“The Way of Great Learning lies in illustrating illustrious virtue, in renovating the people, and in abiding in the highest good.”
Suzhou Mingde Public Welfare Foundation was founded in August 2013. At the 22nd anniversary celebration of Suzhou Good‑Ark Electronics Co., Ltd., witnessed by more than 2,000 Good‑Ark team members as well as domestic and international guests, the Foundation was jointly initiated by Suzhou Good‑Ark and People’s Daily Overseas Edition Americas Weekly.

Suzhou Mingde Public Welfare Foundation mainly focuses on poverty alleviation, disaster relief and student support. Its key programmes include caring for left‑behind children, calling mothers back home, delivering the Happy Village and Happy Campus initiatives, and promoting natural farming. Wu Nianbo, founder of Suzhou Good‑Ark, hopes that the Foundation can serve as a bridge to inspire and engage more caring enterprises and individuals, offering replicable experience for targeted poverty alleviation and solutions to left‑behind‑children challenges in Guangxi and across China.

At the end of 2013, invited by the government of Daxin County, Guangxi, the Foundation launched the Happy Campus project at Minzu Hope Middle School on the China‑Vietnam border. This was the remotest and least developed middle school in the county, with most students being left‑behind children. Every year, the Foundation sends volunteers to the school to deliver virtue training for teachers and students, teach traditional Chinese filial piety, guide children to carry out “Protect the Earth” environmental activities, care for vulnerable groups in society and organise visits to nursing homes. Volunteers and students clean every corner of the campus. In this tidy, bright and pleasant environment, students are continuously nurtured by positive values. Filial piety education helps children recognise the kindness of their parents and teachers, honour parents and respect teachers. Gratitude gradually becomes the ethos of the Happy Campus. Faced with the reality that their parents work far away, the children learn to take responsibility, turning complaints into understanding, gratitude and motivation to move forward. By 2017, the school’s admission rate had risen from the lowest in the county to the top.

Principal Qin’s wife described the transformation of her husband and the school: “After he returned from Suzhou, he quit smoking and calmed his temper; his whole character changed. Several teacher couples enjoy more harmonious family lives. Both husband and wife compete to be head teachers and become a second set of parents for left‑behind children. Graduates from Hope Middle School grow into considerate children who understand their parents, and remain well‑regarded after entering senior high school.”

As an extension of the Happy Campus programme, Suzhou Mingde Public Welfare Foundation began exploring Happy Village development in 2014. In Tiandeng County, a poor county in Guangxi, it rolled out the targeted poverty alleviation project “Care for Left‑Behind Children, Call Mothers Back Home, Build Happy Villages”. It has mobilised local traditional‑culture organisations to join in Happy Village construction and set up moral lecture halls, helping migrant parents recognise the importance of education and return home to accompany their children. The Foundation advances targeted poverty alleviation by promoting natural farming and opening handicraft workshops to create jobs for returning mothers. It trains preschool teachers and implements the Huaxia Three Affinities Enlightenment Education, enabling children from an early age to be close to their parents, close to nature and close to crops, and enjoy a happy childhood. Meanwhile, it provides funding for local school infrastructure to improve teaching conditions. For more than nine years, every New Year’s Day, led by Wu Nianbo, volunteers from Suzhou Good‑Ark, the Sincerity‑Respect Happy Enterprise Alliance and other organisations travel to Guangxi to celebrate the new year alongside local villagers and children.

The Foundation’s practice in Daxin County and Tiandeng County provides valuable experience for targeted poverty alleviation and addressing left‑behind‑children issues in Guangxi and the rest of China.