Rural girls dream the impossible

A girl of Yi minority, born without her right arm, still finds it hard to believe that she actually enjoys her life today. She runs her own grocery store earning her 500 yuan (US$ 61.7) a month, almost half of her family's total income.

Luo Meiqi from Yunxian County of Yunnan Province remembered how her mother, a couple of years ago, discouraged her from dreaming about the impossible, like going back to school or making a living for herself.

"Look at me now," said the 18-year-old, beaming with pride and gratitude during a summer camp in Beijing run by UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) China and the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). "I'm in charge of my own life, and responsible for much of my family's spending, thanks to the non-formal education (NFE) project."

With a science and technology theme, the camp is aimed at promoting education and giving out-of-school children a chance to share their inspiring stories to help them develop a sense of confidence, said Peng Xi, director for the CAST's Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

For the first time, 93 children, the majority of whom are girls from 16 impoverished provinces, shared their hardships and good times with each other.

"Girl's education is not only fundamental to the achievement and sustainability of poverty reduction, but it also applies to other development goals," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Vereman during the Beijing+10 conference, which opened late last month to mark the 10th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women.

"Educating girls is particularly important, because of its positive effects on the development of the individual and the well-being of societies."

The NFE project aims to give a second chance for dropouts in impoverished rural areas so they can continue learning outside school. The project, set up in 1994, is especially for girls aged 10 to 18.

The NFE works to supplement formal education. Teaching girls science and technology and techniques for growing corn or wheat it attempts to help lift them out of poverty.

"Denying girls the basic right to education would definitely damage the development of the entire country," said Peng, director of CAST's Department of Children and Youth Affairs. "Helping them get out of poverty therefore is a priority of the NFE."

To date, NFE projects have helped more than 50,000 girls in 46 poverty-stricken areas around the country.

The latest figures released by UNICEF suggest the majority of 115 million out-of-school children in the world are girls. China has 10 million girls who are still not in school.

Dramatic change

Like Luo, who dropped out of school when her mother fell ill in 2000, Ayi Guli, an Uygur girl aged 15 from Ili, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was confined to work in the kitchen and her family's cotton field since last year because her parents could not afford her school fees anymore. Today, she is taking training programmes on survival skills in her hometown of Guliu County.

Until now, she had never set foot anywhere outside her village. "I thought that's how life is supposed to be until this time when I came to Beijing, and I heard the stories of my peers from other places," she said. "Now I know my life could be different with the help of the NFE."

Moreover, a new world opened up for her as she visited Tian'anmen Square and admired the Great Wall's zigzagging route along the undulating mountains.

"Marvelous, " Ayi said, her eyes twinkling with anticipation. "Everything is bright and colourful in Beijing. And the city girls in bizarre dresses all look beautiful and happy. When I go home, I will study harder and try to live a life like them. "

Zhu Shaochun, a girl from Yunnan Province, also experienced a dramatic change in her life. Zhu had to quit school in 2001 because her father believed that a young girl's priority is to find a good husband rather than going to school, especially when they are poor.

But Zhu secretly kept another dream, refusing to live like her mother who was always worried about where to get money to put food on the table. So when the NFE projects came to her village in 2002, she signed on immediately.

Through a fruit-growing technique she learned from the NFE projects, the 18-year-old girl is operating a 200 mu (13.3 hectares) chestnut orchard. "They are mine," she said. "Even my father only has 50 mu (3.3 hectares) of orchard, just a quarter as large as mine. Each year, I can have a steady income of about 7,000 yuan (US$864)."

Zhu's next dream is to buy a house and a car. "Then I will get married and live happily ever after," she said, eagerly scribbling her mailing address to her new friends at the camp. "You are all welcome to my home any time. You can enjoy my chestnuts."

Good results

In fact, the examples set by children have encouraged many adults to take training programmes.

Hu Yanfang, a girl from north China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, noted that when the NFE project was introduced in her village in 2001, most people were skeptical about it. "And my father was not convinced, too," the 18-yer-old recalled.

Despite her father's doubts, Hu was determined to take the training programmes, which teaches participants how to plant corn and vegetables suitable for the dry climatic conditions there, as well as how to feed pigs and sheep in pens rather than herd them on grasslands. This method protects soil in the grasslands from being blown away by the wind.

Hu then started to teach her parents what she had learned. "Guess what? After they applied the new methods I taught them to grow corn, the output since 2002 has been twice as much as the years before, " Hu said.

The successful training for children has made more parents believe in the programmes. "Over 50 people, or one third of our villagers, including my parents and relatives, are attending every training class now," Hu said.

As for the girls, the NFE projects have not only helped them gain practical skills, but also taught them to aim high. "The most important thing I've learned here is daring to dream the impossible," said Luo Meiqi, from Yunxian County.