 |
| |
|
| |
| The ChangAi Children's
Project currently runs six main activities across
seven villages in south-western Yunnan province. These
activities, developed by ChangAi in consultation with
the project's partners at the Yunnan Women & Children's
Development Centre (YWCDC), local Women's Federations
(WFs), and Dehong Youth League (DYL), the local chapter
of the Communist Youth League in Yunnan, continue to grow
and evolve as local needs and situations change. |
| |
Microcredit loans and
vocational training
|
Toilet construction and
hygiene |
Scholarship and wellbeing
grants |
|
|
|
When people don't
see a way out of poverty they're unlikely to attempt
to improve their situation. If a household with children
is poor but capable, ChangAi is a source of hope and
of means. Such families are provided with vocational
training and given the opportunity to receive a small
interest-free loan, to be repaid over a two year period.
The funding helps them launch or expand income-generating
activities like growing sugarcane or raising pigs.
Part of the understanding between ChangAi and the
borrowers is that part of the profits from these small
loans will improve children's health and education.
The loans therefore provide a much more sustainable
form of support than grants alone, building the family's
long term earning capacity and raising their social
standing within their community.
|
ChangAi funds the construction
of household hygienic toilets across four minority villages
jointly with federal and local governments and the households
themselves. Previously, few Jingpo villages had toilets
of any kind, while most Dai villages had simple latrines
constructed out of bamboo and straw sheds covering a
hole in the ground. With the new toilets, the hygienic
treatment of waste limits the transmission of parasites
and infectious diseases, improving health. Local builders
worked to the standards set by the local Health Bureau,
with close supervision by the Women’s Federation.
|
Inadequate access to education
and health are major causes of child poverty and vulnerability
in China. ChangAi focuses on improving children's access
to health and education services by providing tuition
fees, school books, meal costs, immunisations and basic
health insurance to enable vulnerable children to attend
school and stay healthy.
Our partners at the local Women's Federations guide
the community to decide which children need this support
the most. Before receiving an education grant, each
child writes a document outlining the major obstacles
they face - generally this is a parent's illness,
poverty, or drug use - and confirm that they want
to stay in school. ChangAi tracks their academic performance
and will support high achieving students to further
their schooling.
|
| |
|
|
| Creativity workshops, life skills
training and motivation |
Critical healthcare fund |
Community-based health education |
|
|
|
When older children see few options
available to them, they are more likely to engage in
risky behaviour. ChangAi brings a series of activities
that broaden children's horizons and nurture important
life skills. ChangAi staff and local partners identify
and invite experts to run art, theatre, and life skills
classes to encourage creativity, pride in the local
culture and healthy mental and physical development.
One village has designated space for a permanent ChangAi
Children Activity Centre, whilst other villages host
workshops and activities in their cultural centres.
We also arrange visits by volunteers to organize activities
such as sports, games, arts and craft for children.
|
Households are children's main
protective environment. A parent or caregiver's illness
exposes children to emotional stress and heightens the
risks of increasing poverty and losing loved ones. When
parents are sick, children have to grow up too quickly
and shoulder much greater household responsibilities
- earning money, cooking and cleaning and caring for
younger siblings. To assist primary care givers who
are sick, ChangAi provides a critical health care fund.
Funds are allocated by local Women's Federations and
are based on local doctors' assessments of those most
in need of medical care.
|
Disease, drug use, poor hygiene
and poverty in the community affect children directly.
To combat this, ChangAi runs a long-term community-based
health education campaign to inform the community about
nutrition, disease prevention, the detrimental effects
of drugs and environmental health. Local doctors, childcare
specialists and environmental experts are invited to
meet the villagers to discuss these topics, answer questions
and guide local strategies to promote health education.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
