Charity project turns poor dropout into philanthropist

Zhang Shengli, deputy headmaster of a charity-funded primary school in Laiyuan, one of China's poorest counties, has been struggling for funds to improve learning conditions for his 427 students.

The school, which was established with funds from the Hope Project in 2001, has prevented hundreds of kids from dropping out, most of them from impoverished villages in the mountainous county, where neither tap water nor paved roads have reached households.

Wednesday marks the 24th anniversary of the Hope Project, which was launched in 1989 by the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China to help children in poverty-stricken areas gain greater access to education.

Twenty-four years ago, Zhang himself was one of the first 13 students the project supported to stay in school.

Zhang recalled that he wrote a letter to county officials in 1987 describing how difficult it was for his family to afford his school fees, leaving him no other choice but to quit school at the age of 12.

The letter somehow caught the attention of the central government, which prompted efforts to set up the project.

With the funds raised through the project, 15,000 schools have been established nationwide to keep impoverished children from dropping out.

With the project's subsidies, Zhang was able to finish middle school, and even pursued higher education at Shanghai Normal University.

He later gave up job opportunities in cities to go back to his hometown and help country kids in fulfilling their school dreams.

"I hope the school can have better equipped classrooms with computers," he said, adding that there are only about a dozen computers in the school of over 400 students.

Zhang said the school also lacks enough musical instruments as well as audio equipment for learning English, which is required in China's primary schools.

During a visit to the school in September, famous Chinese science-fiction writer Han Song asked students to use their imaginations to picture their ideal schools. The fourth graders could only give answers such as a school with tall buildings, students abiding by rules, and a school with no fights or brawls.

Zhang said city kids with enriched early education must have all kinds of ideas for improving their schools, but rural kids seem to have less inspiration.

"The lack of teaching resources here cannot meet the students' needs to keep up with peers elsewhere, which makes most of them less prepared to face competition later in middle and higher education in townships, county seats, or cities," said the 38-year-old headmaster.` He said it was a pity that the lack of equipment made it impossible for kids in the school to watch a special lecture given to students by female astronaut Wang Yaping aboard China's space module Tiangong-1 in June, which their peers in cities across the country could watch via live TV broadcast.

Laiyuan is only 160 km south of Beijing, but with a per capita annual income of 3,300 yuan (541 U.S. dollars ) in 2012, less than half of the country's average level, the county is still listed among the most impoverished regions in China.

Liu Aiying, one of 36 faculty in the school, said she used to be one of Zhang's students. She was inspired by Zhang's experience and returned to her hometown to teach in the school after graduating from a normal school in Chengde City, Hebei Province.

Zhang said his dream now is to raise another 3 million yuan to improve the school's teaching resources to give his students equal footing with city kids in primary education.