The Chinese People's Armed Police Force (PAP) and the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) on July 22-28 organized a social-practice activity for beneficiaries of PAP Spring Bud Project in Beijing. The activity was attended by 41 Spring Bud girls, from eight minority groups, from Gansu, Guizhou and Qinghai provinces and Guangxi Zhuang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions. During their stay in Beijing, they attended a flag-raising ceremony, at Tian'anmen Square, and they visited the Great Wall and participated in various other activities.

Village, Hada and Dream

Yu Ying, an ethnic Dong girl, is from a mountainous village in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, in Liuzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Yu's father works away from home, and her mother stays at home to take care of the other members of the family. 

Yu is in her first year of high school, in Sanjiang Middle School. She often helps her mother pick tea leaves during her summer vacations. However, during her most recent summer vacation, she was given the opportunity to leave her village and visit Beijing, to attend the social-practice activity organized by PAP and CCTF. 

"The news that I am going to Beijing has spread throughout the village, and everyone in the village is happy for me. My heart is filled with joy and gratitude," Wang said, prior to her trip. 

Each Spring Bud girl, who attended the activity in Beijing, had her own stories to share. 

Drolma is a Tibetan Spring Bud girl, from Guinan County, in Northwest China's Qinghai Province. During the trip to Beijing, she took her homemade cheese, some specialty products and a hada, an ethnic scarf that represents purity, honesty and good tidings in traditional Tibetan culture. Earlier this year, Drolma was admitted to Hainan Tibetan Prefecture High School. She had attained a high score on the high-school-entrance examinations. 

Xiao Yan is a Spring Bud girl from Jiuquan, in Northwest China's Gansu Province. After her father's death, in a traffic accident, Xiao's mother became the family's only breadwinner. Xiao received financial support from the PAP Spring Bud Project while she was attending high school. The project has continued to support her since she enrolled in Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics (ZUFE), in Hangzhou, in East China's Zhejiang Province. 

Xiao has studied hard at ZUFE, hoping to repay society by achieving an excellent academic performance. "There are many girls, like me, who have realized their dreams with the help of the PAP Spring Bud Project. The project is like a ray of sunshine that illuminates our way forward. It has enabled us to feel the care of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Government, and the concern of all segments of society, for us, and it has also further strengthened our confidence and determination to overcome difficulties and to study hard," Xiao says. 

Liang Yinli, President of Congjiang Women's Federation, in Congjiang County, in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, is a team leader of the Spring Bud girls' delegation. Implementation of the project has allowed many girls to continue with their studies, and to strive for a bright future, she says. 

Well-Arranged Study Tour

It was the first time that many of the Spring Bud girls visited Beijing and watched the flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen Square. During the ceremony, they had tears in their eyes, as they felt great pride for the country, and the girls expressed their best wishes for the motherland. 

Yiran, from Kailu County, in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said she and many of the other girls were too excited to fall asleep the night prior to their visit to Tian'anmen Square. Yiran broke into an impromptu dance in the square, to show her love for the motherland. 

As part of the study tour, the girls also visited the training base of PAP, where they were impressed by the intense training of PAP soldiers, especially in the sweltering days of summer. 

Mao Ye, from Guide County, in Qinghai, always listened carefully to the introductions of the guides when the girls visited the various sites. She wanted to share with her father, teachers and students what she had seen and experienced in the capital after she returned home. 

Sang Ying, from Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, in Guangxi, said she saw many fossils in the Paleozoological Museum of China, which helped her acquire more knowledge about plants and animals. 

The girls also forged deep friendships with each other during the activity. "Before my arrival in Beijing, I was a little bit concerned about whether I could integrate with all of the other girls in the delegation, because I am an introverted person," said Wan Li, from Kailu County, in Inner Mongolia. She quickly realized the other girls, and the teachers, were very friendly, and they came together like a big family. 

Team leaders say many of the girls have gradually become outgoing, and they are now willing to express themselves in front of others, engage in interactions with others, and share their thoughts and feelings with each other. 

The activity allowed the Spring Bud girls to both expand their horizons and explore the world. For instance, Yiwei, an ethnic Miao girl, says the trip to Beijing was the first time she flew on a plane. The study tour, she adds, encouraged her to study hard so she can take her parents on trips to discover the world. 

On the last day of their stay in Beijing, the girls visited China National Museum of Women and Children, to learn more about the country's remarkable achievements in the development of women's and children's affairs during the past decade. 

Donation, With Love 

The Spring Bud Project was launched by CCTF, under the leadership of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), in 1989 to improve the education of girls from disadvantaged families. In 2019, the updated version of Spring Bud Project, the Spring Bud Project — Dream of Future Action was launched. It has since conducted the social-practice and paired-assistance programs for girls. Thus, the Spring Bud Project has embarked on a new journey. 

It has become a tradition that PAP soldiers raise money and make donations to the Spring Bud Project since the first Spring Bud girls' class (in Baiyun, a township in Rongshui) was built in 1989. 

During the 1990s, He Fangli, then a PAP soldier in Rongshui, began allocating a large portion of his monthly salary, which was about 21 yuan (US $3), to support students in the Spring Bud girls' class. Supporting girls' education gradually became a tradition of generations of soldiers and officers in PAP. 

During a ceremony in Beijing, PAP made its seventh donation to the Spring Bud Project on July 27

The PAP made its seventh donation to the Spring Bud Project in Beijing on July 27. During the ceremony, Ma Qin, from PAP, shared the touching story behind the donation of 561.8 yuan (US $80) by a soldier who joined the PAP several months ago. The soldier, from a mountainous village, said the Spring Bud girls reminded him of his school days, and he wanted to donate his savings to help them. 

Ma added that seven veterans contacted him to donate to the project, and they also mobilized their family members and friends to make donations. 

To date, PAP has raised 131 million yuan (US $18.71 million) for the Spring Bud Project, and that money has helped 27,000 girls complete their studies. It has also been used to build 13 Spring Bud hope schools, 12 multimedia classrooms and libraries, and 72 Happy Homes for Children, conduct safety and health education activities among 60,000 girls, and help 20,000 infants and young children who suffer from anemia improve their nutritional status. 

PAP soldiers have often received letters of thanks from the Spring Bud girls, and those letters have strengthened their faith and determination to press ahead with the project. 

The Spring Bud Project is looking forward to wide participation and joint efforts from all segments of society to make a difference in the lives of more girls.

Photos by Zhang Jiamin

(Women of China English Monthly September 2023 issue)