Welcome to english.eastday.com.Today is
Follow us @
Contribute to us!

Latest

Shanghai

Business

Culture

China

World

Pictures

Topics

Life

Services

Home >> auto >> Article
China Focus: "Spring Bud" girls' journeys blossom into good causes
From:Xinhua  |  2019-10-12 23:29

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- At the turn of the century, Li Shanshan, 18, took a 12-hour train ride from her hometown in east China's Anhui Province all the way north to Beijing for the first time.

"Since then, my life has been completely changed," Li said recollecting the bittersweet experience, brimming with tears.

Born and raised in Lixin County, Anhui, where poverty was eliminated earlier this year, Li had the chance to study at Beijing Bailie University with tuition and accommodation fees waived.

This was thanks to assistance from the "Spring Bud" project, which was launched in 1989 by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) under the leadership of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) to help girls from impoverished families return to school.

At that time, dropping out of school was still affecting many poverty-stricken regions of the country. Figures show girls accounted for two thirds of all the children who were out of school, as many parents believed education for girls was not as important as that for boys.

"Eagerness, it was all about the eagerness to return to school," Li recalled how she felt on the verge of dropping out of school after barely finishing senior high.

As the youngest child in her family with two elder brothers, Li was offered the chance to study in Beijing after staff from the ACWF visited her hometown and assessed her family's financial situation and academic performance.

"Without the 'Spring Bud,' I might have got married and given birth to children at a very early age just like many other girls around me," said Li, who now works for CCTF's finance department in Beijing.

Li is only one of the over 3.69 million poverty-stricken girls that received funds and help from the project over the past three decades to continue their studies, making it China's largest charity project for school girls.

Another beneficiary girl named Li Yonghua from a mountainous village in Minhe, a county in northwest China's Qinghai Province, still remembers how enlightened she felt when one of her senior high school alumni described college life to her and her schoolmates.

Although she was later admitted to Peking University, one of China's most prestigious universities, Li Yonghua said she had been struggling to even finish her primary school.

"Though I was born in the 1990s, girls were barely seen in class after fourth or fifth grade," she said.

Now teaching Turkish at Zhejiang International Studies University after earning a master's degree in Turkey, Li Yonghua has been trying to give back to the society ever since she first went to college, working as a volunteer to help send donated used books and other goods to primary schools in the country's west.

In Turkey, Li Yonghua also volunteered to help Syrian refugee children. "I hope we can help the children adapt to the new environment and bring some light to their difficult lives," she said.

Over 30 years' time, many of the beneficiary girls have now become teachers, doctors, civil servants and soldiers, each giving back to the society in their own means.

The past 30 years have also seen the project develop from providing financial assistance to offering psychological care and vocational training. It has also expanded its offer of help to include impoverished girls at senior high schools and universities.

In 2011, the project started to train teachers for "Spring Bud" schools. As of now, over 700 teachers have been trained.

In the past 30 years, the project has received donations of nearly 2.12 billion yuan (around 298.48 million U.S. dollars) from over 27 million donors, including businesses, organizations and individuals.

Since her son was born in 2013, Li Shanshan has made donations to the CCTF in his name every year.

Li said her son always takes good care of his toys and books so that they can be sent to rural children in the future.

"Though what I can do is far from enough, I will try my best to pass on the spirit of help to people around me," Li said.

Share