Huang Xiaowei (left), Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation, and Ma Yongsheng, Chairman of Sinopec Group, unveil a plaque commemorating the opening of the "Spring Bud Gas Station" during a ceremony, in Beijing, on July 23, 2022. [CCTF]

The charitable program, "Spring Bud Gas Station," was launched by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) and the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) during a ceremony, in Beijing, on July 23, 2022.

Representatives of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund and the China Petrochemical Corporation sign a strategic-cooperation agreement, on the implementation of the charitable initiative, during a ceremony, in Beijing, on July 23, 2022. [CCTF]

The two sides signed a strategic-cooperation agreement, on the implementation of the charitable initiative, during the ceremony.

Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), Ma Yongsheng, Chairman of Sinopec Group, and Ling Yiqun, Vice-President of Sinopec Group, attended the ceremony. Chen Xiurong, President of CCTF, presided over the ceremony.

Posing for a group photo during the ceremony, in Beijing, on July 23, 2022 [CCTF]

During their speeches, Huang and Ma gave specific instructions on the implementation of the charitable project.

They called for intensified efforts to act on Chinese President Xi Jinping's important discourses on the work for children and teenagers' affairs, and on the development of charitable causes, to continue implementing the Spring Bud Project — Dream of the Future Action, to remain true to the original aspiration of cultivating talents for the Party and the country, and to incorporate the goal of nurturing virtue through education into the entire process of carrying out the charitable initiative.

They said the two sides should deepen bilateral cooperation, leverage their own strengths to ensure the smooth operation of the charitable program, and endeavor to become guides for children's growth, guardians of children's rights and interests, and builders of children's futures. They also said both sides should give full play to the functions of the charitable initiative in helping girls grow up and realize their personal dreams, and they should greet the convocation of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

As an innovative measure and a key component of the Spring Bud Project — Dream of the Future Action, the charitable initiative was designed to create girl friendly growth venues, which consist of psychological counseling stations, Spring Bud stages, reading corners, wish walls and roundtable, story-sharing gatherings. The program aims to provide girls with spiritual guidance, mental encouragement and psychological caring, and to guarantee their healthy and all-round development, on the basis of financially assisting disadvantaged girls in the completion of their academic studies.

The initiative will organize monthly theme activities, lectures and group-based interest activities to enrich the extracurricular lives of schoolgirls, empower rural teachers via a growth plan, and care for girls in puberty, via the distribution of packages, which will include inspirational publications, notebooks, hygienic products and other materials.

During the next four years, the initiative will be primarily conducted in schools, which have built partnerships of paired assistance with Sinopec Group in the implementation of national rural revitalization strategies, and the initiative will extend assistance to no less than 1,000 school girls, build 100 girl friendly growth venues, under the "Spring Bud Gas Station," and bring concrete benefits to about 200,000 girls and their parents.

Schoolgirls perform during the launch ceremony, in Beijing, on July 23, 2022. [CCTF]

During the launch ceremony, representatives from the two sides unveiled a plaque for girl friendly growth venues.

Also, a group of teachers and students from Sinopec Middle School, in Dongxiang, a county in Northwest China's Gansu Province, where the program's first girl friendly growth venue was established, introduced, via video link, the design and functions of the girl friendly growth venue.

The girl friendly growth venue [CCTF]

(Source: CCTF)