Evergreen :: Shanxi Evergreen Service

WHO WE ARE WHERE WE ARE

OUR PURPOSE OUR HISTORY OUR VALUES

TAIYUAN REGION YUCI REGION YANGQU REGION

AGRICULTURE CONSULTING ENGLISH MEDICAL COMMUNITY/EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CHINESE LANGUAGE LEARNING USA OFFICE PUBLICATIONS & WEBSITE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE

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INTERNATIONAL OFFICE (CHINA) SUPPORT OFFICE (USA) EVERGREEN REPS

Evergreen Seal Our Work > Community/Educational

Regional Economic Development (RED)

The Regional Economic Development (RED) program seeks to address the needs of the economically disadvantaged with the goal of bringing about physical and spiritual well being to individuals, families, and communities.

Hand-cut Note Cards

Evergreen Cards, our hand-cut note card company, was set up to provide rural women with a source of supplemental income and to touch their lives in a tangible way with the love of God. Paper cutting is one of the traditional art forms in China. We have taken this art and put it into a new medium. Instead of the traditional tissue thin paper, we do our cuttings on high quality imported paper to produce greeting cards for sale at home and abroad.
The paper cutting is done by the women at home, and allows them to continue to care for their family’s needs while supplementing their family income. Profits from these cards are used to assist low-income families through Evergreen’s scholarship & community center programs. For more information, see: www.evergreencard.com.

Scholarships

The scholarship program is focused on assisting students from needy families in Shanxi’s Yangqu County complete their high school and college education. Grants are given to qualifying high school students and interest-free loans are provided for college students. The Chinese government’s educational supplement to poor rural families in recent years has allowed us to discontinue the scholarship program for elementary and middle school students.
Our aim is to maintain personal contact with each student and his or her family in order to better understand the student’s need. We visit each recipient family annually, and encourage students to visit our center so that we can monitor their progress and encourage them to continue in their educational studies.

Community Center

Huangzhai is the county seat for Yangqu County. It is a small town of 30,000 located one hour north of the provincial capital, Taiyuan. Although not as poor as the surrounding villages, most of the residents in this town have limited access to educational resources and technical advances that are commonplace in the larger cities. The community center strives to provide services not generally available in this area. These programs include:

Computer Center

The computer center serves as an introductory place for children to learn about computers. We provide general computer exposure classes. The center is open to students to come and practice their computer skills. We also provide English learning software and computer learning software.

Library

The Evergreen Library serves the local Huangzhai community by providing books and materials for all ages. Although housed in two small rooms, we serve 500-600 people weekly with over 1500 library card holders. Through books and periodicals, we seek to provide our patrons a broader awareness of the world and to supplement the educational needs of the local students.

English Programs

We offer classes for English teachers and students throughout the year. Our classes focus on listening comprehension and conversational abilities. Staffed by fluent English speakers, our teachers use a variety of interactive and multi-media teaching techniques.
English camps for village children held during the summer months bring together short-term teams from overseas, local volunteers, and rural village children for six days of fun, laughter, and learning. The week-long residential program provides a life-changing experience for all involved. Our goals include: 1) broadening the horizons of the village children and encouraging them to continue in school, 2) giving local college students an opportunity to serve their community, and 3) providing short-term workers a chance to touch the lives of the children and to see God’s work in this place.

Activity Center

The Community Center strives to create a welcoming environment as patrons of all ages come to utilize its resources. Consequently, besides the various activities listed above, the community center also provides several activity rooms equipped with ping pong tables, televisions, DVD players, board games, and toys to appeal to young and old alike. The activity rooms are open daily and cater to seniors during the week and children on the weekend. Often you will find grandparents in charge of young grandchildren reading in our library or playing in the activity rooms.

Bookmobile

The Evergreen Bookmobile provides library services to village schools in rural Yangqu County, bringing reading material for students and teachers. Monthly visits are made to each school, and materials for student and classroom use are loaned to the teachers. The bookmobile currently visits 24 schools. We have had the privilege of seeing students impacted as evidenced by improved test scores, better writing skills, and a broader knowledge of the world outside of their villages.