The Spring Bud Project, which was submitted by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF), was honored as one of the best poverty reduction practices during the 5th Call of Global Solicitation on Best Poverty Reduction Practices Campaign at the recently concluded 2024 International Seminar on Global Poverty Reduction Partnerships, a parallel forum of the 2024 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum, in Beijing.

Under the leadership of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), the CCTF launched the Spring Bud Project in 1989 to help girls from impoverished families nationwide receive better education.

In 2019, the CCTF upgraded the Spring Bud Project into the Spring Bud Project — Dream of Future Action and further enhance the public welfare project's brand effect and social influence.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) bestowed the Spring Bud Project the 2023 UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education at a ceremony in Beijing in September 2023.

As of the end of 2023, the Spring Bud Project had raised 3.2 billion yuan (US $450.7 million) to provide 4.22 million girls of 56 ethnic groups from 31 provincial-level regions with financial assistance in their academic studies. Additionally, the project had held technical training for 527,000 girls and delivered one-to-one companionship as well as psychological counseling services to 190,000 girls.

During the past 35 years, the Spring Bud Project has undergone consistent transformation and upgrading, engaged in innovative development, responded to the diverse demands of girls in terms of adolescent education, mental health, rights and interests protection in a timely manner, provided disadvantaged girls with financial aids in both academic studies and living, and rolled out education assistance services in various forms concerning girls' education, safety and health.

Meanwhile, the project has organized training activities for girls on practical skills and digital technologies, held thematic classes and growth camps, create girl friendly spaces for their growth, and offered adolescent education and psychological counseling services in a move to comprehensively improve their qualifications and competence, help them grow up healthily and seek all-round development. The project has made tremendous contributions to the development of Chinese girls' and women's education over the past three decades.

In the future, the Spring Bud Project will closely revolve on the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, further innovate its content and development approaches, deliver equitable, inclusive and quality education to more girls, and contribute Chinese solutions and experience to the high-quality development of global girls' and women's cause.

Since its start in November 2023, the 5th Call of Global Solicitation on Best Poverty Reduction Practices Campaign has received 1,012 cases from 37 countries and regions. Finally, 105 best cases were selected. The global solicitation aims to underscore poverty alleviation and rural development from the global perspective and show to the world relevant successful models as well as innovative practices through case selection and release.

(Source: CCTF/Women of China)

Editor: Wang Shasha