Big Dreams in Small Places

On The Road Blog

By Amanda Hsiung on December 28th, 2011
Category: Blog, East and Southeast Asia

Chengdu, China – “You will probably think what I am saying very strange, and might even laugh at me,” Guanghui, a junior at Kangding Minzu Junior Normal College, told me. “I know that dreams are supposed to be big, and for most people from the countryside that means escaping to the city. But even though it might seem small to other people, my greatest dream is to return to the countryside.”

Hanyuan County, located high in the mountains that rise to the Tibetan Plateau in southwestern Sichuan Province, is home to 350,000 people, 42 elementary schools, 19 middle schools, one high school, and no institutions of higher education. Over 90 percent of the population works as subsistence farmers, and the average annual income in the county is under $140. Because of the widespread poverty and the lack of educational opportunities, between 10,000 and 20,000 people leave Hanyuan every year to travel to China’s booming cities to find work.

At first glance, the seven young students from Hanyuan County whom I met in Chengdu seemed to be part of this trend. With scholarship and living-expense support from GFC grantee partner Development Organisation of Rural Sichuan (DORS), they have the opportunity to continue their education in the provincial capital and nearby cities. However, for all seven students, their dreams for the future have less to do with getting out than giving back.

Guanghui is studying human resources management and spends his spare time reading books on agricultural cultivation methods. He wants to combine his studies of the two subjects to reform Hanyuan’s farming industry. Chengmei is studying nursing at Sichuan University’s school of professional healthcare and wants to return to Hanyuan to help the many senior citizens in her county who lack access to appropriate healthcare. Due to resource constraints, many schools in Hedong’s hometown have eliminated extracurricular activities, including sports teams, and physical education. Hedong believes that this situation contributes to a health and well-being gap between rural and urban areas, and he wants to use his degree in physical education to change it.

When she was 16, another student, who I’ll call Lin, was preparing to leave school. She felt unable to justify the financial burden that paying for her tuition placed on her parents, who due to health problems and lack of education were only able to occasionally find low-paying part-time work. “Even though my parents would always tell me not to worry and to continue in my studies,” she said, “I felt so bad about the burden that my tuition placed on them.” Then Lin heard that her father had been ill but was unwilling to go to the hospital because of the expense. “It was really too much for me to bear. Faced with this pressure, I was ready to drop out,” she said. DORS found out about her situation and was able to provide financial and emotional support to allow her to continue high school. Today, Lin is a junior English major at Sichuan University of Science and Engineering and plans to continue on to graduate school. Her greatest dream? To return to work at DORS to help more students like herself.