was a small fire in the middle of the
muddy floor. The girl’s mother stood up and showed us around, while her father
made no gesture to the visitors.
The
girl’s mother told us that they moved into this cave in 1993 and over the
years, they built the mud structures outside as their bedrooms. However, they
had to move back into the cave because the earthquake in 2014 damaged the rooms
so badly. The family would like to
rebuild, but they could not, because they had no money and no one was willing
to loan them money. We also learned that the government housing subsidies are
only available as reimbursement after one’s home is completely rebuilt. This is
because the government tries to avoid situations where families may take the
money and spend it on other expenses rather than rebuilding homes.
In
their yard, there was manure everywhere, and flies were constantly zooming and
landing on the mother and the girl. We explained the PEACH sponsorship to them
and encouraged the girl to study hard and to help clean up her family’s
surroundings, and she nodded firmly.
It
amazes us that these children and their parents are not defeated by the
harshest of conditions. We are very encouraged by these families, because the
parents are strongly supportive to their children’s education and the children
are determined to study hard. We were pleased to find that they recognize that
education can change their lives. We were also very touched by the strength of
these parents and impressed by the determination of these children.
2015 Volunteer Understanding
Tour will
take place in YuLong County, Yunnan Province from October 25 to October 31,
2015. Volunteers are welcome to
join us.
2016 Summer Camps are
scheduled as follow. Our
volunteer teachers’ positions are fully filled; you are welcome to register for
2017 camps; the dates are identical to 2016.
Session#1:
Session#2:
Breaking News - This September, 496
students will be going to college and 812 students will be going to high
schools. These accomplishments are made possible because of all you – our
sponsors. It is YOU who give these children hope and help their dreams come
true. Individual student reports will be mailed to their sponsors shortly.
Please share the wonderful news with your friends and family.
Amazon partners with PEACH Foundation to benefit
your purchase in helping the children. Amazon will now donate 0.5% of the price
of your eligible Amazon Smile purchases when you shop at Amazon Smile smile.amazon.com. Please register The
PEACH Foundation on your Amazon account. To register, please log into smile.amazon.com. Happy shopping and help
Peach children. Thank you for your supporting.
Below, we have attached some PEACH
students’ biographies; please share them with your family
and friends.
Best Regards,
Ruth
Jeng
President
PEACH
Foundation
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I would like to donate ______to the Laurice children
medical funds (at an average of US$20 per child.)
I would like to send _____children to
attend Summer Camp (at US$125
each for one week,
including a bedding set of $40)
I would like to donate
______ to scarf
and mitten funds (at US$5 per child.)
I would like to donate
______to
thermal-pajama funds (at US$5 per child.)
I would like to donate ______ to the library funds (at
US$20 per library)
I would like to donate
______to the
Junhui writing funds (amount as you wish.)
I would like to donate
______ to the
foundation administration funds
I would like to donate
______to the
mini-loan for middle and high school students’ living expenses (amount as you
wish.)
I would like to donate
______to the
college loan funds (amount as you wish.)
I would like to donate
______ (laptop
computer/ digital camera/ cell phone)
I would like to increase my sponsorship
to ___ high school students and ___ middle school students; the yearly costs
are US$300 for a high school student, US$150 for a middle school student.
Please make check payable to PEACH
FOUNDATION.
Donors in
Taiwan please change the amount to New Taiwan Dollars, payable to PEACH
FOUNDATION.
Account No.: 50011068 and it
is tax deductible.
1098 Marlin Avenue,
Foster City, CA 94404, U.S.A.
Email: staff@PeachFoundationUSA.org website: www.PeachFoundationUSA.org
Phone：650-525-1188 fax: 650-525-9688
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14301 Wu XX, 7th Grade, Female
Translated by Amber Tang
My
family has three people—my dad, my brother, and I. My dad works far from home,
but he doesn’t have much ambition or motivation; instead, he constantly drinks.
My brother and I have lived with our grandma since we were little. Our grandpa
is not around, so my brother and I rely on my grandma. 
It’s very hard for my grandma
to send me and my brother to school. One time, when my brother was in first
grade, I told my grandma “I don’t want to go to school any more” but my grandma
refused to let me drop out.
Later,
my grandma was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness; she can’t touch cold
water. Every day after school, I go home to help with housework; in the
morning, I wake up early to cook meals, wash the clothes and feed the pigs.
Although I am exhausted by the end of the day, I always make sure to complete
my homework before I go to bed.
No
one has lived in my house for a long time, so the perimeter of the house is
covered with weeds and wild grasses. Many of my friends are afraid to come to
my house because they say the grass is filled with snakes, and the ones who do
come to visit are afraid to touch the walls. One Sunday night, it was raining,
so I went to my house to get an umbrella. I wasn’t careful and I hit the wall,
causing it to collapse a little. After the rain stopped, the inside of the
house was just as wet as the outside. I opened a trunk to check to see if my
quilt was wet too. Suddenly, I heard two large mice and one small mouse squeak,
scaring me out of my wits, so I grabbed my umbrella and quickly ran out of the
house.
Every
time I think about my grandma’s old age and deteriorating health, I feel more
and more concerned. How can she take care of herself while I’m at school? Once
I told my grandma “I’m not going to go to school anymore” and somehow tears
started falling from my eyes. My grandma replied “I see. You don’t want to go
to school because you’re afraid I’ll get sick while you’re away, right?” With
tears in my eyes, I answered “Yes, Grandma.” My grandmother comforted me by
saying “It’s alright, my sweet granddaughter, I want you to go to school.” She
then gave me my book bag and told me “Study hard at school and don’t think
about me too much” and then she sent me off to school.
Sometimes
I still worry so much about my grandma that I can’t concentrate while my
teacher is talking. My grandmother still hasn’t completely recovered, but she 
continues to provide for my
education.
13707 Bai XX, 7th Grade,
Female
Translated by Tiffany Chen
Father
and mother got a divorce, mother took her luggage and left leaving grandfather
and I. While growing up, grandfather took me to school; everyone else was
wearing new clothing and I was the only one in old clothing, a classmate said
“You are so poor, you can’t even afford clothes.” I told my grandfather I
didn’t want to go back to school, he said “Why? It was a lot of trouble letting
you attend school.” I cried and replied “Because everyone hit me and pick on
me.”
Growing
up I didn’t have mother’s love, grandfather was the one that raised me.
Everyday grandfather worked until seven, I was very worried but couldn’t help
him do hard labors, grandfather always said I was too little and could only
help him graze cattle and cook.
At
the time I really wanted to quit school, but the teacher encouraged me to study
hard and change the life condition I am in now, teacher also told me to think
about grandfather’s everyday hard labor is all for your studies. Under the
teacher’s reminder, I realized when the teacher scolds you is all for your own
benefit; I’ve always wanted to say “Grandfather, thank you for your hard work!”