Apart from organizing donations, more young university students in China chose to support poorer regions by volunteering their efforts in education, health, agriculture, and social management sectors.
Initiated in 2003, the "Go West" plan of university students serving the West voluntarily has sent more than 270,000 young people to over 2,100 county-level regions in central and western China, which lend a helping hand to the country's poverty alleviation projects.
As part of China's national objective to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 to create a "moderately prosperous society in all respects," northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is determined to lift the remaining 165,000 people out of poverty and take 10 counties off the poverty list this year.
Since 2017, 47 university students have volunteered in the region's Akto County, which is still a national-level poverty-stricken county.
They carried out voluntary service activities and promoted local economic development.
Targeted volunteer service
Integrating local life, these university students have organized diverse volunteer activities for more than 400 times since 2019 to provide targeted assistance.
Practicing a down-to-earth volunteering style, these volunteers stayed close to the grassroots to understand their life difficulties and help with their needs.
Akto sits at an average altitude of 4,670 meters, and 96 percent of the county is made up of mountainous and cold areas. To shake off poverty, the county implemented a relocation policy to move impoverished people living in inhospitable areas to new resident compounds.
Most of the relocated households in the county now work in controlled-environment agriculture. Each of them was given a greenhouse.
A group of university volunteers help local poverty stricken farmers pick vegetables in Akto County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. /Poverty Alleviation and Development Office of Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture
During the busy farming season, volunteers went to those greenhouses contracted by poverty-stricken families to help pick vegetables as they were short of workers.
The new compounds with a complete set of utilities including water, power, gas, and heating supply, as well as drainage, also have kindergartens, primary schools, and health centers.
Volunteers have organized several gatherings with local poverty children. Almost like family, they swapped stories, celebrated birthdays, and prepared artistic performance together.
During the Spring Festival travel season, these university volunteers also went to local railway stations and passenger transportation centers to provide voluntary services such as order maintenance, station guidance, and baggage handling for passengers. The group served more than 1,000 passengers.
Meanwhile, influenced by these university students, more local youth participated in volunteer work to jointly help the county be removed from the national poverty county list.
A group of university volunteers help local poverty stricken farmers pick vegetables in Akto County. /Poverty Alleviation and Development Office of Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture
New ways to boost poverty reduction
When they arrive, they also bring new ideas to help local people shake off poverty.
Working with the local officials, volunteers launched a mobile app for both receiving donations and selling "poverty relief products" including jujube, raisins, and walnuts. This echoes the country's call for promoting poverty relief through stimulating consumption.
The country's state department in February issued a circular calling for identifying "poverty relief products" so that business and government agencies in better-off regions can help promote the sales of local characteristic agricultural products.
As Xinjiang has stepped up efforts for poverty alleviation through tourism, these volunteers also earnestly practicing this idea.
After traveling to local famous scenic spots, such as Karakul Lake, Baisha Lake, Muztagata Mountain, and Kashgar Old City in spare time, they wrote down travel stories and posted on social media platforms to attract more tourists.