Former face of Project Hope launches fund to help college students in Anhui
A woman who became the public face of China’s Project Hope charity when she was 8 years old has launched a charity fund to boost its efforts to help impoverished high school graduates attend college.
Su Mingjuan launched the new fund, named after herself, in eastern China’s Anhui province two weeks ago with 30,000 yuan ($4,530) in seed money from her savings. Another donor has since contributed 500 yuan.
Project Hope was launched by the China Youth Development Foundation and the Communist Youth League’s Central Committee in 1989 to help children from impoverished families finish primary school, upgrade rural schools and improve the quality of teaching. It has since expanded its scope, also helping high school students and new college students.
Su, born in 1983, became an overnight sensation when she was a young girl because of a photo showing her studying in a cold, shabby classroom in Anhui’s mountainous Jinzhai county.
In 1991, a photographer captured a full-face portrait of Su as she lifted her head, with her big eyes looking directly into the lens.
“Her photo touched the hearts of millions of people, who donated generously to Project Hope,” said Li Yongjun, director of the charity’s Anhui office.
Supported by the project, Su, who had previously dropped out of primary school, passed the national college entrance examination in 2002 and was enrolled at Anhui University, where she majored in finance.
She got a job at the Anhui branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2005 and donated her entire first month’s salary — 800 yuan — to Project Hope. Since 2006 she has donated 1,000 yuan a year to the project to help more students.
Her new fund, which is managed by Project Hope’s Anhui office, will give 3,000 yuan each to five high school graduates with financial difficulties who might struggle to take up offers of places at college.
“It is Project Hope that changed my life, and I think it’s my responsibility to repay society,” Su said.
Li said Su’s fame is expected to increase the public’s awareness of efforts to help impoverished students.
As part of Project Hope’s charity efforts, Li’s office helped 5,536 new college students from impoverished backgrounds last year with 19.72 million yuan in donations. “Each of them can get at least 3,000 yuan, while some of the most disadvantaged ones can get more,” Li said.
The program for new university students begins this month, when most will have received their admission letters from colleges.