Dahua Yao Autonomous County is situated by the middle portion of the Hongshui River, in the northwest-central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. We set out from the county seat in the morning and after two hours’ long-distance bus we arrived at the Township of Yalong, from whose seat we drived one hour and a half before we finally reached our destination for the donation of books within the “One Book Program”— Nongwang Cun primary school.
As a voyager, there’s no doubt that you’ll be fascinated by the natural landscape here: a magnificent Karst sight that continues in hundreds of kilometers, without neon lights, without surexploitation of tourism, the nature here is pure. In comparison with Guilin and Yangshuo, two cities which are symbols of the tourism in Guangxi, the scenery hidden deep in the mountains may constitute the most natural paysage in Guangxi.

Then if you are one of the Yao people who have being living here since the day you are born, instead of a passing-by, what would be your life like? These mountains full of rocks cannot afford any cultivation of large acreage of any crop, only in the depressions between the mountains can be developed a limited proportion of farmland. Very small quantities of corn and sweet potatoes are their only food for a whole year. Without water supply, a big clay pond is constructed on every roof to collect rain which is the only source of water in their daily life. That is the evidence of their living at the mercy of Heaven.

While today China’s growing GDP has reached the second place in the world, there still exists many poor villages like the township of Yalong who are unknown to the world. Nevertheless the only comfort may be that the winding road can lead to the seat of Dahua County, even to some farther cities. This is the only road to the outside world, an out-and-out lifeline.

Nongwang Primary School is located in a remoter corner in the Township of Yalong. On August 24th 2010, accompanied by WEI Liukui, the secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Township of Yalong, volunteers supporting the development of the West Regions and me have been to this school. It is a hope primary school in which from grade one to grade six 200 pupils remain in residence. The two-floor classroom building is established near the mountain and the total area equals a basketball court. Crude and simple classrooms, dark and humid dormitory, those bunk beds are really small but six or seven children will have to sleep on them. Neither collateral reading nor any sporting goods are available to them, the only football consists their whole extracurricular life. While most of their parents are working out of their hometown, some of them even cannot be back at home every year, these children live at school during their studies. On holidays they will go back home and help their grandparents to do farm work and live together.

I thought post-80s like us was a real generation born far from the miseries of life, but my opinion was totally changed at the sight of those children born after 2000 and who yet have to suffer such poverty in their life. That is really sorrowful. For it was summer vocation when we arrived, there wasn’t any student in the school, and the headmaster has specially walked more than 10 km to meet us. He was extremely excited when informed of “One Book Program” whose purpose was to collect books for needy schools. He told us that nearly no book can be found in the whole school that was fit for pupils to read, the children were especially longing for books of intellectual development, picture series and encyclopedic books. Moreover, for those children living with old people, books about cultivation, basic medical care and law will be of great importance.

Leaving the school, we intended to visit two families. Having been disconnected to the outside for too long a time, the children here kept far from strangers, but were curious about our camera. They hid themselves behind the trees and peeped there. Finally we entered a Yao family, it was thanks to our efforts that at last the child took seat beside us, he’s in grade 4 at Wangnong primary school. I asked him how old he was, but he said he’d no idea. Our accompany, WEI Liukui, the secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Township of Yalong, explained to us that children here merely knew how old they were, no one had ever asked them. It is not at all surprising that they don’t even have the notion of age, nor were their parents conscious of remembering their children’s age. It is only when I showed him the photo I have taken of their school that the familiarity and the curiosity made him allow me to take a photo of his. And I promised him to take this photo to him the next time. Knowing his little wish satisfied, cheerfully he smiled.

From the conversations with the volunteers, I have learned that, the dream for over 90% of children here, demanded several times, was to work outside after graduating from middle school. For children of those who work outside, working outside may be the only way to walk out of the mountains one day, to the outside world. Given their poverty, it is their only conscious. “Study to change your fate”, this word has never been true for a long period. For knowing characters is the premise of studies, and not only after the popularization of nine-year compulsory education and exemption of tuition and incidental expenses did this word become valuable. I want to tell these children that, now, we can come to know the outside world by means of reading.

I believe that along with the popularization and the improvement of ideology, those children having access to books will gradually realize the dream of renewing their hometown. Here moreover, I’d like to salute those volunteers working in the countryside and contributing to the development of West Regions.

For many people, perhaps the name of Huangnanzhou in Qinghai province has been never heard. However, children here have great demand of books. Hence during this summer vocation we raised 2,000 books for the children in the Huangnanzhou Welfare house in

Qinghai province. We would like to show our appreciations to the rice-salesman who is working in the food market and gave us the brand new rice bags as a token of his affection for the children when he heard of our donation activity.We would also like to show our appreciations to our cooperative express company, who repacked the books and delivered them from Beijing to

Qinghai free of charge. The only person to collect all these books was the handsome driver of the company and one that day he said nothing but kept loading these books to his truck.

What can we say? In such a hot and summer, these volunteers knocked on our doors and all they wanted to do is just to give us these books they prepared for the children.

Thanks for all the things you did for the children in

Qinghai province. By all the efforts we’ve made, the children know that there are many people are caring for them, loving them and willing to help them like you did.These pictures are showing the scene when the driver was collecting the books, the child with their newly received books and the library set up with our donation books. 

The annual conference of WORDCAMP CHINA was held on August 22 in the Yangguang Hall of Tsinghua Science Park in Beijing. Many of the devotees of WORDPRESS all around China were attracted by this conference and gathered in

Beijing. They are all independent blog owners and have their own readerships. The WP advocacy is to share, to share all the resources and to let every Internet enthusiasts to use the resources free of charge. In addition to the discussion of the latest technology, templates and operations, one of the biggest bright spot is to raise books for the One-book program.

DUDU, aged 8, is the youngest book donator at this conference. He hopes all the children who receive these books to be happy everyday.

We sincerely appreciate all the participants of this conference. Thanks to their book donations and thanks to the SHARING spirit of WP. With all these help, more people are able to share the happiness.

The Children’s Day is on its way now and we are thinking about what presents we can prepare to make the chiledren happy.

At the end of May, we went to Guang’ai school again. Though we are now old friends of the children there, we still felt that time was limited for us to be together with each other.

In order to raise more money for the children of Guang’ai school in the benefit ball of African Night, we paid the special visit to the school together with the ambassadresses from different African nation embassies before the Children’s day, and brought a part of the supplies to them.

Pictures：

The ambassadresses group was guided into to school by the staff.

Visting the schoolhouse

Communicating with the children in the classroom

Visiting the kitchen

Food and supplies for the children

Writing greetings on the Love Wall before leaving

The Library Building Programme for Sandaoqiao Center Primary School of Hangjinhouqi of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has aroused considerable concerns from many warm-hearted friends since it began. On behalf of the children from Sandaoqiao primary school, the One-book programme Group sincerely appreciates you.

 

During the programme, almost 500 donation books were collected in total, of which most were personal donations, as well as some brand-new ones for teenagers from Yunnan publishing house. We believe that the children who receive these books will feel especially happy.

 

All the book donators can log on our website to check the books you’ve donated and also whereaboutldirection of the books.

 

Here, to all the selfless volunteers, we thank you so much! We believe that more and more people will feel the love from other places and from oter people because of what you’ve done for them.

Thanks to Ma Lan for her great patience on scanning and sorting books,marking labels and writing greeting words on books.

 

Thanks Liu for his hard work on abstracting.

Thanks this warm-hearted guy for his patient work on book packing and sorting.

 

Volunteers are busy with sewing bags.

Together with our efforts, all these bokks have been sent to Sandaoqiao Center Primary School. May all the children who receive these books feel our love around them, and may our books bring happiness and help to them!

I have some words about sharing knowledge and love. 

I do appreciate ONE BOOK PROGRAM  For the central concept of it: knowledge sharing, love spreading. I have been quite aware of how important to have privilege since I was a pupil. My mother is a primary school teacher which allowed me to read every book in the school library. I could stay in the classroom, reading the book borrowed by privilege while other children were playing on the earth-surface playground, getting mud all over their bodies. Such privilege continued during my secondary school. The librarian was my mother’s best friend so that I could borrow a bunch of books from the school library before each holiday began, without any effort and cost. You know, students in rural district could not easily borrow books from the school library.
Nevertheless I was lucky enough to read as much as I wish during my childhood. I buried myself in the masterpiece of literature, especially the Greek mythology and the works of renaissance. At that time the pleasure of reading really made my blood tingle. I felt I was on the top on the world. Now I can afford any book I want. But it is sad that I have difficulty in concentrating on a book, no matter how good the book is. Then I realize how rude life is—it gives you feast and at the same time rob your appetite. I think the books I read have bridged the gap between me, a rural kid, and the outside world. No exaggeration at all. I do feel grateful to the little privilege at that time, to the sufficient time I had to digest those great books. ONE BOOK PROGRAM stirs the years long memory within me. It seems that all of a sudden(suddenly) all of those familiar pictures flash back vividly in my mind. For me , a person who is always reluctant to live in the past or fancy about future, this kind of memory is filled with smiles in tears. Were my mother not a primary school teacher,
I probably could not write down these words on the computer today;
Were my mother a college teacher,
I might turn out to be someone… today But the truth is my mother is a primary school teacher.
She has given her best years to the school and now she often thinks about the past 30 years during her retirement, while I just sometimes have that in rememberance. If three percent of children in the school were as lucky as I was,
Then the rest 97 percent would probably have regret.
Perhaps a book could change their fate, just like RULAISHENZHANG in a CHOU XINGCHI movie.
The couple sighed with emotion’
“If we had ever read the book, we might become a doctor or a lawyer.” But they did not. Initiated in the Internet era, ONE BOOK PROGRAM presents the opportunity for each child to get his/her favorite book, which eliminates the regret due to the lack of money, time, or rights.
If you had had some luck as I had,
That I hope you will join in this program, to recommend, to donate, and to share a book, just for the next generation’s sake.
I believe this little good deed today will be the seed of the future smile in tears.

2007.08.06  Beijing  Ye Lala pulls 

       He is twelve years old. He is 170cm tall, a head taller than his mom. He is qualified as a little man.    

    But he is a somber child. He never sees his father since he was born.  sensible he always didn’t ask that , His mother, a strong woman, has brought him up all alone. 

    Unfortunately this little man has got asthma when he was only half a year old. Since then the sickness keeps bothering him and most of the time he has to stay at home alone, away from school.        

    Once he gets ill, the little man has to stay beside the windowsill with the windows open, in order to breathe smoothly. Even at those chilly winter nights there is no exception—he has to wear all his clothes plus covered with his quilt.       

    The little man is so clever that he can always catch up with his classmates. He got 99 grades in the math final exam.

    However this caring smart child is still so lonely. He cannot go out to play with other kids in the neighborhood, neither can he do any strenuous sports. So would you please choose some books for him? Would you please be a pen pal with him? Would you please provide some encouragement to get him out of loneliness? 

    He is a little man in MINXING district, SHANGHAI

Preface： 
I can hardly rub those big eyes out of my mind. The unusual expression in those eyes is so unapproachable, let alone the delicate soul hiding behind. I want to offer my comfort, yet there is no proper words for that; I wish I can help, but something intangible blocks my steps. I can do nothing but watch her distantly, with all my care. 

She is my son’s classmate. I met her for the first time on an open English class two years ago. I was just sitting next to her. As a person who greatly enjoys hanging around with kids, I had gotten along quite well with her deskmate before the class began. The two of us appreciated the handwork which was just handed down. The kids around also joined into us. But she did not. At first I assumed it was because the deskmate was in between her and me and she was too shy to join . It was near the end of the lesson The kids then started their exercise. However, when I suggested helping her check the exercise; she closed her exercise book and said nothing. The deskmate gave me the exercise book , breaking the uncomfortable silence, “auntie you don’t have to care for her. Just help me. Her mother has abandoned her and she then cut everybody dead.” The girl was shocked to hear these blunt words. She glared at me like a duck in thunderstorm. Pretending not to hear such words, I dared not look back at her. I knew how embarrassed she was. 

I decided to make Christmas cards for my son and his classmates so I went to the classroom with my camera, taking some pictures for the preparation. The moment I saw the girl through the camera I was astounded. Several months after the open class she had become even more indifferent. Her eyes were full of coldness. She just stared at my camera without blink. i could not bear to press the shutter to give such eyes a shot. So I turned around to take pictures for other kids. 
My son usually has lunch at school and he always complaints the lunch box does not taste good and there is no snacks inside. So between whiles I bake some cookies and cakes for him to take to school. My son relishes the snacks with his classmates. The kids surround my son, smiling, except the girl. She is the only one who remains in her seat and carelessly watches her happy classmates. She should not be so heavy at her age. She deserves more happiness. Once I specially prepared some cookies in various shapes for her, such as bear, star, and the moon… nevertheless she refused my offer, “I don’t like cookies.” In the end the snacks were eaten by my son and other kids. I have no idea how I can approach the girl, neither do I have the courage. That was the only talk between her and me. 

She did not grow much physically during her third grade. At first she was about as tall as my son. But three years later she was shorter than my son by a head. Perhaps she belongs to the late developing kids or she is too preoccupied by the unhappiness. Every time I see her when I wait for my boy outside the school, some subtle aches strike my heart. The girl , who is the first one in the queue, looks so small and thin. 
I think about ONE BOOK PROGRAM each time when I figure about how to get close to the girl and open up her heart in order to warm her soul. Here I call for your attention to choose a book for the girl, a book that can heal her with no harm, a book that can bring her strength and warmness. 

Please visit the BOOK RECOMMENDATION on the BBS or leave your encouragement at the massage board for the little girl. 

Club target

 

By talking with the outstanding university students, the white collar and the excellent directors of the Multinational Corporation (MNC), the children will get to know how to face the problems of their age. By making friends with these big brothers and big sisters, the children learn to face pressure from study and life. At the same time, they build their interpersonal communication circle so that outstanding examples are available for them to admired and produce the idea of being one of them.

 

 

Little brothers and sisters refer to: teenagers ranged from 14 to 16 years old.

 

 

Big brothers and big sisters refer to:

 

Within

China: University students, staffs of MNC and people of all walks of life.

Abroad: Student volunteers, partial staffs volunteers.

 

 

Form of Activities (on-line):

 

Pictures of the volunteers’ will be showed on website. Anyone who is between 14 to 16 years old and is willing to join us as well can choose the volunteer he likes to communicate with, as long as the volunteer also agree. You can communicate in the form of e-mail or enter our forum online to talk with the big brothers and big sisters you like. Both Chinese and English are workable.

 

 

Form of Activities (off-line, applied only in

Beijing for the moment)

 

Firstly, you will have to sign up and you choose each other. Then you can join the party held regularly. In this way, you can talk face to face in an easy and graceful atmosphere since you have already known something about each other.

All youths between 14 to 16 years old can get passionate care from volunteers of the whole country and all over the world as well. With all our sincerity and love, we make all these children a healthy and happy adolescence.

P.S. You do not have to pay us for any of these activities above.

From the initial discussion to the completion of the website,” ONE BOOK “PROGRAM has involved a lot. But it is yet too early to tell the stories; right now it is time for us to do something for the kids.