Celia Wang proudly shows her diploma at the graduation ceremony in July. Photo: Yang Lan/GT

July 21 was a very big day for 20-year-old Celia Wang. That was the day the girl from Henan Province graduated. Along with her 26 classmates, Wang was given her diploma and walked out into the world a happy girl and one ready to begin a once unbelievable career as a French-style baker.

Something a few years ago she could never have imagined. In Henan Wang's family was poverty-stricken. Her mother died when Wang was just a young girl growing up, and although her father worked hard so that she and her brother could attend school he didn't make enough money so that she could get to high school.

Instead she went to work to make some money for the family. Her big chance at a new and different life (and a way out of poverty) came when she was chosen to join the sixth class of the Shanghai Young Bakers (SYB) program. In August 2013, Wang began learning how to make bread and pastry along with Chinese cooking, English and lifestyle lessons. After a year of study and internships working in some of the kitchens in top hotels in Shanghai, Wang was all smiles as she collected her diploma from Emmanuel Lenain, the French Consul General in Shanghai and Xu Benliang, the director of the Shanghai Charity Education and Training Center.

Enjoys her work

Wang is now a qualified baker and she enjoys her work, and especially enjoys the baguettes she can make ("they're not too sweet and have a lovely natural flavor"). In her training year Wang had to practice making four different French breads every week - usually baguettes, croissants, country loaves and brioche.

"Baguettes and croissants are the most difficult but I really like making these because of the craftsmanship needed and the way we can ensure the crusts are perfect."

At present Wang has had two firm job offers and she is making up her mind as to which employer she will join. "The SYB program helped me find a direction for my life and gave me a goal. I hope to do well and will work with the program and help other young people."

The bakers' program is one of the most obviously successful charity programs in Shanghai. But running a charity in Shanghai demands a great deal of energy and perseverance.

A selection of bread baked by Shanghai Young Bakers (SYB) students Photo: Courtesy of SYB

Shanghai Young Bakers

Founded by 12 French expats in 2008, the bakers' program trains and gives disadvantaged young Chinese a chance at employment and a full and independent life afterwards.

The program is supervised by the Chi Heng Foundation and is supported by the Shanghai Charity Foundation. "SYB has already helped about 120 young people," project manager Floriane Lemoine told the Global Times. "We have seven partner foundations. We select students based on recommendations from our partner NGOs. The candidates need to be from 17 to 23, in good health, have no criminal records, but come from disadvantaged families and they must also be highly motivated. We interview several before deciding who to accept for training."

Over six years the classes each year have grown from 16 students to 27. In the early days all the teachers were volunteers but since 2009 the program has trained its own teachers, sending them to France for extra tuition. SYB is now planning to work with other NGOs to develop their bakery programs.

Although the program has been acclaimed there are difficulties, Lemoine said. "Funding is one of the toughest issues. We have very limited funding. Unlike other charities that just help with school fees, we do the whole training process: we have our own teachers and we have the bakery center. So the cost per student is very high. We have no government subsidy and we find all the funds ourselves. Our sponsorship contracts are usually for one year. So after every year, we have to negotiate with the sponsors again. Some will continue with us, but some have other priorities. So basically we are looking for sponsors all the time."

Lemoine said 80 percent of the program's funding comes from corporate donors, like the Carrefour Foundation, the Accor Foundation, Lesaffre and the Marriott Foundation. The rest of the money comes from the program's own commercial activities - SYB now runs bakery classes, does corporate event catering and sells specialty cakes and fancy breadbaskets.

Another problem is finding staff - it is very hard to find employees who are motivated, qualified and willing to accept low salaries.

Lemoine is happy that more people in Shanghai are helping by buying the SYB products because they are quality products and made safely and ethically.

Over the year that the students study baking at SYB they learn English in classes arranged by another city charity, Stepping Stones. On graduation night, the bakery classes performed an English-language playlet for the guests.

Stepping Stones volunteer Marjo with some of her pupils in Henan Province Photo: Courtesy of Stepping Stones

Stepping out

Stepping Stones was founded to organize volunteers wanting to teach English to migrant children in Shanghai primary schools. Corinne Hua is the founder and executive director and told the Global Times she began the work in 2006 and in 2008 the program was officially named Stepping Stones. It was registered as an NGO in Hong Kong in 2011 and in Shanghai in 2013.

Stepping Stones is currently training and coordinating about 229 volunteers who teach 4,000 students in 20 migrant schools and community centers in Shanghai. In 2013 its volunteers provided 3,287 classes. It also has other programs like the eye care program which has seen 3,195 students being given free eye tests and glasses.

Emily Schell, is an intern in Shanghai and is one of the Stepping Stones volunteer teachers. She has found the experience totally rewarding. She went on a Stepping Stones program to Guangde county in Anhui Province as a rural volunteer. It was her first teaching experience and she was thrilled to see children involved in learning English - she thought it was good experience that the students could listen to an English speaker enhancing the English they had already been taught at school.

Over the years, Stepping Stones has expanded its activities and it now focuses on children's education and health, with its regular classroom teaching program, an after-school tuition program, a summer program, rural volunteers and the eye care project. Hua said the organization was going from strength to strength.

"We will gradually build up our Shanghai programs, including our eye care program to provide free eye care to migrant children in the city and will continue to develop other programs outside of Shanghai, in particular, teaching English by video links to children in rural China."

An INCLUDED volunteer offers guidance to a student. Photo: Courtesy of INCLUDED

Big difficulties

One of the big difficulties for Stepping Stones was getting itself registered with the authorities. "It's very difficult to register an organization, which means it's hard to open a bank account and issue invoices which affects fundraising. I now have a team of eight, which allows us to do things more professionally. Registration has enabled us to open a bank account, issue invoices and hire staff directly, which helps a lot. It's still a complicated area to work in, and there are a lot of issues to work around each day, but it's always rewarding as well as challenging."

When Jonathan Hursh was studying in China on a US government scholarship years ago he visited a migrant community on the outskirts of Beijing. What he saw there shocked him. Children were on the street playing in rubbish tips, infants were locked in rooms for safekeeping. For Hursh this seemed to be a forgotten generation with little hope and few prospects for a future.

Hursh was so devastated by what he saw that he established an organization to help migrant workers. Originally named the Coalition for Migrant Children, then Compassion for Migrant Children it is now INCLUDED and it has been working in China for eight years and has grown to a network expanding across Asia, Latin America and Africa.

INCLUDED now has five community centers in Beijing and one in Shanghai. The community centers are open to all migrant children and adults, providing different programs at each center tailored to the needs of the local migrant community. Student activities include doing homework under the supervision of tutors, music, dance, arts and crafts, sports, computer training, drama and reading.

In 2010, INCLUDED began work in Shanghai - its center in Xin'an, Minhang district, currently looks after more than 1,000 migrants annually.

The communications and fundraising manager for INCLUDED is Zhang Xi and she said that with an estimated migrant population of 9 million, Shanghai was a key city for the organization.

"With recognition from the local government in the form of funding support, we have worked hard to establish a strategic vision, finding solutions that release the huge value that migrants bring to our cities and realizing how their inclusion is essential in the development of healthy and productive urban societies.

"With an issue as mammoth as this, combined with our tried and tested community center model, we have become an ambitious organization, yet despite this, our biggest challenge is working out how we can find the funding and resources required to have the impact we know we can achieve."