Editor's Note

With the care of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and under the leadership of the All-China Women's Federation, the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) launched the Spring Bud Project in 1989, to help impoverished girls return to school, and to promote girls' education in disadvantaged areas.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, in 2012, with the attention and concern of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, and with the strong support of Peng Liyuan, special envoy of the Spring Bud Project for promoting girls' education, the project has conducted various activities to care for and support girls, and it has focused on girls' education, safety and health. During the past decade, the project has supported 1.76 million girls, and it has provided one-on-one companionship services and personalized psychological counseling to 133,400 girls. After they receive support from the project, the Spring Bud girls never forget to give back to society. With love and various actions, the girls have demonstrated the Spring Bud spirit of "unremitting self-improvement, striving for excellence, developing stronger virtues and pursuing better lives."

Today, we introduce a new section, Spring Bud Blooms, to share stories about Spring Bud girls who have grown up and become contributing members of society, and to encourage society to care for the development of girls. Li Yonghua is one of them.

Li Yonghua reads a book in a library.

"Have you ever considered what your life would be like if you hadn't been a beneficiary of the Spring Bud Project?" That question was once posed to Li Yonghua over the phone by her elder sister. "I might have dropped out of school and married early." Li answered.

Li is now employed as a legal consultant with a State-owned enterprise in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. She was born into a rural family in Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, in 1992. At that time, the locals believed girls should drop out of school when they reached the third year of primary school.

However, Li was fortunate enough to lead a different life because of the Spring Bud Project. Li loved going to school, even though it took her about 40 minutes to walk to the school, which was located on the top of a mountain.

Like many of the girls around her, Li was on the edge of dropping out in her third year of primary school. At that time, only a few girls were left in her class. Li often cried, and her mother tried to comfort her.

"My hometown was impoverished in the 1990s. Many families couldn't even afford the 100-yuan school fees for their children. Compared with poverty, I think the hardest thing to eradicate is the deep-rooted preference for sons over daughters," Li says.

Li Yonghua at her office

Luck befell Li, and the other girls in her class, when they received support from the People's Armed Police Force Spring Bud Project. As a result, Li and her classmates entered the fourth grade.

Thanks to the Spring Bud Project, Li completed her primary school education. She and her family moved to Golmud, a city in Qinghai, where she enrolled in middle school.

Urban life helped Li realize that women could also have a career and achieve personal dreams, just like men.

Li studied hard, graduated middle school and enrolled in a key high school in Golmud. Three years later, she was admitted to Peking University, one of the most prestigious universities in China, with the second-highest score on the college-entrance examination in Qinghai.

While she was a university student in Beijing, Li paid special attention to children's education, and she did her utmost to help girls complete their studies. "Because I've been helped, I want to give back to society, and to help people in need," Li says.

"What impressed me most was my involvement as a volunteer in the Warm West Project. We helped pack and deliver donated books, and other materials, to children in a remote area in western China during a snowy day." Li recalls.

Upon graduating from Peking University, in 2015, Li went to Turkey for further education. During her stay there, she participated in various volunteer activities.

Li became a teacher of the Turkish language, at Zhejiang International Studies University, in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, after she returned to China.

She often shared her own stories and experiences to inspire her colleagues and students to lend a helping hand to school-age girls who were trying to complete their education and realize their dreams.

Photos Supplied by CCTF

(Women of China English Monthly)