Child sponsorship changes lives. You can help the people of Tiandeng, China build a better future.

Location
Tiandeng is in the south-east of China, close to the Vietnamese border. It is a mountainous place, in the south west of China. But despite two large rivers – the Zuo and the You -  and a monsoon season that lasts from July to September, most communities don’t have a supply of safe, clean water. 

Life in Tiandeng
Many communities in Tiandeng are extremely remote. More than 550 villages in the district cannot be reached by road.

Tiandeng is one of the poorest provinces in China. Many people still survive by subsistence farming - growing  corn and rice, and sometimes other crops like ginger, tea, chilli and aniseed. But the yields are so low that families can be short of food for up to six months a year. The rocky landscape, thin soil and lack of irrigation means that growing crops is difficult.

Most villages also lack basic amenities – like clean water, adequate drainage and access to doctors and healthcare.

A farming family may have an income of little more than the equivalent of 50p a day.

Access to education
Because work is so hard to find in the district, many adults have left to find jobs in China’s rapidly developing cities. As a result many children are being cared for by their grandparents or other relatives and have little or no contact with their parents. These “left behind” children generally do less well at school – which in turn makes it less likely that they will escape poverty in the future.

ActionAid's work in Bamyan
But against these odds, the resilient people of Tiandeng have managed to live and raise their families in this challenging place. Now, with your support and ActionAid’s expertise, children, families and the whole community can work together to build a better future.

Read the updates below to find out how the community in Tiandeng is benefitting from child sponsorship:

• Jan 2012