Our One More Year Scholarship Program is exactly what it sounds: we support 500 students from extremely impoverished families for ONE MORE YEAR of senior high school in China. If they graduate and still meet scholarship eligibility requirements, we continue our annual support until they graduate.
Mahaiwu Xiamu is one of our scholars who benefits from this program, and she has a different dream for her family. She lives in a family of five in a three-bedroom apartment supported by the government housing projects. Her parents are hardworking individuals who care about her and her siblings’ education despite not earning enough income to support their needs. Her father works as a security guard, while her mother makes a living due to her heart disease. Despite it, she still tries to help the family by making ethnic handmade clothes. Neither parent was able to finish schooling. They believe that if they do not send their children to school, they, too, will experience the hardships they encountered.
More than poverty, Mahaiwu is exposed to an unsafe community. While her home is safe, clean, and loving, the world on the other side of the home’s door is a whole different place. She considers her hometown “backward” and “violent”. It is easy for the community to hurt others when things do not go their way. She is tired and sick of the violence, and this is why she strives to be a good student. Mahaiwu’s dream? To be the first lawyer in her family. She knows that people listen to lawyers.
As we talked to her, she was actively engaged. Eloquent. And we thought, her dream is not too far off. This girl will go places.
Be a Part of the Solution
RMB 3,200 | USD 40 a month is all it takes to keep a girl in school for ONE MORE YEAR, giving her the chance to learn, grow, and succeed.
Sponsor a girl today and invest in her future.
