A Chinese delegation, including Zhu Dongyun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF), and Su Jing, Director of Corporate Culture Department of the China State Construction (CSC) Co., Ltd, recently paid a visit to a Cambodian girls' education program, Room to Read Cambodia, during their inspection tour in Cambodia. The program won the 2022 UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education.

Representatives from the two sides held in-depth discussions over the promotion of girls' and women's education and gender equality, and expressed the expectation of mutual learning, sharing experience and promoting common development.

Vantha Chea, head of the Room to Read Cambodia, gave an introduction to the program's history and development process, and its efforts to further improve literacy and girls' education in Cambodia. The program has built reading rooms, compiled publications and textbooks, opened workshops, and organized training for individuals and groups in a drive to provide disadvantaged Cambodian girls with education assistance, help them shape their future, and promote gender equality concepts as well as practices.

Zhu briefed her Cambodian counterparts about the history and development of the CCTF's Spring Bud Project. Under the firm leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the proactive support of Professor Peng Liyuan, also UNESCO special envoy for the advancement of girls' and women's education, and people from all social sectors in China, the Spring Bud Project has made noticeable achievements in helping Chinese girls grow up healthily in an all-round way and improved girls' education level and their abilities to participate in economic and social development, offering the international community with a vivid view of China's experience in promoting girls' and women's education and poverty reduction.

Sorey Suon, a beneficiary of Room to Read Cambodia, shared with attendees about her inspirational stories. With the support of the program, she returned to school and made her way to university.

Suon said that the program has provided her with economic and mental support, helped her gain strength and stand firm in her faith to change fate. As a volunteer of the program, she is determined to pass on the love to more girls and help them embrace a better future.

"I'd like to share with you the guiding principles of the Spring Bud Project, which stress perseverance, self-improvement and the pursuit of beauty, hoping that you will strive to be the best self and convey the love to more people," said Zhu in her talks with Suon.

Zhu said that she is delight to find more girls in the world who has been empowered in the building of a better life. Zhu gave an example of Wang Fumei, a beneficiary of the Spring Bud Project who has grown into a grassroots official in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, leading villagers on the path of rural revitalization in the new era. Such stories embody the spirit of the Spring Bud Project.

The two sides said that the advancement of girls' and women's education is closely related to social progress and the common destiny of mankind and that the exchange event has ushered in a new chapter in the mutual learning between award-winning institutions of the UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education.

In the years ahead, the CCTF and the Room to Read Cambodia, which share common objectives and mission, will grasp this opportunity to further strengthen China-Cambodia exchanges and cooperation on girls' and women's education, forge new momentum for the equitable, inclusive and high-quality development of girls' and women's education worldwide, and elevate global gender equality cause to a new height.

Photo from CCTF

(Source: CCTF/Women of China)

Editor: Wang Shasha