PARADOX

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Opportunity through Education: Ching Tien - Educating Girls of Rural China By: Yara Zgheib Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC) empowers women in rural regions of Western China to escape poverty through education. Its founder, Ching Tien, believes every girl deserves opportunity. “Women hold up half the sky,” Mao Zedong once declared. In China today, they certainly are a valuable resource, comprising 49% of the population and 46% of the labor force. “Educated women also have educated children,” believes Ching Tien, founder of Educating Girls of Rural China. The organization is built on the premise that an educated woman is empowered; she can lift herself and her family out of poverty and have an impact on society. When Ching was a child in China in the 1960s and 70s, she had dreams of becoming a dancer. She loved music and theatre. She also wanted to be a journalist and a writer.

MAGAZINE

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ISSUE #02


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