ChangAi Children's Project

中文

The ChangAi Children's Project currently runs five main activities across four 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) and local Women's Federations, continue to grow and evolve as local needs and situations change.

Inadequate access to education and health are major causes of child poverty and vulnerability in China. The ChangAi Children's Project 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

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 Child Activity Room, whilst other villages host workshops and activities in their cultural centres.

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 pig raising.

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.

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.