mission

The Mission

The Hometown Education Foundation (HEF) is a charitable organization founded by Dr. Tonghai Yang, in 2004. Its mission is to raise the financial support needed to ensure that the poorest children of Ningguo County can receive an elementary through high school education. Even though elementary and middle school education is mandatory in China, there are many children who are forced out of school simply because they too poor to pay for the small amount of fees needed at school. In Ningguo County, the tuition is free before high school, but students have to pay for books and other expenses, which amount to about $50 a year for elementary school (1-6th grade) and $80 a year for middle school (7-9th grade). These yearly expenses may seem reasonable for a household with a steady income, but they are too costly for a kid whose parents are either sick, injured, or passed away. The volunteers at HEF are using your donations to ensure that these unfortunate poor children can continue their basic education..

Elementary and middle school school are positive environments for all children. HEF wants to ensure that a mere $50 or $80 a year is not going to keep a child from attending school. Dr. Yang and the volunteers of HEF know through personal experience that school provides much more than an education for the poorest students. It creates a mentor relationship and a peer support system for the students that have had a parent fall ill, suffer an injury, or die.

A high school education is quite an achievement for any child from the countryside of China. Only about half of middle school students ever get the chance to attend high school. Students must score well on a set of highly competitive exams (including Math. Chinese, English, Science, and Social Science). Students have to work very hard and often get extra help outside the classrooms to pass these exams. So it is almost a miracle for poor students with financial pressure perform well on these exams. Any student that passes these exams and is accepted to high school should not have to miss the opportunity because of finances. High school tuition is about $150 a year; book, food, and other expenses is about another $150 a year. $300 a year should not keep a student from this opportunity. As it turns out schools are often willing to waive tuition when someone is helping to pay for other expenses. So HEF will correspond with these school and make sure that $150 a year will go a long way for the high school students they are able to reach and help.

One of Dr. Yang's personal goals with HEF is to make sure ALL of your donations go directly to help the needy children. He will personally pay for any and all overhead. This small charity is run by Dr. Yang and volunteers in Ningguo, most of these volunteers are dedicated teachers. We will make every effort to make sure that the money goes to the children who need it most. The volunteers of HEF believe in this charity and freely dedicate their time and energy for this cause.

Your donations will allow HEF to perform a great service for Ningguo County. The more students HEF can reach, the better off the entire county will be. It is Dr. Yang's hope that, over time, his hometown can rely on HEF and start renewing the hopes of the poor children of Ningguo County.

Please make your donation by writing a check payable to The Hometown Education Foundation (HEF), and send it to

   The Hometown Education Foundation
    c/o Tonghai Yang
   9 W. Geneva Cir.
   Madison, WI 53717
   USA

We will update the donor list on the web periodically (together with donation amount) to show our appreciation of your generous help and the openness of the process. If you prefer to keep your donation anonymous, please let us know. We will keep it that way.

If you prefer personal contact, we can make arrangements for you to sponsor one or more students. We hope this will bring you even more personal satisfaction by seeing, first hand, how much of a difference your contribution makes. It costs you

$50 to sponsor an elementary school student for a year,

$80 to sponsor a middle school student for a year, and

$150 to sponsor a high school student for a year..

Here is how it works. You choose one (or more) needy student to sponsor for a year or more, and send the donation to HEF. We will give the money to the sponsored student and inform him/her of your support. We will report his/her progress to you. If you like, you are more than welcome to be in direct contact with him/her.

Again your help is greatly appreciated and will make a huge impact on the needy young lives. If you have any question, please feel free to contact me at thyang@math.wisc.edu or (608) 263-4219.