Yunnan Province, China
Empowering students with life-saving knowledge in rural Yunnan
Yunnan was the first region Life Afloat reached, and the partnerships built here became the foundation for everything that followed.
Yunnan is one of China's most water-rich provinces, a landscape composed of rivers, seasonal flood plains, and reservoirs, especially in rural areas. Therefore, due to the lack of access to general education, children in rural Yunnan remain dangerously unprepared for the waterways that surround them everyday.
Life Afloat currently partners with two primary schools in Jinping County, Honghe Prefecture, one of Yunnan's most remote and mountainous border regions. These are Laojiē Primary School in Yingpan Township and Dazhupeng Primary School in Laojiuzhai Township.
Both schools serve students from Miao, Yao, and Dai ethnic minority communities. Many grow up in households where parents have migrated to cities for work, leaving children in the care of grandparents in families where financial pressures are high and outside educational resources are scarce. These students live and grow up alongside the very waterways that pose the greatest risk to them.
As one of our primary focus communities, given their direct exposure to open water and the absence of formal water safety education in their schools, we have so far reached around 220 students across both schools, equipping them with potentially life-saving knowledge.
Life Afloat is actively seeking opportunities to reach further across Yunnan in the coming months and years and expand our impact across this province.
After the first day of our workshop at Laojiē Primary School in Yunnan, we gave students 40 minutes to do whatever they wanted, as long as it communicated what we taught them. This is what they made, and one of the proudest moments for Life Afloat.
