Tom, a volunteer with the Donor Services Team of OCEF, recently visited Dahaizi Primary School (a.k.a. Shisun Primary School, after a stalagmite-shaped rock formation on a hillside nearby), the most remote school in Daxi Township, Dafang County, Guizhou Province. It takes a 4.5-hour bus ride to travel from the provincial capital of Guiyang to the village where the school is located. The school house was built in 2011-2012 with a generous donation from netizens of Wenxuecity.com through OCEF.
Since Dahaizi School opened for enrollment on June 1st last year, 107 students have registered, including about 20 kindergarteners, for whom the school does not get the standard government subsidies of 500 RMB per person per year. There are currently four teachers in addition to Headmaster Luo. Two of them are permanent post holders, who make roughly 2600 RMB a month each, funded by the government; the other two are in temporary posts and earn a lower salary at roughly 1600 RMB from the government plus 600-800 RMB from the subsidies that the school receives. In Dafang County and the neighboring Zhijin County, there are many temporary teachers who will never obtain permanent positions—even if they pass the certification test—due to a variety of reasons, such as failing to meet the government's family planning requirements.
Dahaizi School currently has three classrooms to accommodate five grades and a kindergarten class, an office and a dormitory for the teachers, as well as a newly established kitchen and dining room. After the Lunch Program was launched in rural Guizhou elementary schools, all schools in the province had built kitchens and dining rooms by last September per requirement of the program. However, students at Dahaizi School are taking lunch in classrooms since no tables or chairs are available in the dining room.
The school has adopted a combined approach for teaching; the kindergarteners and the six graders share the same classroom, as do the first graders and the fourth graders as well as the second graders and the third graders (no fifth grader attends the school at this time). The teachers' office is equipped with a PC, printer, television, and copier, and has access to the Internet. The two teachers Tom met also have their own computers. Headmaster Luo has nearly 30 years of teaching experiences and is very good at using the Internet to look for public and charitable funds to fill gaps. Winter clothes donated by Wenxuecity.com netizens last year have been a great help to the students, as it gets bitterly cold at this high elevation in winter. A challenge for Headmaster Luo is that he has to transport all donated materials from the county seat with his own motorcycle, which sometimes requires multiple trips. It took him two trips, for example, to bring the winter clothes back last year over icy roads.
There are fewer than 100 books available at the school, all in very poor shape due to extensive usage. The teachers mentioned that additional books would be a major boost for the school. OCEF recommends that a book corner be established in each classroom, with a bookshelf and some of the books placed in the teachers' office.
A New Way to Donate Online: Convenient and Fee-Free
Currently, there are several ways to donate to OCEF online:
Through PayPal services, from the donor's PayPal account (and the bank account or credit card linked to it) or directly from the donor's credit card, for a fee of approximately 3-4%;
Through Google Checkout services, from the donor's credit card via Google Checkout account, also for a fee of approximately 3-4%;
Through non-profit intermediaries such as JustGive.org, NetworkForGood.net and Razoo.com, from the donor's credit card, for a fee of approximately 3-4.5%.
At the beginning of 2013, the non-profit organization PayPal Giving Fund (previously known as MissionFish) started to collect donations on behalf of recipients such as OCEF. Compared to JustGive.org and NetworkForGood.net, this new service features the following distinctions:
No fees will be charged to OCEF, and 100% of the donations will go to OCEF;
Conveniently for both donors and OCEF, donations can be made from any country with any currency, which will be converted to U.S. dollar at the current rate;
No additional fees to donors;
Donors must have PayPal accounts;
Donors can make donations with credit cards, but they have to linked to the PayPal accounts.
The main differences between this new service and the existing donation mechanism through PayPal are:
Donors can set up recurring monthly donations (see illustration below);
No fees will be charged to OCEF;
There will be a few days or weeks of delay before a donation is credited to OCEF, because PayPal Giving Fund accumulates the funds and transfer them to OCEF once a month.
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