Guanlan Promo

Guanlan's Sisters: A Family Journal is the story of an American family's efforts to help poor young girls in rural China break the cycle of poverty by getting an education. The genesis of Guanlan's Sisters: A Family Journal began in 2000. Dr. Vilma Seeberg and her family were in China for an international conference and she heard about the difficulties girls in rural villages were having in getting an education. It was a problem struck a chord with Dr. Seeberg. You see, this isn't just any family.

Vilma, Tom and Zoë Guanlan are what you might call a "global family." Vilma Seeberg is a German immigrant, a professor of education at Kent State University, has lived and worked in China, is fluent in Chinese and has written two groundbreaking books about literacy and education in China. Her husband, Tom Jacobs, is African-American and an Emmy award-winning, veteran television producer. They adopted their daughter, Zoë Guanlan, born in Suzhou, China, in 1998 and she has grown into a wonderful energetic, inquisitive and very independent 13-year-old.

Determined to help, she returned to the states and established a scholarship fund named for her daughter, The Guanlan Scholarship Foundation. Through their efforts, The Guanlan Scholarship has paid the school fees for 70 girls in the village of An Jing Gou over the past 10 years.

Now - for the first time - the family has made the difficult journey, high into the mountains of rural China, to visit the village of An Jing Gou to see if their efforts have really made a difference. Guanlan's Sisters: A Family Journal is the video diary of their journey, but more importantly it's a chance for this family and Zoe Guanlan, to connect in a very personal way with Guanlan's Sisters.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• China
• girls
• education
• adoption