Charity backs underprivileged students in Yunnan province

Chunhwa Chang was recently recovering from eye surgery, but that didn't stop her from planning a trip to China's Yunnan province later this year.

The founder and president of the United Moms Charity Association said she can't wait to see the high-school students her organization has helped over the years. She has had that experience on visits to China dating back to 1992.

Although Chang is unable to travel to China right now, others in the charitable group are visiting the southwestern Chinese province to donate money and facilities for poor students.

Two weeks ago, United Moms donated 1.27 million yuan ($210,000) to the provincial government in Yunnan to help poor students and make improvements to their schools. Organization members also gave 225,000 yuan in Dali prefecture to help 300 students.

"Families are struggling to pay tuition for their kids. Don't event mention the money for lunch at school," Chang said.

She founded United Moms 21 years ago as a New Jersey-based nonprofit charity. Most of the money it raises comes from families and organizations in the US, especially among the Chinese-American community.

Since its founding, the organization has donated about $3.6 million to various Chinese provinces including Hebei, Xinjiang, Hubei, Sichuan and now Yunnan.

In 1998, after six years of research and preparation, Chang decided to focus United Moms' energies on Yunnan province. The mountainous area has the second-largest number of ethnic minority groups among Chinese provinces.

Chang said Yunnan has been hit by natural disasters such as landslides, drought, earthquakes and floods, adding to the burden of rural families. Some have had to take their children out of school due to financial hardship.

The charity's priority used to be helping students from elementary schools to universities. Since 2012 it has concentrated its work on those in high school.

Chang has traveled to Yunnan annually since 1998, spending about six months there to do research, visit students and their families, and meet with local government officials.

She learned that the central government will pay tuition for a student's compulsory education, from elementary school through middle school (the equivalent of first through ninth grades in the US). For children of relatively poor families, the government also pays for the student's lunch at school.

Students in the equivalent of 10th through 12th grades, however, aren't eligible due to limited public funds for education.

"All the money UMCA received is from personal donations," Chang said. "We want to use the money for the neediest students."

She said that unlike many Chinese organizations that seek to improve students' grades, United Moms believes it's just as important to encourage students to treat others well and to give back to society.

During one trip to Yunnan, Chang spoke to an academically outstanding student whom her organization supported.

"I told him that he had to be polite to his teachers and classmates. I even told him that if he refused to help his classmates, I would end his finical support."

Visiting the same school a year later, Chang was told by teachers that the star student had become kinder and more helpful, while maintaining his top grades.

That student wrote Chang a letter during his second year at university.

"He told me he hated me at the very beginning; he didn't want to help others," she said. "But he had to do it, as he was afraid of losing financial support.

"He said he eventually realized that while helping others he was also making personal progress. He grasps that even more now and has made lots of friends."