Secretary-General Lu Mai and General Cao Bin visited Huachi to inspect the progress in the Child Development Program
Huachi County, Qingyang City, Gansu Province, is a poverty-stricken county and a former revolutionary base area. It is also one of the most important project sites of the CDRF. Since August 2014, the Early Childhood Development Pilot Program, the Village Kindergarten Program and the School Nutrition Improvement Initiative have been put in place in this county. It has a system that provides early childhood development interventions to children from six months to the compulsory education stage, which is the first of its kind in China.
On June 14, 2016, a team led by Lu Mai, secretary-general of the CDRF, and Cao Bin, director of the Division of Child Health, the Department of Maternal and Child Health, National Health and Family Planning Commission, visited the site of the Early Childhood Development Pilot Program. They observed lesson preparation and visited three families.
On June 15, the team visited three pilot kindergartens in Duyoushou, Liliangzi and Shangbaozi to inspect the progress of the Village Kindergarten Program.
At the seminars held with the Health Bureau and the Education Bureau of Huachi Countyon June 15 and June 16, respectively, Secretary-General Lu Mai listened to the reports of the local authorities on the programs and talked with staff members responsible for home visits and supervision of the Early Childhood Development Pilot Program and volunteers of the Village Kindergarten Program. Director Cao Bin spoke highly of the Early Childhood Development Pilot Program. She said, “The future lies in the hands of children. China is the most populous country in the world. Your support (support of supervisors and volunteers) is required to convert population into human resource.” Secretary-General Lu Mai expressed his respect and gratitude to local staff members working for the programs. He believed that the Village Kindergarten Program has satisfied the needs of children from low-income rural families for pre-school education. He also expressed that a Level-3 management services system that covers villages has been built for both the Early Childhood Development Program (6 months -3 years old) and the Village Kindergarten Program (3-6 years old). He stressed that poverty alleviation through education should be rooted in villages with an emphasis on early childhood development which is the key to ending poverty.
