Initiatives
At Evergreen Education Foundation, we take on some longer term initiatives where we see opportunity to invest our resources in a more impactful way. These initiatives often address certain educational needs of rural areas that are prevalent, prominent, pressing and common across different regions. Usually EEF starts an initiative by collaborating with one or multiple EEF rural libraries to run a pilot project, during which we accumulate knowledge and experience, seek and connect with resources, and perform scope and feasibility assessment. All the knowledge and resources built will then serve as a platform for us to support and guide annual locally-initiated collaboration projects under this initiative, which in turn enrich this platform. By supporting rural libraries working through projects along the initiatives, we help a rural library to build services that are relevant and of value, as well as build its staff and capacity to sustain quality services.
EEF sees the danger of local undocumented history and indigenous knowledge becoming lost in the information age and believes in the importance of cultural heritage preservation. Furthermore, we think one effective way of preserving indigenous culture is to have it inherited by the young generation and make it a living though changing culture. The basis of inheritance is understanding. Through oral history and local cultural study initiative, we encourage rural public and school libraries to study and preserve local culture. The study process is also an effective way for those who conducted the study, the library staff and volunteers, teachers and students, to enhance their research capability.
Our newest Science in Library initiative brings empahsis to getting rural High School students interested in Science and Technology education. We developed a simple solar powered desk lamp and partnered with a small company in Guangdong to manufacture it as a kit. We then sent them to schools in rural China where high school students did the final assembly as part of a classroom lesson (like a shop class). The completed lamps were sent to remote areas to use in a off-the-grid home.
Our world is quickly becoming a global village with the magic of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the information age. But without equal access to information and ICT by the weak and poor, the advent of ICT undesirably accelerates and aggravates the social inequality by the digital divide. With our Community ICT Training initiative, EEF nurtures the awareness, access and usage of ICT and information in rural communities through its network of libraries to help improve rural digital literacy and combat digital inequality.
Healthcare is a critical element in alleviating poverty worldwide and China is no exception. While prevention, early detection and treatment have been known as the most cost-effective ways to improve people’s health condition in general, what underlies these measures is healthcare education to enhance rural residents’ awareness and knowledge on health issues. See our Health Education initiative which addresses this common need.
