Creative Ways for Funding a Financial Aid Program

By Betty Chou, President

Ever since the Go and Love Foundation established its financial aid program over a decade ago, it has helped nearly 600 needy students in China. After the Chinese government’s implementation of the nine-year compulsory education, the Foundation changed its objectives to subsidize needy high school students and college students. The Foundation instituted its grant program and policy to provide $300 per year for high school students and $600 per year for college students.

To further understand the students’ progress, their families’ status, and the effects of financial support, the Foundation meets with the students and visits their homes twice a year. We continue to provide for these students so that they not only have chance to earn a higher education, but also have the opportunity to grow in their character and touch the lives around them.

Most of these students are from poor families in China’s remote, mountainous regions. Some of the students’ parents have either passed away or are disabled and unable to work. However, many of these students have a dream, a dream for a chance to go to school, for they know that only through studying will they be able to get out of poverty. We at the Foundation wish we could do more to help them achieve their goals, but with limited resources, obtaining this goal is easier said than done. However, God revealed to us that there are other creative ways to fund a financial aid program.

One day, a teacher came to me and said that she wanted to organize a fundraiser with her class and donate the proceeds to our Light the Way financial aid program. She is in charge of the Little Seeds Fellowship Group at her church, which consists of children ranging from kindergarten to 5th grade. She told me that through craft-making, she can help the children learn how Jesus loves God and all human beings. Then in March, as she taught the “Parable of the Sower,” where she and other teachers in the fellowship group gave each child some tomato seeds to let him/her learn about cultivation. She told the children that when the seeds sprouted, they would organize a Plant Sale and the proceeds would be used to help underprivileged students continue their education. After six weeks, the seeds they had planted began to sprout. On April 16, Easter Sunday, they held the Plant Sale. The teachers also invited sisters with talented gardening skills to participate, and they donated the much-cherished bonsai that they had cultivated to the sale.

That day, they raised $1,140, which they donated to Go and Love Foundation’s “Light the Way” financial aid fund! After the sale, the teacher said, “From this event, we can see the love and care between brothers and sisters in Christ. What we give may seem to be just a token of our caring, but it can help two high school students and one college student pay for one year’s tuition. How heart-warming is this!”

In a similar way, a Sunday school teacher from one of the Chinese churches in the San Francisco Bay Area told the children in his class about a project that the Foundation sponsored. The project helps local residents build water reservoirs to collect rain water for drinking. Hoping to encourage the children to think of ways to help with this project, the teacher taught them a lesson from the Bible: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). He then instructed them to not ask their parents for money. This inspired the children to come up with a solution themselves. Eventually, they decided to collect materials for recycling, and after selling the materials, they raised $625, which equals the cost to build one water reservoir!

In North America, there are many children who live in affluent environments where their parents provide the best for them. In addition to going to school, they also engage in all kinds of enriching activities to develop their innate talents. For these children, it is hard to imagine that some children in the world are too poor to go to school. Yet, by hosting a small Plant Sale, or by selling recyclable materials, these children can broaden their horizons and reset their values. From now on, they will more likely give thanks for the things they have. Their creativity can be used to enhance their problem solving skills, which enables them to perceive that their small efforts to give can benefit many poor people.

This year, Go and Love Foundation wants to highlight the “Light the Way” financial aid program. We aim to support even more underprivileged high school and college students with an academic grade point average of 85 or higher. We hope that what has touched our hearts will also touch your hearts. We greatly need everyone’s participation, regardless of age. You too can use your unique and creative ways to help children in poverty gain access to higher education, so that they can impact society in the future.

Betty Chou and some of the Financial Aid recipients

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