In the summer of 2005, I was invited to pioneer an English teaching program at the Pang Liu Elementary School, a rural school outside of Xi'an, China. The living conditions and extreme poverty were shocking. Meeting children who only get to eat one meal a day was an eye-opening experience for an affluent, well-sheltered sophomore attending a private high school in the States. Soon, I grew fond of the kids and wanted to help them achieve what they hoped for in life. Their excitement and ambition was contagious. It was distressing to me that their goals would be unobtainable without additional help.

There is a cycle of poverty that occurs around the world, in which parents who do not have the opportunities to change their socioeconomic status pass on that disparity to the next generation. The family does not have the means to support the children's education, making higher echelon jobs perpetually unobtainable, no matter how hard they work or how smart they are.

As I got further invested in helping, I learned about the problem with migrant students in China. Over 20 million school age children, 40% of whom are living under the poverty line, have been relocated from their rural villages to the outskirts of cities so their parents can find jobs in the city. Since public schools in China only enroll students with urban residential permits, these kids are excluded. As a result, the children face the threat of illiteracy and continued deprivation of opportunities.

I founded The Hope Scholarship Fund to give children of families caught in the cycle of poverty the opportunity to pursue the life they wish to live. The student's drive and natural abilities, rather than their poverty, will be what determines the career path they can take.

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Please join me in helping these children. I have been doing this work for over a decade and we already have remarkable success stories and have transformed the lives of many families. You can be part of our next success story.

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-Dr. Ted Mooncai

Founder and President