Subsidies supporting university studies
The Cancer Foundation of China has launched an educational aid project called Fireflies Initiative in Xuzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province, to help poor university students with family members with cancer to finish their education.
In August, the foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with Tongshan district in Xuzhou, offering 500 yuan to 800 yuan ($73 to $117) in monthly financial support to 24 local university students to help them through university.
Families in poverty-stricken areas in China can carry heavy financial burdens if one of the parents is diagnosed with cancer, as treatments involve high costs. To tackle the problem, the Cancer Foundation of China launched the Fireflies Initiative in July 2017.
“We encourage those students receiving aid to treasure what they have and to study hard. They should improve their competence through high-level education, and change their own fates as well as their families’,” said Zhao Ping, president of the foundation. Li Yan, vice-mayor of Xuzhou, said: “We are grateful that the project has come to Tongshan district, Xuzhou. We hope that there will be more such projects in targeted and sustainable poverty alleviation, to actively promote local poverty relief work and to benefit more poor residents.”
The project has also received wider support: Xuzhou Cancer Hospital, Xuzhou Youth Chamber of Commerce, Xuzhou Jingcheng Tewei Security Services Co Ltd, Xuzhou Jinda Machinery Co Ltd, and members of the public all donated money to the special fund.
Du Yili, a volunteer with the Cancer Foundation of China, also a former deputy director of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said: “I hope these poor students will spare no efforts in their studies and change their current circumstances through knowledge, lifting their families out of poverty.
“I hope the value of the project can be carried on, to get all walks of life involved in caring for poor families dealing with cancer,” she said.
The country’s goal of elimi-
I hope the value of the project can be carried on, to get all walks of life involved in caring for poor families dealing with cancer.”
Du Yili,
nating absolute poverty by the end of 2020 will be tough, said the Cancer Foundation of China.
To reach that goal, children from poor families should get the opportunity to receive higher education, which is also an important approach to realize social equality.
To date, the project has raised more than 1 million yuan and helped more than 100 university students from Anhui, Shandong, Jiangxi and Henan provinces.