Rural libraries open exciting chapter for children

Charity's initiative in Guizhou builds a vibrant community, and fosters ambition, Wang Qian and Yang Jun report in Guiyang.

Children in one village in the Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture, in Guizhou province, have a new place to spend their winter vacation — a library in a karst cave built by a local charity group.

Located in Banwan village and blending in with the surrounding landscape, the library became a must-visit place for tourists during the recent Spring Festival holiday.

"Fostering a culture of reading in a rural community is not an easy thing, because it is not a necessity for residents. This is why the library has an appealing design and a welcoming atmosphere, which helps encourage potential readers," says 32-year-old Zhou Beilei, head of the Dashan Xiaoai ("big mountain small love") charity.

This is the eighth library that the charity has built to help rural residents, especially children, learn. Involved in rural education for more than 10 years, Zhou discovered that rural children, many of whom live with relatives because their parents have migrated to cities to find work, do not have anywhere to spend quality time after school.

She says that taking weekends, school vacations and festival holidays into account, students in Qianxinan spend more than 180 days at home, where most have no parental supervision or access to educational resources like bookstores.

"This is why we decided to build libraries for the children, to offer them high-quality and sustainable activities, and nurture their love for reading," Zhou says.

She adds that in addition to books, the libraries are public spaces and serve a wide range of community needs and purposes. In other words, each is much more than just a repository of books.

The charity's first library, in the prefecture's Qiaoma town, opened in March 2019. It is divided into an adult area and a designated space for children and organizes a variety of after-school activities, including homework tutoring, a parenthood salon and film screenings.

To encourage them to read, children can join a free rewards program and earn points by reading books. When they have a certain number of points, they get a gift.

Li Feng, a former volunteer at the library, is happy to see how popular it has become with the local children.

"Not all the children come to read, but there are always a few who discover their passion for books. As long as they come, we will keep opening," Li says.

Lu Xiaoman, a fifth-grader and a regular reader, has written in the library's guest book that "it is my second home, only more fun and better".

Built with the support of the local government, companies and individuals, the charity's eight libraries house around 120,000 books between them, and receive about 18,000 visits on average every month.

"It has taken us five years to build and improve the libraries, which are attracting increasing numbers of readers, from kindergarten and middle school students to adult residents," Zhou says, adding that they will likely change some readers' lives and at the very least, create happy memories for the children.

Brought up by her grandfather, Zhou has always understood the important role parents play in the lives of children.

"My parents used to work in Guiyang, Guizhou, while I spent my childhood with my grandpa in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. What I looked forward to most back then was my parents coming home," she says.

When she heard about Dashan Xiaoai's volunteer teacher program in Guizhou, the then sophomore at the Shanghai Normal University applied and during her summer vacation in 2012, traveled to Ayi, a remote village in Qianxinan prefecture.

Although she knew of the gap between urban and rural education, Zhou was still surprised by the low literacy rate of most of the students in her classroom. Many had problems understanding and writing, and often failed in their exams, and when she left, many of them cried and asked her if she would come back the following year.

"I didn't say anything at the time, but I told myself this was the career I wanted to devote myself to," she says.

The one-month program had made her realize the importance of narrowing the rural education gap, and so, every vacation thereafter, Zhou returned to her students and also began to bring other volunteer teachers with her.

At the end of 2021, there were 4.77 million left-behind children aged under 16 living in rural areas in China, a 47.4 percent drop from the 9.02 million recorded in 2016, according to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The phenomenon is more common in central and western China, where the economy is less developed, forcing many adults to find work in cities.

Taking care of these children requires the support and help of all parties, including the government and nongovernmental organizations, according to Jiang Yongping, a researcher at the Women's Studies Institute of China.

After graduating in 2014, Zhou joined the charity and became its first full-time employee. To help alleviate the teacher shortage in Qianxinan, she and 900-plus volunteers have taught a variety of courses, including English, music and art, in classrooms at 11 primary schools across the prefecture over the past 12 years.

"I felt the calling. I can't do much on my own, but it's a starting point, which I believe will make a difference one day," Zhou says.

Her belief echoes Dashan Xiaoai's slogan: "The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention".

Cao Yiming, who was a volunteer teacher in 2013, says that the students showed him a touching degree of warmth.

"Unlike the hustle and bustle of city life, life in the countryside is fulfilling, and joy is found in the simpler things in life," Cao says, adding that when he came down with a sore throat, a student who wasn't in his class brought him honeysuckle to soothe the pain.

Volunteer teacher Chen Zichao, who has taken part in the program for three years, wants to learn new things and also to help the 36 students in his class get to know themselves better, accept who they are, and become their better selves.

In the course of their teaching, Zhou and her team have explored a number of different programs to help narrow the regional gap and foster opportunities for rural children, including organizing city trips, running lunch programs and setting up dental health services.

Last year, she was named a Good Samaritan of Guizhou and in 2022 she was given the province's May 4th Youth Medal.

After 12 years devoting herself to rural education, Zhou says that she is happy that some of the students she has taught have come back to their villages to work with her.

Contact the writers at wangqian@chinadaily.com.cn