Sun Village’s Most Pressing Funding Needs
Beijing’s Sun Village is currently the home of 130 children with ages from 1 to 20 years old. The day-to-day operations of Sun Village in addition to the children’s educational needs and sustaining an environment where they can grow up healthily require the generous support from society at large to supplement Sun Village’s own income through its farming activities. Below are 5 major areas where Sun Village has the most urgent needs:
1) Sun Village’s heating expenses for the coming winter
As Sun Village is located in Beijing’s outskirts where heating facilities is non-existent, it is up to Sun Village to find funding for heating during the winter months (approximately from November 15 to March 15 of the following year). The amount of coal required to sufficiently heat the premises is about 100 tonnes, amounting to a total of 400 tonnes for the 4 months. At the present price of about RMB650/tonne, the heating expenses for Sun Village comes to RMB260,000.
2) Education Funds (for 130 children at present)
a. 5 university students, each requiring an annual budget of RMB8,000. The total comes to RMB40,000.
b. 20 high school/ vocation college students who need RMB5,000 each for tuition and board, accumulating to RMB100,000.
c. 30 junior high students each needing RMB1000, bringing the total to RMB30,000.
d. 65 primary school students who require RMB600 per person. The sum adds up to RMB39,000.
e. 10 pre-schoolers who need RMB1,000 each, bringing the total to RMB10,000.
The above budget includes books, uniforms, extracurricular activities as well as music, art and physical education classes.
Grand Total: RMB217,000
3) Medical Expenses
Most of the children at Sun Village come from the poverty-stricken regions of the country and have long been exposed to poor living environment and malnutrition, resulting in respiratory and digestive disorders. Due to the relatively large population at Sun Village, accidents occur from time to time, especially with children under the age of 12. In addition to facing all these needs, Sun Village is further challenged by the rising costs of medication and medical services.
a. Each child requires a medical expense of RMB50/month, which adds to a total of RMB77,000 per year for all 130 children.
b. Each child must undergo a body check at least once every half-year. Each examination costs RMB150, bringing the total sum to RMB19,500 annually.
c. 3 types of vaccination is required for each child every year, including flu, hepatitis B, and smallpox. This comes to RMB200 per child and a total of RMB26,000.
d. The insurance policy for each child costs at least RMB100 so the total for all 130 children would be RMB13,000.
e. Possible hospitalization and operation expenses: assuming that 15 operations are required for the children every year and each incident would cost RMB3000, the total for the year would be RMB45,000.
Grand Total: RMB180,5000
4) Rental
The premises of Sun Village sit on an area of about 60 acres, of which 40 acres are given by the local government. The remaining 20 acres are treated as farm land and cost RMB8,000 annually in rent. The date and peach farms take up a total of 380 acres and require a rental expense of RMB137,000.
Grand Total: RMB145,000
5) Expenses related to visiting and communicating with parents in prison
Children at Sun Village come from 16 provinces around the country. Each year, they have one chance to visit their father or mother. Most of their parents are serving prison terms at locations that are far from cities, highways and the general populace. As a result, these trips can be quite far and might even require stops during the way. For this reason, the teachers from Sun Village have to accompany the children to visit their father or mother, most of whom are at detention centers in Guangxi and Chong Qing. Every year, the children will also get to call their parents 5 times – at various important holidays.
a. Average expense for each child to visit his/her father or mother is RMB500, inclusive of board, train and car. Annual total comes to RMB65,000.
b. Every child gets to speak his/her father or mother 5 times/year, each time costing about RMB10, which brings the total to RMB6,500 for the whole year.
Grand Total: RMB71,500
Sun Village’s “One-Help-One” Child Adoption Program
Sun Village does not receive funding from the government. Other than the income from its self-operated farm, Sun Village needs the generous support and donation from society at large as the organization takes care of all expenses incurred by the children including education expenses, medical expenses, clothing, and visits to their parents. Adoption of Sun Village’s children can take the following forms:
a. The expenses incurred by a child average about RMB350 per month and come to RMB4,200 per year.
b. Interested adopters/donors can sign an agreement with Sum Village and choose a child to support or delegate that decision to Sun Village. They can also provide support without specifying the beneficiary child.
c. Adoption period is set by adopter/donor and can be a period of one year or several.
Sun Village’s Support Program for Non-onsite Children
Due to limited resources, Sun Village can only bring a small number of children on-site to raise and support. Most children of convicts who are under-aged have to rely on other family members or elderly grandparents for assistance. For such children, Sun Village will work with various detention centers and prison in providing them an annual aid of RMB500 to be used for schooling purposes and visiting their parents.
Mode of Operation: Based on a confirmation letter from the prison or detention center, Sun Village will raise funds from donors and deposit the donations into an account designated by the prison or detention center which will subsequently issue the money to the children in need. Sun Village will oversee and monitor this process to ensure the funds are properly distributed.
Sun Village’s Education Support Program
Through Sun Village’s support, the children who are disadvantaged due to family circumstances can still be educated like normal children. The children living at Sun Village must, at a very minimum, finish 9 years of compulsory education. After junior high, Sun Village will evaluate the children, and those who are keen to learn and have shown strong performance will be encouraged to continue (out-of-province children will continue schooling back home). All tuition and boarding expenses will be borne by Sun Village. For children who can move onto university, Sun Village will do their best to assist them complete their degrees.
For children whose grades are mediocre or who have quitted school for a long time or cannot move onto senior high school, Sun Village will work with them to select a vocational college so that they would still be able to find work upon graduation. Presently, the education needs of the children at Sun Village are as follows:
a. 5 university students, each requiring an annual budget of RMB8,000.
b. 20 high school/ vocation college students who need RMB5,000 each for tuition and board.
c. 30 junior high students each needing RMB1000.
d. 65 primary school students who require RMB600 per person.
e. 10 pre-schoolers who need RMB1,000 each.
The above budget includes books, uniforms, extracurricular activities as well as music, art and physical education classes.
Donation Logistics
a. Can sign an agreement with Sun Village, wherein all details of the sponsorship will be stated.
b. Donation can be paid all at once or through different installments. Cheques or bank deposits are both acceptable.
c. Once the donation is received, Sun Village will issue a receipt to the donor.
d. Sun Village will report to the donors updates of the children who are receiving their donations through various means.
e. Sun Village is happy to answer enquiries from donors on how their donations are used at any time.
Information on Sun Village
The Sun Village
Web site: www.sunvillage.com.cn
Email: ertoncun@163.com, donation@sunvillage.com.cn
Tel: 010-60443757(with Fax)/6044390/660443523(with Fax)/60443524
Address: Banqiao Country, Zhaoquanying Town , Shunyi District, Beijing |
