Spring Bud Project, 35 years on

"What a wonderful surprise!" said Padma Yangzom, her hands trembling, taking over the camp flag from Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the opening ceremony of the "Listening to the Sounds of Flowers Blooming" Spring Bud Girls' Summer Camp on July 25, 2016.

"Many girls quit school and got married at young ages in our hometown," said Padma. "Had I not been a recipient of the Spring Bud Project, I'd have been married like they did."

Born into an impoverished family in Delingha City, northwest China's Qinghai Province, Padma was able to stay in middle school with the support of the project. And she's not alone.

Professor Peng Liyuan became the special envoy of the Spring Bud Project to promote girls' education in 2014.

With the help of the project, Chen Kenan, a rural primary school teacher in Anyang City of central China's Henan Province, has successfully grown from a disadvantaged girl into one who is committed to making love and warmth reachable by more underprivileged children like she was once.

"It is the Spring Bud Project that has helped me finish the three-year high school studies and created a totally different life for me," said Luo Dejuan, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Committee of Rongdu Town in southwest China's Guizhou Province. "My life would be totally different without the Spring Bud Project."

Launched by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund in 1989, the project aims to improve the education of girls from impoverished families. Having raised funds of 2.91 billion yuan ($403 million), the project has provided 4.09 million services to the girls from across the country by the end of 2022.

The project has not only had a profound impact on the lives of these girls and their families but has also brought about a remarkable enhancement in the overall education levels and social standing of rural women.

When visiting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) headquarters on May 6, Professor Peng said that promoting girls' and women's education is a great cause that is closely related to social progress and the shared future for humanity.

The project won the 2023 UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education on September 28, 2023. "The prize has set an example and provided valuable experience for the global development of girls' and women's education," Peng noted.

(Cover: a Spring Bud Project meeting held on the 12th "International Day of the Girl" in Beijing on October 11, 2023. /CFP)