Offices

CHENGDU OFFICE

The Chengdu Office, in addition to coordinating FOC’s work within Sichuan, also serves as a coordination center for all the work of FOC within China. This function especially involves the placement and ongoing care of our teachers and students. The Executive Director of FOC is based in Chengdu

In addition to overseeing the work of FOC around China, the Chengdu office continues to investigate new ways of cooperation within Sichuan and maintains contact with several outlying districts and prefectures within Sichuan. Besides actively recruiting for teachers and foreign students for universities in Chengdu, the Chengdu office seeks ways to assist in the social development of Sichuan.

As an example of the social impact of FOC in Sichuan, an FOC associate has provided consulting for the Chengdu Children's Welfare Institute Foster Care Program and has developed a computerized record keeping and management information system for the project. Interest in making use of the in the computer system in other parts of China has been expressed by the China Social Work Association. An end of year international evaluation team, including child care experts from the UK, US, Beijing and Shanghai, affirmed the success of the project and its national value.

OTHER REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES

In addition to the Chengdu office, FOC has three other representative offices, located in Xining, Qinghai Province; Xian, Shaanxi Province; and Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Xinjiang Representative Office

In November, 2004, official registration was received for the FOC representative office in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The opening of this office illustrates FOC’s growing commitment to the development of the West of China. FOC would like to express its great appreciation for the cooperation that we received from various officials in obtaining permission to open the office and looks forward to future cooperation with them to bring more teachers and other foreign experts to Xinjiang.

As an example of FOC’s commitment to recruit foreign experts to work for community development within Xinjiang, FOC recently initiated, in cooperation with Operation Mercy, a long-term development project in Yopurgha (岳普湖县) outside Kashgar. This project seeks to facilitate training and to establish improvements in methods and techniques to support the arable and pastoral agriculture in this less developed area.

The number of FOC associates working in Xinjiang has increased dramatically in the past few years to over 20 adults. Most of these associates are currently involved in language study, indicating their long-term commitment to the development of Xinjiang. These language students will likely become teachers, become involved in community development, or start their own businesses within the next few years. FOC is very proud to assist the development of Xinjiang by providing these human resources.

Qinghai Representative Office

The Qinghai office helps FOC continue to expand its contributions to the development of Qinghai Province. During 2004, FOC maintained a total of over 20 adult personnel in Qinghai. Some of the FOC associates were still in language study preparing for future work in their fields of expertise. Others were already involved in the fields of education, rural development and health care.

FOC’s community development work in Qinghai during 2004 included projects involving such areas as water resources, building construction, public health, and agriculture. FOC has also assisted in covering portions of the medical costs for more than 10 local citizens who have had major medical issues.

This work, both in education and in community development, would not have been possible without the extensive cooperation of the various provincial and local government departments. FOC is particularly appreciative for the cooperation received from local government officials in counties where FOC associates have begun to teach or have initiated community development projects, namely Zeku County (泽库县), Hualong County (化隆回族自治县) and Jianzha County (尖扎县).

Shaanxi Representative Office

The Shaanxi Office is primarily focused on assisting the FOC teachers at various universities in Shaanxi and the FOC language students who study Mandarin at the Shaanxi Teachers University. The office also organizes short-term teaching and study programs, with a particular focus on assisting the training of English teachers throughout Shaanxi Province, as illustrated by the short-term teacher training programs in Yangling and Sanyuan County this past summer. The work of the office also provides health care professionals caring for orphans in Shaanxi.

A high percentage of the Chinese language students introduced through FOC study in Xi’an. As mentioned above, most of these have expertise in various fields other than Chinese. After Chinese study is completed, these students move to various locations throughout China to utilize their skills. A major function of the FOC Shaanxi office, therefore, is to work with the local universities to provide even better language and cultural training for the students as they prepare for their future work in China.