Helping children

As the HIV/AIDS project was gaining ground, HPP China launched another program in the prefecture's Zhenkang county, a border region home to 170,000 residents, to bolster children's early development.

China had long ramped up efforts to curb rural dropout rates for the nine-year compulsory education-a benchmark used to track the progress of national poverty-relief campaign-but the preschool education remained sidelined.

A survey by HPP China found that large numbers of preschool children in rural areas were vulnerable to negligence in the care of aging grandparents or other relatives, with their parents working away from home. There are few bedtime stories or parent-child interactions, or interactions of any kind.

To address the woes, Hermann and his colleagues turned deserted schools and farmhouses into classrooms.

And, local villagers with basic education work as teachers whose salaries are shared among parents. Children aged 3 to 6 enroll to play games, sing nursery rhymes and share stories.

"If there are 30 kids, and every family pays 60 yuan ($9.4), the teacher will get 1,800 yuan a month and that person does not need to find jobs elsewhere," he says.

Over the past decade, the program has spawned nearly 500 makeshift kindergartens in Yunnan and Sichuan, offering company to 27,000 children, mostly those whose parents work elsewhere.

In February, China announced the eradication of absolute poverty. The focus has shifted from poverty alleviation to rural vitalization, a national strategy that is expected to last until 2035 and beyond.

Hermann urges human capital development in the countryside, of which children's early development plays a vital part.

The most important intervention would be to develop a national system for nurturing infants in rural areas, he says, adding research has shown that rural children are already disadvantaged when they enter primary school.

"Their EQ (emotional quotient) and IQ are often half or two-thirds of their urban counterparts," he says.

The past 16 years have made China Hermann's second homeland. He plans to apply for permanent residency in China to continue HPP projects.