Promoting Education, Art,
and Community Harvest
PEACH
FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER
December 2019, issue No. 54
Translated By Neil Sun
Dear Friends,
PEACH
will admit 1,500 new children in 2020. During this tax planning season, we sincerely
ask for your help to promote our tax-deductible donation to your relatives and
friends. Your continuing support to the organization is greatly appreciated.
2019 Volunteer Exploration Trip –
In 2019 between Oct 19th and 26th, a group consist of nine volunteers went to Honghe and Yuanyang County,
Yunnan Province. They visited the PEACH students and their parents to provide
encouragement and to ensure the students continue their pursuit for higher
education.
Staff
Home Visit Trip – Following the Volunteer trip, the PEACH employees
visited the homes of 750 students. Their tasks are to communicate with the
teachers, visit the current PEACH students, and conduct home-visits to discover
children who need the most help.
New project site – Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province –Qiaojia
County is located in Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province,
adjacent to Huize and Ludian
County. It is one of the most complex county towns in Yunnan Province. 98.9% of
the area is mountainous. Farmers’ incomes are mostly based on limited harvests
of a few crops. We provided 120 sponsorships to Qiaojia
County this year and will gradually increase the number if the operation goes
smoothly.
The new project site – Myanmar In recent years, Mainland China has made
extraordinary effort to help the poor. Based on reports, the government has
helped farmers building new houses, subsidized poor students. I estimate the
children in needs are reduced by 30%.
PEACH
was informed the donation and operation are no longer needed in 5 out of 12 counties
because there are no more children in poverty. We are doing our best to
communicate and coordinate with relevant departments in hope of a better turn.
In
the meantime, I took two staffs, Tina and May, spent three weeks in Myanmar to
investigate expanding PEACH work to Myanmar in the coming year. Myanmar is the
poorest of the 10 Southeast Asian countries. The economy is like China in the
1970s. For example, for a village with 300 households, there are only two have
electricity. Poverty is widespread.
Between
November 5th and 25th, we visited 43 Chinese schools and 3
orphanages in Mogok, Pyin U
Lwin, Lashio, and Yangon.
Because
northern part of Myanmar borders with China, variety of business trades with
China is frequent. It is easier to find a job for those who know Chinese.
Students are having a hard time joggling studying schedule. A normal school day
includes getting up at 4:30 am, going to Chinese school from 5:30 am to 8:00
am, studying in regular Myanmar school from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, learning
Chinese again from 4:00 pm - 6: 00 pm, and then attending night touring school
for the rest of the evening. The standard salary of a teacher in Myanmar is
around $150 US dollars / month, and teachers basically live on touring fees
from the evening classes.
We
asked teachers to recommend students between sixth and eighth grades who has
good grade as the target for sponsorship. However, many kids started working
after junior high graduation (8th grade) just to make ends meet.
Many kids do not value higher education.
We encourage children and their parents
to look ahead and value higher education so they can be in tune with the ever
advancing economic in Myanmar. Only when PEACH children completed their college
degree and found good jobs, will they become role models and inspiration for
other students and their parents to value knowledge and education.
Children
in the orphanage are living in poor conditions. Their houses are usually made
with cheap wood and their beds are scrap boards. The orphanages house orphans,
single parents, children in poverty, 
and people who fled from the war zones. Civil
wars in Myanmar occur quite often, and once war broke out, villagers would
scatter around with no permanent place to stay. Children are easily separated
from their families and the lucky ones are accepted by orphanages.
Many
orphanages rely on fundraising solely to feed the kids. They eat whatever they
can get. It is common to have kids grow their own vegetables. The daily meal is
less than $0.72 US dollars. The children are severely undernourished. However,
the children in these orphanages have strong will to learn and their grades are
much better than those of Chinese schools. (*Chinese is not taught at the
orphanages.)
In private homes, houses are poorly
built with a lot of patchworks with bamboo rafters. The flimsy wood floor
creaks as it would collapse at any time. Most houses have mud floor and without
electricity, but they are clean without scatters. Parents teach their children
from an early age that they can be poor but the living environment has to be
well maintained. Each home has a small toilet and they are kept clean. The
cleanliness of the sanitary facility at schools is impressive too. The stalls
have four tall walls unlike those in mainland China where no-privacy low wall
is the predominate design.
Beginning
in 2020, donors will have the option to sponsor children from mainland China or
Myanmar. Details will be announced in March 2020. Thank for your support in
helping more poor children to receive education!
2020 Summer Camps – schedule as follows. All
volunteer teachers’ positions are already full.
Session
A: 7/17 to 7/27/2020 at Ludian, Yunnan Province. Full
Session
B: 7/26 to 8/5/2020 at Huize, Yunnan Province. Full
Session
C: 8/6 to 8/14/2020 at Yulong, Yunnan Province. Full
2020 Volunteer Exploration Trip The
next volunteer group is now opened for registration. It is scheduled for Oct
17th to 25th, 2020 at the NuJiang region, Yunnan
province. Nujiang is one of the rivers within the
Three Rivers Natural Reserve, a World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO in 2003.
Attached #1 is the Christmas gift
brochure. The children need the support from you, your relatives, and your
friends. Any donation toward student sponsorship, summer camp, or any other
PEACH activities is greatly appreciated! Every dollar represents the human
kindness. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Attached
#2 has two articles written by PEACH staff May Lee,
please feel free to share them with your families, relatives, and friends. May
was sponsored by PEACH in 2003, and she has been working in PEACH since 2010.
Best
Regards,
Ruth
Jeng
President
PEACH
Foundation
Address: 1098
Marlin Avenue, Foster City, CA 94404, U.S.A.
Phone:
650-525-1188 Fax: 650-525-9688
Email: staff@PEACHFoundationUSA.org Website: www.PEACHFoundationUSA.org
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House
Visit Reminiscence – May Lee Translated
By George Wang
In
November 2019, I came across a family during my house visit trip in Qiaojia County. The family consisted of 11 members in
addition 
to the parents. Our PEACH
student had three older sisters, three older brothers, one younger brother, as
well as two nephews and one niece from the eldest brother. All three sisters
were illiterate. The eldest sister had married, the second sister left town
with a boyfriend and lost contact. The youngest sister worked on family farm
and took care of the cattle.
The
eldest brother used to have a wife. She couldn’t stand the poverty and left,
abandoning her own kids. Afterward, the eldest brother killed himself three
weeks later. Two of their children were in elementary school and the youngest
one was four years old. The second brother married into his wife’s family and
was unable to provide assistance. The third brother was a sophomore in high
school and the youngest brother was in 6th grade. Our PEACH student, the
seventh child among his siblings, was in 9th grade.
This
large family was cramped inside a shabby mud house. Their mosquito nets were
made out of plastic sheets to fend off both mosquito and the chilly winter
wind. The whole family lived on five acres of potato field, three pigs and two
cows.
The
3rd sister was twenty years old. She had never been to school. Aunt Jeng
advised her to restart her education and promised to support her financially.
In sixteen years, she could earn her degree and live a different life. Aunt Jeng
mentioned the story of Sha Fang. Sha didn’t go to school until she was
fourteen. She was now a nurse and made a good living. However this girl felt
was too late for school anyway. The thought of joining the first graders made
her cringe.
Our
PEACH student, the seventh sibling, showed up with patches on his pants and holes in his shoes. He welcomed us with his smile. He is
destined to be the pillar of the whole family. PEACH also provides for the
brother in high school to lighten the family burden. With better education, the
two brothers shall have a bright future.
My Experience in
Myanmar – May Lee
Translated By George Wang
“Mom
is a blessing from Heaven. With Mom, we children are treasured gems. Without her,
there is no where one can find love.” As the Burmese orphanage choir sang this
song, I couldn’t help but started to cry.
This
orphanage was founded twenty-three years ago. The founder set up several
orphanages and this one was managed by his sister. The orphanage adopted over
one hundred children. Among them were orphans, children from single parent,
from war-torn refugees and from poor family. All children were smeared with a
plant-based substance to guard against mosquitoes and sunburn. They played in
the muddy field barefoot or wearing slippers. They lived in houses that were
put together with bamboo strips and their beds were plain wood boards.
In
northern Myanmar, wars had torn family apart. Many children hid in the
orphanage to avoid being drafted into military as child soldiers. The master of
the orphanage led the girls working in the compound to grow vegetables. The
boys were sent to the local farmers to grow rice. Through their own labor, they
could earn their livings.
The
largest expenditure for the orphanage was sending the 10th graders to take the
preparatory courses for college. Even with the preparatory courses, only a few
would get into college. Without the courses, the chance would be even dimmer.
The master devoted herself wholeheartedly to the children. She was doing her
very best to feed them and to educate them.