The objective of the Reading Programs is to offer all of the Shin Shin students who live in remote areas opportunities to access a wide range of books and information, and to help them develop good study habits, that will benefit them enormously in their lifetime. This program also provides Shin Shin schools funding to build reading rooms and reading corners to provide their students with better reading facilities and environments.
- 2007Shin Shin began to implement the “One Book per Child” program which donated at least one extracurricular book to each Shin Shin child. To provide the students with the best reading materials, Shin Shin’s volunteers carefully select and edit the book lists. Books are categorized into high grade and low grade levels, each of which are then grouped into the following four categories: humanities and social sciences (including biographies, literary classics, history, fairy tales, art); science and nature (including astronomy, geography, nature) ; puzzle books (including puzzles and games); teaching references (including dictionaries, mathematics, writing, English, and Encyclopedias, etc.). The amount of books that each school receives depends on the number of students, so that every student has at least one book. Donated about 42,000 books to 168 Shin Shin schools.
- 2008Donated about 40,000 books to 90 Shin Shin schools. To encourage students to develop good practices of reading extracurricular books, Shin Shin held the first essay contest. Many Shin Shin students enthusiastically took part of this contest and thousands of essays were submitted. Shin Shin rewarded selected students for their outstanding writings, and provided prizes to encourage all participants, their schools, and teachers.
- 2009Donated about 38,000 books to 115 Shin Shin schools, 17,000 books to 8 new reading rooms built for schools in earthquake affected areas, and 1,000 books to a Hunan Shin Shin School sponsored by Crane Foundation. Organized the second essay contest.
- 2010Donated about 14,000 books to 36 Shin Shin schools, completed the “One Book Per Child” program. Constructed and renovated reading rooms for 10 Shin Shin schools, donated bookcases, shelves, desks and chairs, and installed computers and printers for a few reading rooms.
- 2011Donated about 11,050 books to 20 Shin Shin schools, and necessary bookcases, shelves, desks and chairs.
- 2012Built reading rooms and corners for 20 schools, and donated furniture and 11050 books.
- 2013Donated 10,000 books, and built 6 brand-new reading rooms and 76 reading corners in 27 schools.
- 2014Donated 10,150 books to 12 schools, built one new reading room and 21 reading corners.
- 2015Donated 112 book shelves and 10,242 books, provided English 105 sets of books for the training program, and organized “Reading Month” student programs for 5000 students in 8 pilot schools.
From 2007 to 2011, Cupertino Rotary Club has always been a major donor for this program, and actively participated in all the related Shin Shin events, which assured the success of the program’s operations. On behalf of all of Shin Shin’s children, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the Rotary Club of Cupertino. We also sincerely appreciate all the strong support and help from the Rotary Club of Shanghai, the Overseas Chinese Foundation of Mr. Ye Shouzhang, and the Rotary Clubs of Beijing and San Francisco Chinatown.
