In the severe winter, the group members marched through the harsh wind, the freezing snow and left behind a muddy trail. They entered villages and farmers' houses. In total, they investigated 1,012 natural villages with a travelled distance as long as 300 thousand kilometers. Finally, an investigation report comprised of 300 thousand words was born. These first-hand data were a great shock to many people.
In Haiyuan County in Ningxia, for the academic year 1989-1990, the dropout rate in primary school was 10.5% and non-enrollment rate of school-age children was 19.9%. In this small county with a population of 300 thousand people, the number of out-of-school children was as large as 14,470, which meant among every three school-age children, one couldn't receive an education.
In Yongxin County in Jiangxi Province, there were a number of over 5,000 students dropping out in the first semester of 1990. Among the 88 pupils in Rongjiang Primary School in Gaoqiaolou Township, 11 dropped out; among the 52 school-age children in Xintian Village, Banzhong Township, only 31 were at school; among the 14 school-age children from 17 families in Zhuziping Village, Sanwan Township, only 9 could afford to go to school.
In Guangzong County in Hebei Province, the total number of students of Grade One, Grade Two and Grade Three of the whole county was 23,000, and that of Grade Four, Grade Five and Grade Six was 13,000, while the middle school students were only a little more than 3,000. The proportion of studentsentering middle schools from primary schools was merely 16.7%.
According to the survey, in the one hundred counties, the enrollment rate of school-age children was 90.15% and in all counties, there were 549,000 school-age children who couldn't go to school, which meant every year each county would see an increase of 5,000 illiterate people. As for the reason for dropping out, it was mainly caused by poverty.
Li Yingxia, a group member said in the investigation report:
Dear friends, in the Xiaoliang Mountain, in many minorities regions, there are still lots of out-of-school children struggling in poverty. They are yelling, crying for help! They need help! We are all human beings made of blood and fresh. How shall we face these poor children? Shouldn't we give some love to them? Please show your love and offer your help and these children will thank you forever.
Help those children! Help them please!
The field of basic education in the impoverished regions was like a long-droughty land, while those children, who were deprived of education or dropped out due to poverty, were like the parched seedlings, waiting for a sweet rain.
Under such background and historical moment, Project Hope was born.
In March 1989, the China Youth Development Foundation co-founded by the Communist Youth League Central Committee, All-China Youth Federation, All-China Students' Federation and the China Youth Pioneers National Working Commission was formally established in Beijing. The aim of this Foundation was to gain the support and sponsorship of organizations and individuals at home and abroad who are concerned about Chinese youth causes; to promote the development of the cause of general development, social education, science and technology, culture and welfare of Chinese youth; to push forward the construction of modernization and the country unification; to improve the friendship among international youths and to protect the world peace.
In Beijing, in March, the ice and snow were melting, the willows were turning green and seemingly, the footsteps of spring could be heard approaching.
Xu Yongguang, Xi Jieying, Gu Xiaojin and Yang Xiaoyu from the Communist Youth League Central Committee and Li Ning from the Beijing Municipal League Committee were the first group of staff who joined the China Youth Development Foundation.
These young people got together and painted the vision of the China Youth Development Foundation with eagerness. They were aware of the reason why the Communist Youth League Central Committee established this Foundation. Their purpose was to serve the youth. However, the purpose shouldn't be reduced to an empty slogan, instead, should be realized in practice. Under such circumstances, money was indispensable. Unfortunately, the state government didn't provide special budget for the development of youth cause. What they could make use of was the overheads of the Communist Youth League institution, more frankly speaking, which was used for the workers' salary. Then what could they do? They could only choose to raise money from the public, mobilizing the social financial resources to serve the youth.
In order to serve the youth, too much was needed to be done. They conducted investigations and carried out argumentation. Finally, all of them focused on the same target: education.
"Only with education, can the society be changed, and can the new blueprint come true; only with education, can we grasp the future." This was the sincere advice given by the UNESCO.
In present world, all humans were in the same course forward and gained a profound consensus: Education was everything. Without education, the advancement of economy, the prosperity of politics and the flourishing of culture were only a wild fancy.
These young people became excited for finding such a worthwhile target. As a social community, if they could contribute to the state's education cause, then that would be very meaningful.
Nevertheless, when thinking about the weak base of our basic education, they all frowned. This big problem was even a headache to the government. For them, it was too much of a heavy load.
"We should concentrate all our efforts on one point to make a breakthrough!"
"We should primarily focus on offering timely assistance, which means helping those with the most urgent needs first!"
…
They discussed animatedly while on the other hand, they reflected calmly.
