Xinhua, February 26, 2013
Following internet rumors, the China Youth Development Foundation investigated the status of one of its “Hope Schools” in Guizhou, discovering that the school, which was built with charitable donations, is being demolished to make way for a highway. The Lingchuan Laoshan Hope Primary School was built in 2008 with funds donated by the Hong Kong Lingchuan Charitable Foundation and the Kaili Municipal Government, as part of the CYDF’s Hope School system for impoverished children. In 2010, plans to build a highway led to the school’s closing and scheduled demolition once construction of the highway is underway. This controversy may raise concerns among charitable donors, who do not wish their funding to go to waste. CYDF is requesting that the main building of the Longchang School, to which Lingchuan students were relocated, be renamed the Lingchuan Hope Building.
