Stop Sex-Selected Abortion in China

Education Advancement Fund International (EAFI) is launching a new project to Stop Sex Selection Abortion (SSSA project) in China.

Stop abortion

The increasing gender imbalance in Chinese birth rates is linked to 1. traditional preference for sons to carry the family name; 2. the state-imposed one child family policy; 3. the wide spread use of technology (mostly ultrasound) for prenatal sex determination and gender-based abortion. Sex selected abortion has led to a gender imbalance in China with 118 boys for every 100 girls.

EAFI is determined to work to stop such inhuman and antiwomen practices in China. Since 2002, Kate Zhou, the director of EAFI, has worked with local rural women to reduce sex-selected abortions in several counties in rural Jishou. The effort was relatively successful.

Bonita Zhou, a volunteer from EAFI, is in charge of this operation and is working with grass root organizations in Guizhou, Yunnan, Hubei, and Hunan to start the work. Between Sept to Nov. 2004, Bonita Zhou collected some data at several different sites in different places in China. SSSA will aid local efforts to save those baby girls from being aborted by providing financial support, over birth quota fines, education and lunch for the family.

Our short term goal is to provide help for 100 baby girls per year. The long term goal is to set up a girl school (k-12) for adoption within China.

The food and medical expense for one baby girl per year will be less than $200. But more funds will be needed when the girls reach school age. In most cases, the family will have to pay a fine for violating the one child family policy, ranging from 3000 yuan ($400) to 8000 yuan ($1000) varying from place to place.

EAFI has set up a training center in Jishou, Hunan for minority women. We can use the center as a base to train young mothers and women to be independent workers or small business owners.