Spring Bud Project: Realize Girls’ Dreams

Under the leadership of the All-China Women’s Federation, the China Children and Teenagers’ Foundation launched the Spring Bud Project in 1989 to improve education for girls from impoverished families. The Spring Bud Project has organized various activities focusing on girls’ education, safety and health. Over decade, it has helped more than 1.76 million of girls to achieve their aspiration for education, realize their dreams and excel in life by providing companionship services and psychological counseling to 133.4 thousands of girls. All the girls who have been assisted have illustrated the “Spirit of Spring Bud” with practical action by devoting themselves to the society.

Dai Yingmei

In GuangXi, the Spring bud Project has assisted a large number of teenage girls from impoverished families who eager to receive education. Recent years have witnessed an array of advanced groups and individuals who won the title “Top Ten Spring bud Gardeners” and those who helped implementing the Spring bud Project.

Dai Yingmei was one of them. She was born in a poverty county Damiao Hill. At the time when she was still a kid, the place where she lived plagued by an old-fashioned thought “the girls should not be educated”. Thanks to the help of All-China Women’s Federation, she was able to enter the first “HongYao Class for Girls”. From then on, the destiny of Yingmei has been transformed.

With the assistance and help of all walks of life, Dai Yingmei graduated from the teachers training school of the county with excellent grade. After graduation, she decided to go back to her hometown to be a countryside teacher to impart knowledge to the kids living in poverty. Not just Dai Yingmei, there were several girls who graduated from the first “HongYao Class for Girls” have devoted themselves to society. After 34 years of endeavor, the enrollment rate of Miao Autonomous County of Rongshui reached 100 percent. More than 500 teenage girls who have received education and more than thirty of them have entered college campus.

Wang Fumei

Wang Fumei was born in Butuo, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. In early years, an old-fashioned thought “it is a must for girls to get married, yet it is not necessary at all for girls to get educated” was prevailing in her hometown. Many young girls just like Wang Fumei were arranged marriage by their parents. The only chance for Wang Fumei to change her destiny was to receive education. Yet her parents didn’t agree with her until the Spring bud Project announced to financially aid the girls from impoverished families to receive education.

With the assistance of the Spring bud Project, Wang Fumei got the degree of specialized secondary school. She passed the examination to become a civil servant in her hometown to contribute her efforts to poverty alleviation. It has been the first priority for Wang Fumei to ensure the education opportunity among teenage girls. She never tires of telling the story of herself to the villagers so as to form an acknowledgement that every girl is entitled to receive education. Wang Fumei has been working to strive for greater freedom for girls so that they can take control of their lives and realize their dreams.

Copyright:  China Women’s News