Boundless Love

China Service Ventures assistance has enabled rural children from poverty-stricken homes to begin or resume elementary and middle school in Henan Province, China since 2003. In China, these children are identified as “Stay Behind” because their parents sought work in other cities outside the province and were left with grandparents or neighbors.

Continuing one’s education past 13 is an optional, if unlikely prospect. Those who choose to attend high school are compelled to live in dormitories at their own expense — an impossible cost for many rural children.

In cooperation with the local & regional government, CSV worked to make it possible for some. It was a government official who suggested the name “Boundless Love” (Bo Ai) for the intitiative. We found the name descriptive of our programs and inspirational for future vision.

Under the arrangement, CSV would cover room and board as well as text books and other school supplies. The government would subsidize the schooling as tuition-free. Those who showed academic promise and qualified for assistance were enrolled in a scholarship program called “Bo Ai” (boundless love). This was a program not for the elite but was hoped to be the beginning of a wave of hope to lift many on society’s lowest rung.

Central to this program was personal contact with each student and ongoing mentoring, assuring rural students of ongoing friendship and concern, literally, “boundless love.” The expression is now a unique container of successful history of collaboration with Chinese government that may resume someday with the personal components restored.