Like Parents Homestay is pleased to announce its official partnership in a minority village development project in Guizhou province of China aiming to end poverty and bring permanent hope to disadvantaged children.

The 6-year project, funded by Captivating International and partners and implemented by local village development experts from Heifer International, will see 450 families progress out of poverty over the next 6 years, with family incomes expected to more than double in real terms. In addition, over 1,000 more families will be impacted with access to improved farming methods and experience being passed on to them from this initiative.

The village chosen for this project, Daxi Village of Kaili Township, is located in Guizhou province, one of the poorest provinces in southwest China. All villagers are Miao minority ethnic group. Each family participating in the project receives a quota of pigs that they will raise under strict controlled conditions following 3 months of training provided by Heifer International (China). Participating families are organized into self help groups to ensure that the project continue to run smoothly and successfully even after specialized help is no longer present on-site.

Like Parents Homestay, one of the official partners of the project, will journey with Captivating International through the next 6 years of this work and be part of the impact it brings to families and their children.

Oliver Liu, Director of Like Parents Homestay who has travelled to Kaili Township of Guizhou to see the needs there, says, "we are very happy to be one of the partners in the project and help disadvantaged children out of poverty. This partnership and 6-year commitment is made feasible thanks to our host families' willingness to welcome international students into their homes, and the students' willingness to book homestay through us. Like Parents Homestay will dedicate a portion of the nomimal homestay administration fees to community development projects in addition to providing ongoing support to homestay host families and students. We will support more projects and help more people as the homestay business grows."

Maria Meng, Director of Like Parents Homestay, says, "Like Parents Homestay is all about families, friendship, help and sustainable support. We care about the homestay host families, the wellbeing of students, and the families in need. We listen to host families and students critically, understand their true needs, and recommend best matches for a long and enjoyable family-like homestay experience. The more caring and loving homestay host families join us and students book homestay through us, the more needy families we will be able to help. "

For more information about Like Parents Homestay, please visit Like Parents Homestay's website, or contact Oliver Liu.

Oliver Liu, Director
Email: oliver@likeparents.com
Phone1: +61 2 8188 1388
Phone2: +86 755 3391 6439
Website: http://LikeParents.com

More information and progress about the village development project is available on Captivating International website. To support this project and sponsor a family, please send an email to Mr. Andrew Colquhoun, the CEO of Captivating (andrewc@captivating.org), or simply go to the donate section of Captivating International website, select Village Development, and make a donation.

        Starting from 1 June 2012, each month during homestay booked through Like Parents Homestay, all students are eligible to make 200 untimed free international and national phone calls using Like Parents Homestay's SIP phone account.

        Newly arrived international students typically miss home after the initial excitement living in a different country and culture. They will often feel much better after talking with their family and friends, especially for as long as they like. This solution is tailor-made for homestay students who have family or friends with infrequent access to internet, and thus can't use online softwares to communicate.

        Each month during the homestay booked through Like Parents Homestay and using Like Parents Homestay's SIP phone account, each student can make 100 free untimed phone calls to local/national landlines of Australia, and 100 free untimed phone calls to 30 countries. The free untimed international call destinations include landlines and mobiles in 5 countries: China, USA, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, and land lines in the following 25 countries.

        Students need to bring a smart phone which can connect to the internet through Wi-Fi or 3G broadband, and set Like Parents Homestay's SIP phone account in the mobile phone. Each student will be responsible for his or her own internet data usage while making the free phone calls. It is estimated to use 1MB of data for each minute of free calls. Using TPG's 1 Australian dollar monthly plan, 1MB data costs 0.0275AUD only. Free Wi-Fi connection is available in some campuses and homestay families, so this complimentary high quality voice services will be completely free to some homestay students.

        International students typically use their phone cards on a landline phone to call their family or friends. Talking for a long time using the host family's landline phone will cause the line to be busy and unavailable to other family members, which is a frequent cause of frictions. Other issues during homestay may include huge phone bills if international students make international or national phone calls without realizing the cost, or making late night calls due to time differences with their home countries. The solution by Like Parents Homestay prevents these issues by allowing international students to make free untimed calls using their mobile phones. The solution also helps students to get over homesickness sooner.

        Mrs Maria Meng, the co-founder of Like Parents Homestay, says: "Like Parents Homestay is committed to providing safe, loving and caring environments to both hosts and students through matching interests and personalities, and support by a dedicated local team. We take proactive measures to prevent issues in homestay, rather than trying to manage a crisis, or mediate the parties with communication broken down, or change to another homestay family. Making free untimed international calls using mobile phone is an example of our care towards homestay families and students, and our management philosophy of preventing issues, enen though this solution apparently increases our administration cost. Another example is that we provide a 20 million AUD public liability insurance cover to each host family, including a component to compensate host families for accidental damages by students. This further reduces the chances of frictions during homestay. We care about both homestay hosts and students, and our ultimate goal is to make peace so that both parties will enjoy the homestay experience."

Account name and password and instructions of how to configure mobile phones to make SIP phone calls will be sent to homestay students. Like Parents Homestay will manage the configuration of mobile phones for gold student members. For technical and administration details of the free call solution please contact Like Parents Homestay's local representative.

        Do you find joy in helping international students to settle down? If yes, please consider joining Like Parents Homestay as a host.

        Like Parents Homestay hosts are a community of loving and caring families that stick to the highest ethical standards and are willing to guide students like parents. Many of the hosts have strong faith and are well respected in the community.

        Like Parents Homestay is a private company specializing in achieving best matches between hosts and students from China through mutual selection process, backed by a customer care team in Australia and China. We insure both hosts and students, manage students' expectation before arrival, and provide ongoing support to hosts.

        Please register online to start the application process, or contact us for more information.