Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women

The Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women, set up in October 1998 by the Rural Women Knowing All magazine, is the first non-profit school established for rural women, registered with the Beijing Changping Educational Commission and the Civil Affairs Bureau. It is located in Dadongliu Village, Xiaotangshan Township in Changping District, and covers about 0.7 hectares of land. Its facilities currently occupy 3,317 square meters, including an auditorium, classrooms, dormitories, computer labs, plus hairdressing and beauty treatment training rooms. The Practical Skills Training Center receives financial support primarily from domestic and international charity organizations and from donations given by generous local and foreign individuals. The first donation was given by a renow ned writer, the late Bin Xin.

Mission: To provide short-term training that will enable women from poor families to learn practical skills as well as to build their general abilities . This will ultimately enable them to improve their social and economic development and participate fully in society. To date the school has trained 4,360 students from 17 ethnic groups from 26 provinces and regions. Three types of successful training programs have been implemented.

Training for Grant-Aid Fund Students: Ms. Leslie Chu, a social activist and ceramicist from the USA and the center, started the Grant-Aid Fund in 2000. The first funding of 320,000 yuan was raised by a charity sale of 106 of her art pieces . The fund provides short courses of one to three months for students to learn computing, sewing, waitressing, hairdressing or giving beauty treatments. By August 2005, the center had trained more than 8 00 young women, aged between 16 and 20 from poor rural families, and more than half of the trainees have jobs in cities. Anyone can donate to the Fund at anytime and their money will be used for this specific purpose only. A list of new donations and the annual financial report can been found at the website and in the Annual Review of the Beijing Cultural Development Center for Rural Women.

Enrollment Channel: the school goes directly to poor areas to enroll students through local branches of the women's federation.

Training for Payment-After-Work S tudents: These trainees come from many rural areas in China to receive training in waitressing for one month. The school seeks jobs for them and once employed the trainees give back to the school part of the cost of their training and accommodation (400 yuan). At this time, more than 300 women have been trained and many have been employed in some major cities.

Enrollment channel: local branches of the women's federation and local government labor departments.

Training for Rural Women Activists: These courses train women to participate in rural community development projects including “Planting and Livestock Raising”; “Rural Women Participating in Politics”; “Capacity Building for Female Village Leaders”; “Female Rural Teachers”; “Start Your Own Business”; “Rural Women Participating in Marketing”; “Mental Health for Rural Women” and training for reporters and distributors of the Rural Women magazine. Training time varies from one week to twenty days and is decided by the course content. By the end of August 2005, these courses have trained more than 3,000 women.

Enrollment channel: rural women project sites, advertisements in the Rural Women magazine and cooperation with other international projects for reducing poverty. Training expenses are usually covered by project funds.

What are the Most Distinct Characteristics of the Training Center?

? It is a non-profit and non-diploma school oriented towards rural women of poor rural families in poor rural areas, to enable those who have less opportunity to receive training.

? Apart from offering marketable skills, it also emphasizes education of gender awareness, citizenship and love throughout the students' training, to sow the seeds of love and self-confidence in the trainees' hearts;

? It follows participatory teaching methods to allow the trainees to take trainees to take the initiative in running the school and to take care of each other. Trainees come to understand that to be able to do things well is as important as being a good person.

Three times in succession since 2001 the school has received awards from the Changping Education Committee for its advanced administration. It also received a “Dedication Award” conferred by the Beijing Educational Committee in 2004.

Peng Peiyun , Vice-President of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and President of the All-China Women's Federation; Gu Xiulian, President of the ACWF ; Cheng Shi'e, Chairperson of Beijing People's Political Consultative Conference; Zhu Shanlu, standing member of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee; Zhang Yanli, Director of the Beijing Philanthropic Association; as well as other s have inspected the training center. They fully endorsed the way the school is run and also provided financial support.

Ms. Mary Harney, Vice Premier of Ireland; Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor; Elaine R. Wolfenson, wife of the President of the World Bank and many other friends from abroad have visited the center.

The school is under the leadership of the Beijing Cultural Development Center for Rural Women and has established a board of directors with Wu Qing as Chairperson. School director: Luo Zhaohong