Growing Dandelions
Founded in 2005, the Dandelion School is the only registered Middle School serving the children of poor migrant families in Beijing. Most migrant workers come to Beijing to take low paid jobs in construction, vegetable growing or street hawking. As non-residents, their children face difficulties in joining city schools.
The school educates 600 children, 500 of whom eat and sleep there. Money is needed to keep the buildings in repair, feed and house the children, provide schoolbooks and pay overworked teachers.
DLA Piper has been using its network and contacts to help in a number of ways. The school is now raising funds by selling notebooks, calendars and gift sets to corporations – we invited their team to our Beijing Ethics Network to launch their ‘products’ in front of potential buyers. We also took 35 companies to visit the school during its open day to provide clothes and gifts and raise their awareness of the work that has been done.
Education is one of the best ways of dealing with poverty. We plan to continue supporting the school in order to help the next generation of migrant families have a better future.