Three children and their teacher from a remote Hubei primary school
came to Beijing to successfully sell tea to pay for their schooling.
Chen Huizhi, 12, Cheng Long, 13, and Yang Xiaojuan 11, from Dishui
Village, Nanhe Town, Gucheng County of Hubei Province were still excited
at the quick sales within four
days at a spring book fair in the Ditan Temple during May break.
"Sixty-eight pcks on April 30, 288 on May Day after the report
in Beijing Youth Daily, 378 on May 2", said Cheng tallying sales
on the last afternoon of May 7. The students, who brought 1,214 packets
of self-made tea to the capital city, went home with nine cardboard
boxes of books and five cloth bags of stationery and study-aid equipment.
The France Rollins Tea Garden project has provided funds and technology
for tea processing at the Dishui Primary School since 1998, says Fan
Ying, chief China representative of the Phelex Foundation, an America-based
non-profit organization providing education for Asian disadvantaged
children.
" We picked tea during the daytime in spring and our teacher
processed them at night" said Chen. "We have Maojian and
Chaoqing green tea". Principal Zhang Jiarong, 52,
said on top of sales of 24,280 yuan, they also received cash donations
of over 4,190 yuan.
" Some people merely give us the money," he said. Some put
the tea back after purchase. "About 30 percent of the profit
is put back into tea production and the rest is
allotted to certain students in severe povery", said Fan. Zhang
said every student pays around 300 yuan tuition a year.
"The nearly 30,000 yuan will cover the tuition and incidental
fees for a total of 57 students this year and next year". Chen
seemed happiest about the purchase of a standard size football.
"The football in our school is too small", he later told
Beijing Today.
"We got two footballs, two basketballs and one volleyball during
the sale at the book fair", he said. But teacher Zhang said we
need to give some to other schools.Yang told Beijing Today they had
also obtained a three-string qin, an electronic piano, an accordion,
a harmonica and a lute.
"We sing songs at the beginnng of almost every class. But we
have never had any instruments before." |
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