Peach stands for Promoting Education, Art, and Community Harvest. Founded in 2001, Peach helps children from the poorest parts of China and Southeast Asia with an opportunity to complete secondary and college education through financial scholarships, awarded in partnership with local schools. The mission of Peach is to break the vicious cycle of poverty by raising the educational standard of the regions in which the children live.

Locally-selected teachers nominate students who meet specific standards of scholastic achievement and severe economic need. Nominated students then undergo a stringent review process, and only the most qualified students are selected to receive aid. Peach staff perform an inspection to ensure appropriate allocation of funding through home interviews to make sure students are receiving the sponsorship through their financial/educational qualifications and not personal connections.

Additionally, each summer, PEACH conducts summer camps to help build the self-confidence of all the sponsored students. Sponsors are welcome to join us, meet with, and care for these students.

Since its founding, Peach has achieved the following impact metrics:

1) Financial Aid Program – Peach currently finances 6,223 middle school, high school, and college students, and counts an alumni network of 17,842 students – all with high educational aptitude but from low-income farming families. Students are selected on academic merit and financial need.

2) College Loan Program – Peach has granted loans to 7,300 college students

3) Library Construction – Peached has established 972 libraries in the districts of YuanYang, LuChun, HongHe, ErYuan, YangBi, YuLong, NingLang, YongSheng, LuShui, FuGong, GongShan, HuiZe, MoJiang, LuDian, Qiaojia, DaGuan, Lianghe, Yingjiang, Longchuan, Mangshi, Ruili, Dongchuan and Luquan

4) Teacher Training – Peach also sponsors teachers for training. Teachers who work in very remote, rural areas receive Peach-sponsored continuing education in metropolitan areas such as Shanghai. Peach also utilizes volunteers to provide short-term teacher training in their schools.

To read more about Peach, click to learn more about their additional initiatives.

While economic prosperity continues to grow in the coastal cities of China, the rise of the wealthy class has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Of China’s total population, roughly one in six people currently lives below the subsistence level. Rural farmers earn an average annual income equivalent to only US $350 per person. Expenses averages US $500 for a middle-school student, it can run as high as US $1,200 for a high-school student.

Many children with the potential to excel simply cannot afford to advance beyond an elementary school education due to their families’ economic hardship. Instead, they settle for unskilled urban or agricultural labor in order to make ends meet at home.

The Peach Foundation was formed to give children from the poorest parts of China and Southeast Asia opportunities to complete education. Peach aims to help break the vicious cycle of poverty and, through increasing equality of opportunity, raise the educational standards of the regions in which the children live. Peach Foundation is a California registered non-profit organization with no political or religious affiliations.

Peach has recently expanded to Southeast Asia (Mae Sot, Thailand; Yangon, Lashio, Bago, Pantanaw, Wakema districts of Myanmar; Phnom Penh, Cambodia), which is the focal area for Givology support.