Starbucks Corporation is demonstrating its commitment to global social responsibility with a program designed to promote education in rural China. 

As part of its long-term commitment to support improved educational opportunities in China, Starbucks Coffee Company has entered into an agreement with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation to provide 12 million RMB ($1.5 million USD) to support a program aimed at helping students in need - and their teachers - in rural China.

In a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, attended by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, key Chinese government officials, local dignitaries and community leaders, Starbucks and the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation signed a formal agreement which establishes a program to help improve access to education for disadvantaged youth and provide quality training for women teachers in rural areas. The China Soong Ching Ling Foundation anticipates reaching approximately 3,000 teachers and thousands of students by the year 2010.

The agreement outlines a multi-faceted educational improvement program that will be carried out over the next four years, two elements of which were detailed at the ceremony:

• Teaching the Teachers. Many teachers in rural schools have little or no formal training in how to teach. Three thousand female teachers from 1,000 primary and middle school in five Western provinces will be given training during summer and winter holidays to improve their teaching skills and provide them with updated techniques to help their students learn.
  
  
• Starbucks "Libraries." Three hundred schools will be outfitted with books, computers, teaching tools and upgraded sports facilities.

"We are as passionate about our commitment to our communities as we are about achieving financial success," said Mr. Schultz. "By creating this program with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, which has done so much good work for children, we will provide tools and teacher training that will help children in rural China build brighter futures."

Mr. Yu Guilin, Executive Vice Chairman of China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, noted that "Starbucks has been in China for just a few years, but they clearly understand how important education is to the people of China."

This is the first effort funded under the auspices of the 40 million RMB ($5 million USD) China Education Project, which Starbucks established in September 2005 with Give2Asia, a US nonprofit organization founded by The Asia Foundation to promote philanthropy in Asia, which will administer the Project grants.
 
Since the company opened its first store in China in 1999, Starbucks store partners have been involved in ongoing community initiatives from volunteer opportunities with local schools to fund-raising activities in support of AIDS-afflicted orphans, local educational charities, and the tsunami victims in Southeast Asia.