A work conference to promote the implementation of the Spring Bud Project — Dreams of the Future Action is held in Beijing by the All-China Women's Federation on October 11.

On the International Day of the Girl Child which fell on October 11, Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a special envoy of the Spring Bud Project for the advancement of girls' education, launched an initiative calling for concerted efforts in promoting the project's Dreams of the Future Action.

The Dreams of the Future Action was initiated by Peng in 2019. The action serves as an upgraded version of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF)'s flagship Spring Bud Project, which has helped put millions of girls from poor backgrounds into classrooms to combat gender bias.

Since its launch two years ago, the action has directly funded education for 202,000 girls and indirectly benefited 4.03 million, driving girls' all-around development and consolidating the results of poverty alleviation. It plans to help 500,000 girls receive education and serve 25 million girls in other ways in the next five years.

On the same day, the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) held a work conference to promote the implementation of the action in Beijing.

Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and President of the ACWF, attended the conference. Shen emphasized taking concrete actions in respond to the initiative, cultivating talent for the Party and the country, and helping more girls realize their dreams.

Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and President of the All-China Women's Federation, delivers a speech at the conference.

Huang Xiaowei, Secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, presided over the meeting and read the initiative.

Huang Xiaowei, Secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation, presides over the meeting.

The meeting stressed fostering virtue through education, making good use of revolutionary resources, planting seeds of following the Party's leadership in children's hearts, and encouraging children to be socialist builders and successors with moral grounding, intellectual and physical ability, aesthetic sensibility and work skills. Efforts should be made to stick to the principle of children first, promote the implementation of the amended Law on Protection of Minors and relevant policies such as the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Outline on the Development of Chinese Children (2021-2030), build child-friendly cities and communities, and guarantee children's healthy growth.

According to the meeting, the ACWF and women's federations at all levels are expected to motivate people from all walks of life to help girls in need realize their dreams. More efforts should be made to boost girls' all-around development, including more targeted support for their life, studies and psychological health, establish a project system focusing on girls' education, family education guidance services, children's safety and health and quality-oriented improvement, and meet the needs of former severely impoverished areas, 160 key rural-revitalization counties and ethnic areas.

The ACWF will support a three-year action of caring for women and children in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The CCTF will implement a project in the prefecture to promote the education of local girls.

The meeting also called for further enhancing the influence of the Spring Bud Project, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of social participation and promoting children's all-around development and healthy growth.

Participants share their ideas at the conference.

Participants share their ideas at the conference.

Participants share their ideas at the conference.

A dance performance at the conference

Several attendees pose for a group photo at the conference.

Photos Supplied by Zhang Jiamin, Yang Rui and Zhang Yuwei

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)