UK teacher aids migrant child education

"So after a long chat with my family, they said, 'If you enjoy that, why don't you do it?'" she says. "I quit my job and a few months after that I went to UK and I set up the foundation."

After registering MCF in the UK as a charity, Boyle returned to Beijing and began in earnest. Today the foundation works with nine migrant children schools providing a range of services. Boyle speaks excitedly about being able to expose the students to more opportunities such as taking 18 students camping for a week and getting them involved in a prestigious science competition. They won.

"Respect," she says, is what has helped her successfully establish a charity in a foreign country. "We not only respect the law of the country but also respect the families, the migrant families, the schools, the teachers."

The success has not come without personal sacrifices. Boyle gave up her comfortable home in the UK and a good job to dedicate herself to MCF, but says she has been enriched in other ways.

"It made me realize it's only material things. You can be happy with less. Happiness is not what we imagine. We surround ourselves with what we think is important, and when we lose those things the shock of it makes us think initially, 'Oh, my God! What are we going to do?' But gradually we realize it's nothing! We adjust."

This is the philosophy she hopes to instill in the people the foundation works with.

"I don't want to teach these kids and the parents to have more. I want them to learn and understand the true meaning of life is not about what you have," says Boyle.

When asked about the Chinese Dream, she says dreams are dependent on personal backgrounds, but notes that dreams are similar the world over - to give each generation a better life than those that came before them.

"These parents' dreams are that their kids will have the opportunity to become somebody and do something," says Boyle.

China has also allowed her to achieve her personal dreams and enjoy a new lease on life.

"I find China, Beijing especially, very inspiring," says Boyle. "There is a buzz here that makes you feel alive. This is the kind of thing I was looking for and I am very lucky that at my age I found it."