A group of outstanding women shared their stories about contributing to the battle against poverty through the Internet at a roundtable session for women in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on September 4. 

Launched by the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) and the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and jointly organized by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the roundtable session aimed at promoting the unique role of women in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and uniting and mobilizing more women netizens to continue the poverty alleviation efforts.

During the activity, several women role models, including experts, livestreaming hosts and entrepreneurs, shared their inspirational and heart-warming stories, and thought-provoking opinions on poverty alleviation.

"Alibaba's goal is to make women a major force in poverty alleviation work through strengthening guarantees, providing opportunities and promoting role models," said Tian Xiyan, general manager of Alibaba's life service program, while sharing Alibaba's plan for women's empowerment.

Chen Jie, a livestreaming host on Taobao, Alibaba's major e-commerce platform, promoted agricultural products through her livestreaming shows several times. "In a livestreaming event, nine kinds of agricultural products sold out, and the sales volume exceeded 6 million yuan (US $878,400) in just two hours. It made me very excited, and I felt that I was really helpful to the farmers," she said.

Liao Heping, a professor at Southwest University, reviewed her experiences in leading an evaluation team — nearly 60 percent of which was women — to carry out third-party evaluation of the poverty alleviation efforts in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, South China's Hainan Province, East China's Jiangxi Province and Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

During the session, representatives from all walks of life had an exchange with the theme of giving play to women's power and contributing to poverty alleviation.

Long Wei, Director of the Department for Women's Development of the Chongqing Women's Federation, introduced the work of the women's federation to help impoverished women get employed at their doorsteps by improving their skills, creating more job opportunities and promoting the development of the woman-dominated industries.

Qi Tao, President of the Chongqing Hand Knitting Association, outlined the association's practice of promoting local traditional crafts and establishing poverty-alleviation family workshops to help impoverished women get jobs.

Wen Qian, head of the Women's Home of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, said that livestreaming activities have been held at women's entrepreneurial bases and poverty-alleviation workshops to help promote the local products to other areas. 

Zhao Hailing, general manager of a trading company, said that her initiative was to help beekeepers in the mountainous areas of her hometown sell their honey. Started from a small workshop, Zhao has developed her business through the Internet and become head of a leading enterprise in the province, paving a way for farmers to get prosperous.

"Alibaba comes from women and goes to women. There are more than 10 million online stores on Taobao, more than 51 percent of which are run by women. In the future, we are willing to contribute to women's development in terms of policy and governance," said Li Qian, director of the policy and regulation research office of Alibaba. 

"How do we improve China's rural areas through livestreaming e-commerce? In addition to influencer marketing, we will train another 200,000 peasant hosts," said Qian Yunlai, director of the public affairs department of Alibaba, while sharing Taobao's village broadcast plan, which seeks to help 1,000 peasant hosts in 100 counties earn a monthly income of 10,000 yuan (US $1,464).

The roundtable session was livestreamed on Youku, a major online video platform in China and ACWF's online media platforms.

The ACWF will cooperate with Alibaba to carry out various online and offline activities, and continue to contribute to the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and winning the battle against poverty.

(Women of China)