Jenny Bowen: What China’s Orphans Taught Me About Moving Mountains

Jenny Bowen is the founder and chief executive officer of Half the Sky Foundation, which strives to enrich the lives of orphaned children in China. A former screenwriter and independent filmmaker, Bowen founded Half the Sky in 1998 in order to give something back to her adopted daughters’ home country and to the many children then languishing behind institutional walls. Half the Sky’s five innovative programs now provide nurturing, family-like care for thousands of children of all ages. In partnership with China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, Half the Sky has embarked on a groundbreaking Integrated National Training Plan that will eventually make the Half the Sky approach the approved national standard of care for all children in the welfare system.

In 2008, Bowen received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. She serves on China’s National Committee for Orphans and Disabled Children and on the Expert Consultative Committee for Beijing Normal University’s Philanthropy Research Institute. She is the author of the recently released memoir, Wish You Happy Forever: What China’s Orphans Taught Me About Moving Mountains.

About REAP

The Rural Education Action Program (REAP) at Stanford is an impact evaluation organization that aims to inform sound education, health and nutrition policy in China. REAP’s goal is to help students from vulnerable communities in China enhance their human capital and overcome obstacles to education so that they can escape poverty and better contribute to China’s developing economy.

The author will be available to sign copies of her book after the event.