CRI听力: China's Spring Bud Project Helps 1.8 Million Girls

Anchor: The "Spring Bud Project", a charity project aimed at helping China's female school dropouts return to school, has benefited some two million girls in the past two decades since its inception in the late 1980s.

Xyee has more.

Reporter: Luo Lei is a graduate student at the China University of Political Science and Law. Her mother has been paralyzed since she was a little girl. The entire family is dependent on the meager income of her father.

Just as she was about to drop out of school due to financial difficulties, the Spring Bud Project lent Luo Lei a helping hand.

The project helped her to finish her studies in primary school, middle school and college. In 2008, she enrolled for a master's degree without writing an examination because of her excellent performance at college.

"I have been helped by kind-hearted people from all social sectors. I think my life has been surrounded by love. So every day I'm very happy."

The "Spring Bud Project" was initiated by China Children and Teenagers' Fund. It was launched in the late 1980s, when a report from the fourth national census showed that 4.8 million kids aged seven through fourteen were deprived of education, 83 percent of which were girls.

In the past two decades, the project has raised funds of over 800 million yuan which helped build over 800 Spring Bud Schools. A total of 1.8 million girls were put back to school. In addition, 400,000 girls were trained with practical skills thanks to the project.

Song Liying is secretary general of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund.

"We will make good use of every opportunity to mobilize society to help these girls. We will try to help as many girls as we can."(www.hxen.net)

In recent years, in addition to continuing its financial aid for compulsory education, the Spring Bud Project has also extended financial aid to senior high school and university students.

The project has also created programs such as the "Spring Bud Special Fund for Left behind Children" and the "Spring Bud Boarding Schools."

Xyee, CRI news.