Like in the well-known story “The Ugly Duckling” where a strange looking duckling eventually matures into a beautiful swan, every child who thinks himself or is considered as an "ugly duckling" would turn into a gorgeous swan, a high-flying eagle, or a wild goose sometimes later. Those who are regarded as "sand in the rough" because of poverty, illness, inadequate education deserve the chance to shine like their peers who receive a variety of extracurricular activities and development opportunities.
In order to help these children complete basic education, a number of heartwarming people helped students admitted to the Yanjing Little Swan Public Welfare School solve problems in education, accommodation, meals, etc. Although running on limited fund, the School still puts education quality as the priority and teaching facilities the second. It spends money on where it is most needed – qualified teachers. All teachers hold college or above degrees, most of them have undergraduate degrees, including double-majored, Master's degrees and overseas degrees. With the input of the teachers, many children have shown excellent learning ability. Many first-, second-, and third-grade students received prizes in math contests and championships – more than 20 in the contests organized by Xueersi, Gaosi,and Juren Group and over a dozen in Yingchun Cup and Hualuogeng Cup in 2015. These records told people that they are "good learner" and would like to "go to college and change life"; they are “little ducklings” waiting to take off. In the contrast of the great achievement is the difficulty of keeping good teachers whose average salary is expected to reach 4000 yuan in 2019.
AFD China is willing to be a part and help the “little swans” to flap their wings. In January 2019, we joined hands with the China Changjiang River Charity Foundation in the "Let the Swan Fly" public welfare projects, providing the fund of 16 months' salary to a teacher in lump sum. We are in the hope to help the children, through our actions, retain one more qualified, competent and caring teachers and broaden horizons and change life with the power of knowledge.
Birds need wings to soar, boats need sails to sail. Care and love are like feathers and masts to support the children's dreams and lead them to voyages to a bright future.
