The Lenovo Foundation focuses on empowering diverse and minority populations around the world with STEM education. While this strategy focuses on increasing innovation in STEM, the definition of diverse or minority population is different for the over 160 countries that Lenovo operates in.
In China, Lenovo’s employee volunteers have been working to provide opportunities for the children of migrant workers. According to an article in the China Labour Bulletin, there are over 287 million migrant workers in China, or people who have left their homes in rural China for work opportunities in China’s urban centers. When migrant workers move away from their registered household, they also forfeit the educational and healthcare benefits associated with their household registration. This leads to millions of children being moved to urban centers that are not resourced to facilitate their education.
With support from the Lenovo Foundation, the Lenovo China Volunteer Association (LCVA) has been working with Horizon Corporate Volunteer Consultancy (HCVC) to benefit Beijing New Hope Day School, a school dedicated to serving the underprivileged children of migrant workers. On Friday October 12, Lenovo’s Beijing office hosted 181 students from both Beijing New Hope Day School and a school for children with hearing loss. Over 400 Lenovo volunteers collaborated to provide educational activities and resources for the children that engaged them in STEM and met their diverse needs. Activities included a tour of the Lenovo office, showing children what it’s like to work at Lenovo.
The service event generated over 1,000 hours of service from Lenovo employees and marked Lenovo’s fourth event benefiting Beijing New Hope Day School. Since 2016, LCVA has been working with HCVC to coordinate resources and activities for the school. By continuing to work with Beijing New Hope Day School, Lenovo is focusing its impact on the hundreds of children that the school serves, while recognizing that there are millions of children in need of educational exposure and opportunities.
“It is wonderful to continue working with school and see children as they progress in their education, knowing that we are focusing our resources to make the most impact possible,” said Wayne Jia, the leader of LCVA who has coordinated each of the four activities with Beijing New Hope Day School.
Lenovo hopes to continue serving children of migrant workers and children with special needs across its offices in China, aligning to the company’s strategy to empower minority and underprivileged populations with access to STEM education.