Our Partner:
Our Free Sky (OFS)
Our Free sky is a rural education nonprofit professional organization in China. The organization uses the website www.ourfreesky.org as a joint platform to launch education commonweal projects. Founded in March, 2006, OFS has currently over 10000 members.
Our Free Sky pays close attention to the current situations of basic education in primary and middle schools in impoverished, remote regions of southwest and western parts of China, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Gansu, Shanxi provinces, where children losing opportunity to attend school and teachers unable to continue teaching have been a serious problem.
Project
Through OFS, we reached out to elementary students in Linxia, Gansu, and collected their drawings about their dreams. We used their artwork to design school supplies, clothes, and other merchandise. We donated 200 sets of notebooks, pencils, rulers, erasers and pencil cases to the students. All the proceeds from the sales went to these students as financial aid.
Through interviews, we knew more about the students and their families. Out of protection for their privacy, we would not provide the students' real names and photos. Without financial aid, these children have to quit school. We believe that education and love can make a difference in the world. Hopefully, through our work and your support, we can help these children continue their education and achieve their dreams.
“My dream is to become a sailor! A sailor can explore so many mysteries.”
- Gao (alias)
“My dream is to become a painter, so I can draw everything I love”.
- Tianxin (alias)
Stories Behind Their Dreams
We interviewed Gao and Tianxin 's families.
Gao is a boy in 4th grade. His parents farm and raise pigs for a living. He also has two older brothers, but they both dropped out of school to support his family. They have never left their village in Gansu. His parents told us that they all hope Gao continue studying and eventually go to high school and college, so that he could go out and see the world for them. "He is the hope of their family", Gao's father said. Gao dreams of being a sailor, and he wants to solve all the mysteries in the world. Although the dream seems distant, Gao said he would try hard to achieve it and help out his family.
Tianxin is a 3rd grader, and she is the only child at home. She lives with her father and grandmother. Her mother passed away when she was four. Her father works to build houses in nearby villages, and her grandmother does a little bit of farming at home. Tianxin wants to be a painter so she can draw everything she loves. “I also want to draw my mother because I don’t want to forget how she looks”, Tianxin said.
Our Design
