Mission

The Gwen Moore Children of China Fund promotes literacy and self-sufficiency in rural Guizhou Province in southwestern China by providing financial assistance so children can attend school, an opportunity previously out of reach due to their families' profound poverty.

For many years, the Fund also organized literacy classes so that peasant women could learn to read, write, and understand basic math so they can function more effectively in daily life and reap economic benefits for their families.

History

It was just by chance that Gwen Moore picked up a New York Times in late 1995. She was drawn to a story about China, about how the tremendous economic advances in China's coastal cities didn't extend to the vast rural heartland where three-quarters of China's 1.3 billion people live.* The article described the deep and persistent poverty of peasants in rural China, many of whom still live like their ancestors lived.

At that time, Moore knew nothing about life in rural China. But she was incredibly moved to act by the story and photo of a peasant farmer and his two daughters (see Home page).

She tracked down the journalist in Beijing. He agreed to help Moore contact the farmer's village in remote Luodian County. Through a series of letters, she learned how one sad consequence of the poverty there is that many families end each year with no money at all. They simply cannot afford to send their children to school, a fact which hurts them deeply because they know the vital role education can play in improving a child's life.

"This," Moore said to herself, "I can fix." She wrote to the principal of the village school, telling him she would pay school expenses for 50 poor children whose parents couldn't afford it. In September 1996, there were 50 new faces in the schoolyard. Fifty children were freed from the labors of the land, all of them eager to learn. The rest, as they say, is history.

To read more about the history and current activities of the Fund, go to the Publications pages to read newsletters and selected articles and talks.