Focusing on caring for disadvantaged groups, particularly children living in remote mountainous areas with scarce educational resources, the ICSO International Commonweal Support Organization has been providing diversified and multi-faceted support for rural education in China. ICSO aims to improve the educational environment and living conditions of these children and pave a brighter future for them.
However, how to provide correct and effective aid to impoverished populations remains a severe challenge faced by many nonprofit organizations. Under conditions of limited resources, simply distributing supplies can temporarily alleviate difficulties but is insufficient for fundamentally improving living standards or changing life trajectories. More critically, the lack of educational resources prevents these children from securing a foothold in a rapidly advancing society, making it difficult to break the cycle of poverty.
01 “One Book, One Care”
In response to this pressing issue, ICSO has successively launched several rounds of the “One Book, One Care” initiative, aiming to open a window to the world of knowledge for children in impoverished mountainous areas by donating extracurricular reading materials. As Lu Xun once said, “Reading is like bees gathering nectar; if they cling to only one flower, they gather little. They must visit many flowers to make honey.” Likewise, these children must explore a wide variety of books to absorb rich knowledge and lay a solid foundation for future learning.
Through relentless effort and sustained investment, we firmly believe we can gradually improve the educational environment for children in these remote areas, helping them grow robustly within a more resourceful educational setting.
02 “One Classroom, One Love”
Curiosity is like a guiding light that illuminates the path for children to explore the world. A good teacher not only stimulates a child’s desire for knowledge but also cultivates critical thinking, creativity, and moral values. Possessing books alone is far from enough — quality education requires quality teaching.
Therefore, following the “One Book, One Care” donation project, we launched the “One Classroom, One Love” volunteer teaching initiative. Our teaching teams are composed of carefully selected volunteers from prestigious domestic and international universities. Through each short-term volunteer teaching session, we bring a variety of expanded curriculum offerings to the children, broadening their horizons and laying the foundation for their future journeys into a broader world.
03 “Young Eagles Scholarship”
After visiting dozens of impoverished schools and interviewing families across different regions, we found that many children, while managing their studies, must also handle housework or even work to support their families. Over time, this burden deprives them of the energy and focus needed for academic success. The heavy pressures of life and unavoidable economic hardships have silently become major obstacles to their education.
In response, we launched the “Young Eagles Scholarship” program to provide scholarships to diligent and outstanding students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. The scholarship is divided into two tiers based on donor contributions:
Tier 1: RMB 500–2000 per semester
Tier 2: RMB 200–500 one-time donation
This scholarship not only helps alleviate their financial difficulties related to schooling but also serves as a powerful encouragement, allowing the children to feel society’s warmth and inspiring them to study harder and eventually give back to society.
04 “One Box of Milk, One Kind Heart”
As ICSO’s many support projects progressed, improving educational resources in mountainous areas, we also identified another serious issue: malnutrition among children in impoverished rural schools. Their daily nutrient intake often falls far short of what is needed for healthy physical development, which directly impacts their ability to learn and grow.
To address this, ICSO launched the “One Box of Milk, One Kind Heart” campaign. Through monthly donations of milk to rural schools, we aim to provide essential nutritional supplements. Rich in protein, calcium, and other nutrients, milk can help significantly improve children’s physical health, laying a solid foundation for their growth.
By combining this program with other aid projects, we strive to promote the holistic development of impoverished children’s minds and bodies.
Narrowing the gap in educational resources and improving rural education have long been vital goals and urgent tasks for China’s development. It concerns the future of countless children and the country’s long-term prosperity. At ICSO, we regard this as an inescapable mission. Through the implementation of these public welfare projects, we believe we can meaningfully improve the state of education in mountainous areas, providing better opportunities and brighter futures for rural children.At the same time, we hope that through our efforts, more people will pay attention to and invest in rural education, working together to drive the advancement of China’s educational cause.