Hope1.jpg (Photo : www.chinaluxus.com)
The China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) proudly announced Tuesday that Project Hope was able to aid nearly 5 million poor students in rural areas across the country.
On Nov. 25, the CYDF revealed that more than 4.95 million students were able to go to school with the help of Project Hope during a convention held in commemoration of its 25th anniversary.
The project started in Oct. 1989 after Shuai Mengqi, a 93-year-old revolutionary, donated 2,000 yuan ($325) to give financial assistance to 13 students from Laiyuan County in Hebei.
Today, Project Hope pursued the journey toward its goal to bring education to the needy by giving as much assistance to students in rural areas through the establishment of 18,000 primary schools across China after it gathered donations worth 10 billion yuan ($1.63 billion).
"Education is the largest project in a country. The Hope Project is committed to mobilizing social resources and assisting the government in promoting education," CYDF Secretary-General Tu Meng stated.
The project appealed to Chinese people from all walks of life, including Wang Ping, a train attendant who established a photo business on the train where he made money by taking pictures of passengers.
After learning about how numerous students were forced to stop going to school because of poverty, Wang decided to donate all that he earned from his photo shop to Project Hope.
Another good samaritan named Xu Shaocun also opted to help impoverished students pursue their studies through Project Hope. In order to help, 85-year-old Xu modified his last will and testament to indicate that he will donate his home in Shanghai to the project.
After his death two months later, administrators of the project sold his house for 20 million yuan ($3.26 million), making him the biggest individual donor in Shanghai.
