Aid college freshmen whose families were affected by flooding

By Annie Wei

While students were happily enjoying their summer holidays this year, a not insubstantial group of high school graduates were worrying about their future.

Due to serious droughts and floods this year, families in many provinces have suffered big losses. Some of these families’ children, who tested into college earlier this year, find themselves unable to enroll due to financial difficulties.

Xuezi Yangguang, a sponsorship project established by Beijing Hope Projects in 1999, decided to help these college-bound students.

Over the past 10 years, Xuezi Yangguang has raised 30 million yuan and supported 9,121 poor college students from 20 provinces, cities and regions like Beijing, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Guizhou.

Li Tianji, a journalist from Beijing Youth Daily, went to Du’an County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, last week to visit 10 students in need.

“Their living condition at home is really bad,” Li said.

Wei Shaoyuan, 19, was one of the students Li interviewed. He lived in one of the worst wood homes in the county.

Wei’s family owns a 663-square-meter corn field that normally produces 500 kilograms of corn every year. Due to serious droughts, it only produced 200 kilograms this year, which is not even enough for the family’s daily needs.

Wei’s house smells of mold and lacks furniture and home appliances. The most valuable thing the family owns is a 10-yuan clock, Li said.

Despite these difficulties, Wei’s parents tried their best to make sure their child finished high school. This summer, Wei enrolled at Beijing Jiaotong University. However, the tuition of 7,600 yuan proved too much.

The country suffered a month of drought in April, which was followed by heavy storms. The continuous damage led to an increase in the number of students in need, said Liang Renguo, director of the local education bureau, who added that many students could not even afford their train ticket to their respective colleges.

The sponsorship project is now seeking funds from the public. There are two kinds of donations accepted. A donor can choose a student and sponsor him or her for 4,000 yuan per year; or a person can donate directly to Xuezi Yangguang.

This project hopes to help more than 100 students nationwide. Beijing Today’s editorial staff has detailed information about each student. Anyone interested can email us at weiying@ynet.com.

Beijing Hope Project
Where: Room 225, Beijing Youth Palace, 68, Xizhimen Nan Xiaojie, Xicheng District
Open: Monday to Friday, 9 am – 5 pm
Tel: 6611 0001/0002/0299
Website: juanzhuzhongxin.cn