Since 2006, in collaboration with the Center for System Integration and Sustainability and the Department of Fisheries and Widlife at Michigan State University, HELP founder Wei Liu and initial board member Vanessa Hull are pursuing their Ph.D. degrees, HELP has started its cross-year fund-raising activity to help local people in Wolong Nature Reserve improve their education and health conditions, named HELP-Wolong. This project is also fully supported by the local government and villagers.

In 2007, through MSU’s Health and Education for Local People project (named MSU-HELP), HELP raised over $6,600 to buy over 2,500 books for the three central elementary schools and the only middle/high school inside the Wolong Nature Reserve, paid school fees for 15 primary school students (~ $70 each per year) and 10 middle and high school students (~ $140 each per year), and also helped the schools with a full year of subscription to various magazines and newspapers for the libraries.

In the same year, HELP’s Wolong local committee was formed. The committee is headed by the director of the largest conservation station of the reserve, Mr. Jian Yang (also former director of Wolong’s Ecology Research Lab and former Curator of the China Wolong Giant Panda Museum), and currently include five other reserve employees, school teachers, and local residents. This committee, with its members’ diverse background, broad knowledge about Wolong and its people and pandas, and their deep love for Wolong, is fully in charge of HELP’s activities in Wolong Nature Reserve, including both proposing and executing HELP’s community-based poverty alleviation and conservation projects in Wolong, currently focusing on health and education improvement.

Jian Yang and HELP volunteers in Wolong organizing donated books

Wolong Central Middle School student representatives and Wei

Gengda Town Central Elementary School students reading donated books

Jian Yang and HELP volunteer Ke Dong distributing donated books in Longtan Elementaray School

Students of Wolong Town Central Elementary School reading donated books