A public welfare project was held on January 7, 2022 to support girls in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province to complete their middle school studies. The project was launched by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF), Sichuan Women's Federation and the Women's Federation of Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture.

The project is an important part of the Dreams of the Future Action, an upgraded version of the CCTF's flagship Spring Bud Project, which has enabled millions of girls to go to classrooms.

Attendees pose for a group photo at the launch ceremony of a public welfare project aimed to assist girls in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province. [CCTF]

With the help of women's federations and charity-minded enterprises, the CCTF has raised funds totaling more than 7.2 million yuan (US$1.1 million) and collected over 40 million yuan worth of feminine care products and adolescent education publications.

The fund will be mainly utilized to provide subsidies for 1,838 middle and high school girls in need, to help them complete their studies. Meanwhile, the CCTF will invite experts to give lectures on physiological health in adolescence to girls on campus, helping them better cope with pressure in school, so they can grow up happily and healthily.

Zhu Xisheng, vice-president and secretary-general of the CCTF, delivered a speech at the project's opening ceremony. Zhu said the implementation of the project will promote educational development for girls of all ethnic groups in Liangshan, and aid Liangshan in its efforts to promote rural revitalization on the basis of further consolidating its poverty alleviation progress.

Zhu urged Sichuan Women's Federation and the Women's Federation of Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture to ensure that all cash and goods would be delivered to the needy. 

The CCTF donates money and goods to children in need. [CCTF]

He said he hopes all schoolgirls would strengthen their ideals and beliefs, and carry forward the spirit of the "Spring Bud" girls to realize their dreams. Zhu stressed the girls should work hard to improve their abilities, integrate their personal endeavors with the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, and contribute their wisdom and strength to promote both the revitalization of their hometowns and the economic and social development of the Chinese nation.

Zhou Xiaoqin, vice-president of the Sichuan Women's Federation, said the project aims to provide adolescent health education to schoolgirls, helping them maintain their mental health and strengthen their self-protection awareness and ability, so they can grow up happily and healthily.

Zhou stressed that local women's federations should pool the efforts of various sectors to establish a work mechanism, through which schools, families and society work together to provide adolescent health education for schoolgirls.

Fan Jiyue, deputy secretary of the CPC Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture committee, said the Spring Bud Project had created more opportunities for girls to receive education, and as a result, many of the girls had a brighter future.

Fan also said the project had stopped poverty from being passed on to the next generation (in the prefecture). Promoting Liangshan Girls' Education and Development Project would add impetus to the education and healthy development of women and children in Liangshan, Fan added.

After the opening ceremony, Yang Xuemei, an associate professor of psychology at Sichuan Normal University, gave a lecture on adolescents' mental health to schoolgirls.

Yang Xuemei gives a lecture on adolescents' mental health to schoolgirls. [CCTF]

The CCTF also worked with Mead Johnson Nutritionals (China) Ltd., a baby formula manufacturer, to donate 21 million yuan worth of nutritional products to needy families, to help prevent the transmission of infectious diseases from mothers to their babies.