Xiang Xi Rural Women Training School

Xiang Xi Rural Women Training School will be the first non profit school for minority rural women in China . The center will be under the leadership of Kate Zhou, The EAFI director and Ms. Gong Ruizhen who is also the director of Human Resource Department in conjunction with a local training trade school. The Center will be open in the summer of 2005. The school will provide a variety of practical skills sources to meet the needs of minority rural women in West Hunan mountain regions where Tu Jia and Miao people reside. Apart from skills for finding employment or starting their own small business, the training center also offers environmental, health, and gender awareness, and knowledge of laws by adopting a participatory way of training. The school will offer computer clases, jon skills, education and training for financial independence, access to information on health care and legal services. The school will also aid women from the pressure to have sex selected abortions, domestic violence, and family crisis.

The school works with EAFI to set up a network of teachers and trainers from the United States and Universities in China and its full time teachers give minority rural women personal tutorship.

The school intends to train 300 women students for the first two years and gradually grows into 1000 women students per year.

This women empowerment will have a long lasting impact on the gender equality and family health and environment. The tuition per student is about $180. To help a mother to keep her baby girl is about $280 per year (tuition and food). All student will sign a contract for helping future trainees at the school if they find jobs or set up their own businesses after the training. In this way, the school will be self-sustained after five years. Such women help women project will empower minority women and give them self-confidence.

The school seeks financial support primarily from international organizations through project cooperation and donations. Volunteers are welcome to help local women by applying their skills to this handson teaching experience.