SDLG-backed school in Sichuan opens|Global-CE

SDLG-backed school in Sichuan opens

October 17, 2014

The second SDLG/Guo Mingyi initiated “Hope School” has been inaugurated as part of a CSR program that Lingong began in the 1990s.

Situated 500 km south of Chengdu in the Liang Mountains region, Butuo is regarded as one of the poorest areas in China. In recent years the local economic conditions got so bad that the Butuo County Primary School (BCPS) was at risk of closure, and as conditions worsened students and teachers had to relocate to a temporary camp site to keep classes going.

But then at the start of 2014, SDLG stepped in to help get the school back on its feet, partnering with Guo Mingyi, a celebrated factory worker and national celebrity, who has been awarded the Worker Model of China (the highest honor that can be given to a communist-party enlisted worker). In addition to his numerous philanthropic and charitable endeavors, Guo is also Vice Chairman of the China National Labor Union. Together, he and SDLG, gathered the funds and resources to build a new school in Butuo and in recent weeks it opened for classes, becoming the latest of SDLG’s Hope Schools.

The Hope School charity is a non-government, privately-funded program started in the 1990s by SDLG that aims to provide better educational facilities to students in poor rural areas of China. The company extended the program in 2013 to partner with Guo Mingyi, and since then it has continued to grow. BCPS is the second SDLG Hope School to open since the partnership with Guo Mingyi, the first being a facility in Hai Cheng city, Liaoning Province.

Speaking at the inauguration of BCPS, SDLG’s general manager Wen Degang, said: “Education is at the heart of the hopes and dreams of China. Kids like those at this school will form the backbone of our development as a future society. SDLG is committed to the Hope School project and to providing better educational resources for children in rural areas to help them realize their dreams.”