A hundred children in the earthquake ravaged region of Guangyang City in Sichuan have now been provided with a chance of education at the newly built Norton Rose Hope School. The construction of the school began in 2009, following a funding agreement that was agreed to by international law firm Norton Rose in July 2008.

The initiative was kicked off by the firm’s staff in Beijing and Shanghai through personal donations. The Norton Rose Charitable Foundation followed up on staff’s contributions with a significant donation to aid the project’s completion.

In addition to constructing the premises, stationary, sporting equipment, musical instruments, desks and chairs were also provided as a goodwill gesture to get the students started.

“The enormity and tragedy of this earthquake caught the attention of the whole world but it was the plight of the region’s children that was most distressing. We wanted to do everything we could to make sure the children and teachers in this region could make a fresh start following the trauma they suffered as a result of the earthquake,” said Peter Martyr, Norton Rose’s group CEO. 

The school was built with the cooperation of the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) under its ‘Project Hope’ programme. ‘Project Hope’ is CYDF’s largest programme to date which aims to build schools in poverty stricken areas of China and help children whose families are too poor to afford their elementary school education. CYDF was responsible for the construction and updates on the progress of the school.

Norton Rose chose to donate money to this area so it could benefit a specific community, according to the firm.

The Norton Rose Hope School is located in the northern part of Sichuan Province where the 3.1 million-strong population of Guangyang City were directly affected by the 7.8 earthquake in 2008.ALB

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