Rural reading rooms a gift for future

Fostering interest

In the last 15 years, Wu Jingxun, from Foshan, Guangdong province, has often visited poverty-stricken areas to teach children how to use picture books.

The 47-year-old believes such books provide children with a good start, as they can help foster an interest in reading that will provide lifelong benefits.

In early April, Wu's team traveled to Ganxian, a county in Jiangxi province, to visit primary schools in some of the most remote villages. They had been there before, and this time they took various items for the children, including books, basketballs and soccer jerseys.

Over five days, they visited four primary schools, each of which had 100 to 300 students. Ninety percent of the students were left-behind children, Wu said during a phone interview with China Daily, conducted while he was traveling to a primary school in Ganxian.

As China had completely eradicated extreme poverty by late November, primary schools in Ganxian's poor rural areas have largely improved facilities, including libraries, music rooms and multimedia equipment, according to Wu.

He added that there is still a lack of teachers for art education, which is a very important subject.

As a result, Wu's team gave 15 lessons in the four schools, including reading and music classes.

"We even found a brand-new piano in a primary school. We have a team member who can play it, so for the first time in their lives, those kids heard Beethoven's Ode to Joy played on a piano," Wu said.

He taught the children how to read picture books, trying to inspire an interest in reading, which "will nourish their souls and teach them what is true, beautiful and good, especially when their parents are not around".

Reward system

The library in Zhanma faces similar problems. For Zhang, the difficulty is not to establish a library with several thousand books, but "how to encourage kids to come to the library to read".

He invited graduates from the College Student Volunteer Services Program in West China to manage the library. They invented the "reading deposit books" system, which records the time each reader spends in the library. Each hour equates to one point, and each point is worth a nominal 1 yuan (15 cents).

Next door to the library is a nonprofit shop that sells stationery and toys donated from all over the country, which children can "buy" with their reading points.

Zhang was happy to see that every day, 10 to 20 children come to the library to read and study. On Saturdays, he shows movies in the building, using a computer and a projector donated by one of his friends.

Gradually, Zhang has seen changes in the children. Earlier this month, he received a call from a girl who reported that the lights at the library had been left on, even though it was closed.

"I was touched because it meant that kids have taken the library as their own place. They care. So I praised the girl and awarded her a pen," he said.

"We hope this village library will provide good company for the kids, helping them to fall in love with reading, to learn to express themselves, to understand the broader world and to change their lives."