Go to the people, learn from them, build on what they have.
Dr. Y.C. James Yen
Dr. Y.C. James Yen October 26, 1893 – January 17, 1990
OUR FOUNDER
Dr. Yen was born in 1893 in Sichuan Province in China and graduated from Yale University in 1918. He volunteered in France for the Y.M.C.A. among 200,000 illiterate Chinese laborers who had been imported to dig trenches. While writing letters home for them by day and translating news for them at night, he developed a basic Chinese vocabulary of about 1,300 characters. These characters were later arranged in books titled “People’s Library” and amassed to some 1,000 books translating topics from Confucian classics, folktales and songs to simple and practical modern farming methods, rural hygiene, cooperatives and democratic citizenship. He subsequently earned a master’s degree at Princeton University and then returned to his homeland to teach in Changsha and Hopeh provinces.
Teaching Chinese laborers to read in Europe during World War I inspired him to return to China and in 1923, Dr. Yen founded the Chinese Mass Education Movement (CMEM), which supported mass literacy campaigns throughout China and taught millions of people to read and write. In 1928, John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated $100,000 to the movement, which catalyzed other dignitaries to contribute. By 1931, an estimated 5 million students had attended CMEM classes and over 100,000 men and women were teaching daily without compensation in rural and urban schools. Dr. Yen’s work was disrupted by the Japanese invasion of China in 1937.
Dr. Yen served as president of the International Mass Education Movement formed in 1951 with William Douglas, Fowler McCormick, Eleanor Roosevelt and other influential leaders. He moved to the Philippines in 1952 where he helped civic-minded leaders organize the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM),–which exists to this day. His achievement in the Philippines and success at training other development workers inspired the formation of similar movements in Colombia, Guatemala, Ghana, India, and Thailand. In 1960, Dr. Yen established the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) to coordinate these efforts.
Dr. Yen passed away in 1990 in New York City. His ashes are interred in the Yen Memorial Garden in front of his former home (now a museum) on the IIRR campus in the Philippines. Dr. Yen was a pioneer of community-focused, participatory, integrated development and a man of enormous vision. His wisdom and deep commitment to the world’s poor lives on through IIRR’s work.
Today, IIRR has operated in more than 50 countries on 3 continents spreading mass awareness about our anti-poverty programs and training people on sustainable development practices. Dr. Yen’s teachings as the father of the mass education and rural reconstruction movement continue to guide our principles and philosophy today!
OUR LOGO
The PING is a Chinese ideogram, a symbol expressing an idea that cannot adequately be summarized in words. It was used as the logo of the Mass Education Movement founded in China in 1923 by Dr. Y.C. James Yen and is now used to represent the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) established in 1960.
There are two levels of meaning of the PING: global and personal.
For the World, the PING is meant to light the path to Peace, Equality, and Justice.
- The horizontal bar on the top represents the mind or brain–essential for the success of any
Effort. - The dash on the left is equity.
- The dash on the right is justice.
- The cross in the center represents compassion for the neglected poor.
“Ping-Min” (common people) “Jiao-Yu” (education) means mass education in Chinese. According to Dr. Yen, equal education and opportunity for all corrects injustice. When there is equity and justice, there will be peace.
For each person, the PING inspires Calmness, Serenity, and Tranquility.
The Chinese maxim “Ping Xin Jing Qu” advises that when provoked and irate, “calm your heart and quiet your mind” to acquire serenity and tranquility.
In honor of our founder, his background, and his beliefs, IIRR has adopted the PING as its logo.
OUR CREDO
Go to the people
Live among them
Learn from them
Plan with them
Work with them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have
Teach by showing
Learn by doing
Not a showcase
But a pattern
Not odds and ends but a system
Not to conform but to transform
Not relief but release
DID YOU KNOW?
- Dr.Yen was responsible for the education of more than 60 million Chinese through his rural reconstruction movement.
- A distinguished body of scholars and scientists, asked to pick “the ten greatest revolutionaries of our time” to receive Copernican Citations in 1943 marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Copernicus, listed Dr. Yen along with Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Orville Wright, Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison.
- President Reagan awarded Dr. Yen the Eisenhower Medallion of People to People International in 1987 for his efforts towards world peace.