History of CREF - The China Rural Education Foundation

The China Rural Education Foundation (CREF) is the brainchild of Dr. Frederick W. Crook, Ph.D., and his wife Dr. Elizabeth F. Crook, Ph.D.

Both Frederick's and Elizabeth's backgrounds include advanced education in International Political Science, complete with internships at the United Nations, and Frederick speaking Mandarin Chinese. As early as the mid 1960's, Frederick's area of specialization focused on agricultural and rural developments in China — an unusual area of study for the time. This focus led to employment at the US Department of Commerce and later at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), researching agricultural and trade developments in China. In 1974 Frederick was sent to Hong Kong to serve as an Agricultural Attache in the US Consulate General there, returning to USDA/Washington DC in 1976. Frederick was later asked to perform voluntary unpaid service as a Mission President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Taiwan for 3 years. Frederick returned to work in USDA from 1980 until his retirement in December 1999.

In 1980 the USDA and the Ministry of Agriculture in China signed an agreement to exchange teams of specialists. Frederick was part of this program, making his first trip to China in 1982. Thereafter he traveled in China extensively, both with the USDA, and later in association with The China Group, a consulting firm formed by he and Elizabeth to provide clients with accurate and timely information about China's rural economy and agricultural trade.

For 45 years Frederick and Elizabeth have traveled over the broad landscape of China, spending a large amount of time in rural areas. In the process of conducting numerous and extensive studies and research, they found that there are great contrasts between urban and rural China: urban - rich and modern; rural - poor and backward. It became apparent that Chinese government policies favored the development of urban areas and neglected rural areas.

In the most recent 15 years, specific focus has been aimed at educational developments in rural China, during which time it has become clear that government funds do not provide for large numbers of rural Chinese children to attend school. In 2001 and 2002 Frederick visited a number of different schools in China: vocational schools, junior middle schools and primary schools. Through these visits, he found that poor rural families do not have the financial capacity to pay the government-required school fees. As a result, large numbers of school age children were kept home. Frederick, along with other western scholars, suggest that improvements in rural education will be vital as the rural population moves to urban areas to take up employment.

Through his consulting work, Frederick traveled frequently with a Chinese colleague who had worked as a cadre in a poor village in Shaanxi province during the "Great Leap Forward" period (1958-1961). In Spring 2003 the two visited the rural village in Da Zhuang He, Gan Quan county, Shaanxi province. They found many children were not attending school, especially young women, because of inadequate finances. The average income in the village was US$125 a year and most of the income was in-kind such as corn, potatoes, apples, vegetables, and livestock — not cash. The schools required cash.

Returning to the US, Frederick immediately urged his family to organize the non-profit "China Rural Education Foundation" (CREF), donating his own money to fund the foundation. The general goal of the foundation is to increase awareness of the educational challenges in rural China, and specifically to raise funds for schools in Gan Quan county. The CREF formed by-laws, elected directors and officers, petitioned the State of Virginia for incorporation and applied to the US Internal Revenue Service for a 501-C-3 non-profit status. CREF was incorporated on May 15, 2003, and received IRS approval for non-profit status on September 8, 2004.