Through 180 lenses, a documentary tells story of children left behind

Beijing, 29 August 2014 – A father's anguish and tearful farewell to his young daughter at the doors of a classroom after their annual reunion during Chinese New Year, is a harsh reminder of the sacrifices many Chinese parents make for their families, when they migrate to urban areas in search of work leaving their children behind in rural areas.  This scene is part of an extraordinary documentary called Stories through 180 Lenses that premiered to media at a Beijing screening. Directed by award winning filmmaker, Zhang Yimou, ninety percent of the film consists of footage shot over six months by 2,000 children using 180 camcorders distributed among 72 schools in Cangxi country in Sichuan Province. 

The documentary was made as part of Porsche China's fifth anniversary of Empowering the Future Programme, its flagship corporate social responsibility programme, and part of its collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education to improve the quality of education for children in the remotest parts of the country through Mobile Education Training and Resource Units (METRU).

As the editors screened through the hours and hours of footage shot by the children, the consistent element in their stories was the majority were being cared for by their grandparents.  This in turn becomes the central element of their collective story and as experienced in the film, the defining experience of their childhood.

With more than 100 million children affected by migration in 2010, including 61.03 million children left-behind in rural areas, the intimate portrait of children's lives at home and at school, demonstrates the important role school plays in providing an emotional and supportive learning environment for them.

Yet with many rural schools poorly resourced and teachers often not equipped with the right skills to cope with the social consequences of these often dramatic changes on a child's life, the need to provide a supportive educational model in rural China is critical. 

Efforts to improve rural education by making education more inclusive, participatory and focus on social emotional learning by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF has greatly benefited from the partnership  with donors including Porsche. Initiated after the Wenchuan earthquake, when the company supported UNICEF's emergency response in Sichuan and Gansu, the collaboration was expanded to ensure the remotest disaster affected schools would continue to receive critical resources and support.

The idea of how to deliver these services to remote areas, including making sure schools were equipped with educational tools, resources and also training teachers in participatory skills to support social and emotional learning, was encapsulated in the design of the mobile teaching resource units (METRU), where the services were brought to the school, no matter how far away. 

"METRU is modelled on the concept of Barefoot Doctors. In education it was called Song Jiao Xia Xiang (delivery teaching guidance to the end of countryside)" explained Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF China Representative. "Just like the Barefoot Doctors, a system was established to send resources to teachers to rural areas where they are needed most.  As the teachers' classroom teaching skills develop, children become more responsive and interested in learning."

As of March 2014, Porsche China had contributed RMB 21 million and six Porsche CayenneSUVs to METRU, which benefited about 130,000 students and provided training to about 8,000 teachers from 534 schools in Sichuan and Gansu Province, and successfully reached about 23,000 students and 1,300 teachers across 38 county schools in Yunnan Province.

"We are extremely grateful to Porsche for their long term commitment and vision to investing in the lives of rural children in China, who often are most in need yet hardest to reach," Gillian Mellsop added.  "This collaboration with Porsche and the Ministry of Education which has made rural education a priority, demonstrates that through partnership we can equip children with the right skills for the country's development." 

Addressing the Porsche "Empowering the Future" Advisory Committee, Deesch Papke, Porsche China President and CEO said, "As a brand, we care for the people around us and the society in which we operate. But it is no longer enough to address macro-issues without carefully considering practical actions that really matter. The achievements of the past five years truly speak for themselves, and we are steadfast in our dedication to empowering China's youth." 

The documentary demonstrates the critical role of schools for these children and how the METRU programme has enabled the schools involved to provide teaching as well as emotional support them in the absence of their parents. It reinforces the urgent need to support Ministry of Education and Provincial and County Education Bureaus to develop child friendly schools and to creative a more supportive environment. 

Director and Advisory Committee member Zhang Yimou said at the premiere, "The concept of our documentary on the METRU programme is bold. We took a chance with an innovative production method aiming at striking a chord with audiences and empowering children with cameras.The willingness to try new methods is also reflected in how Porsche, Ministry of Education and UNICEF work together to improve rural children's lives." 

At the screening of the film, Porsche China announced it will continue to support METRU onsite teacher training support, which will be expanded to Ministry of Education and UNICEF's child friendly pilot schools in the five provinces of Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinhiang, Chongqing and Guzhou through 2018. This will help expand inquiry based learning and strengthen critical thinking to help prepare children and equip them with the right skills to navigate their future. 

Porsche China is also supporting an integrated early child development (IECD) program which encompasses 160 villages in four poverty counties in Shanxi and Guizhou, The project will benefit pregnant women with better prenatal, antenatal care as well as support to nutrition, health and early childhood care for children aged between 0-3 years, the crucial 1000 days of a child's life.