A Step Forward in Fulfilling CSR and in Supporting Rural Education and Revitalization
2022 BMW JOY Home “Self-Strengthening Movement” Comes to Liangshan Prefecture SiChuan

(Sichuan) On July 18, the 2022 BMW JOY Home Summer Camp with the theme of “Amazing Kids”, was held at Siyuan Experimental School in Xide County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. At this year’s Summer Camp, BMW together with China Education Development Foundation, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, the National School Physical Education League and other social sectors, organized a volunteer team consisting of journalists, and held a series of activities that included joyful sports training, art and music classes, as well as starlight parties for 100 students and 23 teachers from ten BMW JOY Home "Self-Strengthening Movement" schools in the Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province. Adhering to the strategy of “At Home in China”, the BMW JOY Home program targets the social needs of rural revitalization and rural education, while engaging stakeholders and caring members of society through an innovative enabling approach to jointly contribute to rural education and rural revitalization.

Jochen Goller, President and CEO of BMW Group Region China, said, "‘ At Home in China’, BMW continues to create mutual value for our customers, the local society, and automotive industry. We firmly believe that good corporate citizenship encompasses the company’s deep social commitment well beyond pure business results. For consecutive eleven years now, BMW JOY Home has followed the social agenda, fulfilling corporate responsibility in an innovative way. In contributing to the rural education and rural vitalization, this important initiative is the perfect symbol for BMW’s corporate strategy ‘At Home in China’.

Dr. Franz Decker, President & CEO, BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd said at the Camp’s kick-off ceremony, “Corporate Social Responsibility is an essential part of BMW Group’s sustainability strategy. BMW CSR always has followed three major social agendas of the Chinese government and society, Culture Protection, Social Development and Environmental Protection. The success of BMW JOY Home and BMW CSR in China can be attributed to our dedication to deeply engage with breakthrough ideas together with our stakeholders.”

Through pooling the resource strength and leveraging its own social influence, BMW JOY Home has become an enabling platform for promoting rural education in western China. Professor Ma Sai, Dean of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, together with a volunteer team of doctoral and graduate students from the Academy under his leadership, gave creative art lessons and inspired children in the "My Hometown" gouache paintings, created with the impressive ideas of the involved children. Meanwhile, singers from the Central Conservatory of Music participated in music classes to offer guidance, enabling children to express themselves with confidence on stage at the starlight parties. Through a variety of summer camp classes, this aesthetic education nourishes children’s souls and stimulates their creativity. The National School Physical Education League also plays an active role in the Summer Camp by sending along a team of experts, who arrange sports games and special sports classes so that BMW JOY Home teachers and students will be able to take part in physical education reform and benefit from the joy of sports.

Professor Ma Sai, Dean of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, said, “To serve the people and Chinese society is the main tenet of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University since its inception. In recent years, we cooperated with BMW Group in the protection of China’s national intangible cultural heritage, developing innovative solutions and achieving impressive results. It is a great pleasure to join hands with BMW CSR in running these Summer Camps. As a leading school in the field of art and design, we are on a mission to the Daliang Mountains to promote aesthetic education in schools and rural revitalization. By teaching children how to paint their beautiful homes, we hope we may initiate a love for their hometown in their young minds and encourage them to play an important role in rural development and revitalization.”

Miss. He Kexin, the world gymnastics champion, joined the summer camp as a caring volunteer. By sharing her aspirational story of personal struggle and growth, Kexin inspired children to remain confident and maintain a positive attitude towards life, along with performing physical and mental exercises. Furthermore, a group of media volunteers, led by Kexin and Dr. Franz Decker, President & CEO BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, paid home visits to BMW JOY Home students. Their activities on the front line not only impressed children and showed them love, but also helped to reach the real needs of the community, something which is essential for the future implementation of the BMW JOY Home “Self-Strengthening Movement”.

By rolling out the Summer Camp this year, BMW JOY Home and China Education Development Foundation jointly called attention to social concerns over the physical and aesthetic education in rural schools, in the hope of channeling advantageous education resources in eastern areas into the mid-and-west to promote rural education.

Upon a great victory scored in China’s fight against poverty, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, State Council issued the Opinions on Consolidating the Poverty Alleviation Achievements and Effectively Transferring into Rural Revitalization this year, showing that rural revitalization has become an important topic in China’s new development stage. Education is a key factor in both poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Some social surveys have shown that rural schools were generally challenged by the lower importance attached to physical education, a lack of teachers and monotonous teaching materials, etc. on their way to achieving the balanced development of quality education. On the other hand, the younger generations, as well as physical education in schools, have become prioritized strategically in the Sports Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised Draft) which will go into effect next year. Given these social needs, BMW JOY Home pooled its strength and jointly launched the future-oriented “Self-Strengthening Movement” in partnership with the China Education Development Foundation in 2021, aiming to promote the balanced development of rural education and contribute to rural revitalization. The Movement aims to provide support for 52 schools in China’s last 52 counties that achieved poverty alleviation in 2020 and include them into the BMW JOY Home program from 2021 to 2023. Meanwhile, it plans to build the 52 schools into model schools in China in terms of physical education by carrying out on-campus sports guidance and teacher training.

Siyuan Experimental School in Xide County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, where this year’s Summer Camp is located, was one of the first schools to join the “Self-Strengthening Movement” in 2021. While Xide County was identified as a "Priority County for National Rural Revitalization" by the Central Rural Work Leading Office and the National Rural Revitalization Bureau last August, the development of soft power in education still requires a support from wider society, although Liangshan County has improved its rural environment and campus hardware facilities following a successful programs of poverty alleviation.

Up to now, the “Self-Strengthening Movement” has supported 33 BMW JOY Home schools in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces as scheduled. Meanwhile, BMW JOY Home worked in close cooperation with the National School Physical Education League and provided a variety of themed training sessions for physical education teachers in rural schools, making it an innovative and enabling branch of BMW’s CSR. Focused on exploring sports models suitable for rural schools while continuing the focus on sportsmanship, and designed to develop teams of rural physical education teachers and promote rural physical education, these training courses contained policy theories and diversified content for daily teaching. The "Self-Strengthening Movement" has organized professional training for 132 physical education teachers across 33 rural schools and will newly include another 19 schools in Xinjiang, Gansu and Ningxia next year.

Since its official launch in 2011, BMW JOY Home, through its own social influence and an innovative enabling approach, continuously engages stakeholders, caring members of society and NGOs to help BMW JOY Home become a sustainable, enabling platform with a snowballing effect. The BMW JOY Home program has seen 112 BMW JOY Home schools established in 29 provinces and autonomous regions across China and has held over 400 activities, benefiting more than 130,000 left-behind and migrant children. Over 10,000 BMW associates, dealers and customers have participated in volunteer activities.

At home in China, BMW Group China continues to create value for the customer, local society, and industry for mutual growth. BMW believes that a responsible business has its sights set beyond sales and profit, and instead puts more focus on engaging stakeholders to jointly address social issues and contribute to local communities. Closely following and with deep insights into the Chinese government and society’s major social agendas, BMW CSR targets three social issues—Culture Protection, Social Development and Environmental Protection—to continuously contribute to a better Chinese society through four flagship projects—BMW China Culture Journey, BMW Children’s Traffic Safety Education, BMW JOY Home, and BMW Beautiful Homeland Initiative.