Founder Josephine Charles writes:

"When I first visited the region in 2001, I was on holiday from my work as the Counsellor at an international Medical clinic in Beijing. Fascinated by Tibet with its rich cultural and religious heritage, I was spending a few days in Chengdu while waiting for my flight to Lhasa. The manager of my small hotel was Tibetan and we were talking one morning about his culture, when he asked if I had visited the Yizu minority of the Liangshan, as they also had a long history and rich culture. "

"Deciding to see for myself this minority of whom I had never heard, I planned a side trip of three days, packing just enough clothes into a small suitcase, to see me through. In the end I stayed seven weeks, travelling through many isolated villages on ancient, rust bucket buses that choked and creaked up terrifying steep corrugated and potholed dirt tracks, that at that time were the main transport links between the larger towns."

"I was shocked and saddened by the level of extreme poverty I observed amongst these dignified people in the small towns and villages. "

"Raggedy little children, their big brown eyes weeping, and noses running, showing signs of malnutrition. Women toiling in the fields, old before their time and young girls barely in their teens, mothers of several children. (The one child policy is not enforced in Minority regions). Men and boys building roads with only basic tools and their labour. "

"Life is very harsh in the Great Cool Mountains."

"Believing that I must do something to help these people no matter how small, I approached the prefectural Education department and offered books and pencils for the children in some of the villages I had seen. I was thanked for my generosity and was told " Miss Jo, If you really want to help, would you build us a school"

"I wasn't certain that I wanted to build a school, it wasn't my plan at all. However, I agreed to go to the village of Huo Pu, two hours by car from Xichang, to have a look at the situation there."

"Appalled, I was confronted by two rammed earth structures that were being used as classrooms, both of which were in dreadful condition and in danger of collapse. Large jagged cracks split the walls, chucks of the roof were missing and outside, the walls were being propped up by spindly tree trunks. In each structure, one tiny window allowed light to penetrate the gloom, there were no blackboards, and rickety, splintered planks served as desks and chairs."

"No Teachers wanted to work there and it was known locally as the 'Pig Pen'."

"How could I say no and walk away?"

Jo with Yi Grannie at Red Star