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 Zhang Ping parked her bicycle and dashed to the classroom after riding for five kilometers in weather that was –15° C. Her fingers had no feeling, though she had thick gloves, because of the strong blowing winds in Inner Mongolia. Slowly, her whole body grew warmer as she sat in the classroom. The new classroom is so warm and comfortable! Zhang Ping knows from experience how hard it is to concentrate when you are shivering.
Zhang Ping and her classmates are in disbelief that their classrooms are built from straw! The classrooms are much warmer than the rooms in their homes. The old classrooms collapsed during an earthquake in August 2004. Rebuilding the school using straw-bale technology has improved the health and comfort of the students while producing a building with better thermal performance, lower energy use, reduced CO2 emissions, and improved seismic safety, all the while being cost effective and using simple and replicable low-tech construction techniques.
Through the efforts of ADRA, the learning environment changed for Zhang Ping and her 700 schoolmates. There are more than a dozen schools and health clinics in nearby townships and villages still waiting to be rebuilt. A gift of just HKD $ 40/ square foot will allow ADRA to initiate the building of a sustainable, energy-efficient, and affordable straw-bale structure so other students, like Zhang Ping, can study hard to become the effective leaders of China’s future. |
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