Poster girl of education charity finds new mission

Su Mingjuan, the former poster girl for China's most influential education charity, has recently come back in the national spotlight as a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

In 1991, a photograph of the then 8-year-old Su, with a pair of large, crystal-clear eyes crying for knowledge, touched the heartstrings of numerous people.

Su was born to a poor farming family in Jinzhai, East China's Anhui province. The image of Su, then a first-grader, was captured by a photographer who went into the remote mountainous areas to see how the Project Hope had helped rural drop-outs.

Project Hope, which was launched by the China Youth Development Foundation in 1989, is dedicated to helping poor children get an education.

Over the past three decades, it has made a difference in the lives of 6 million students from impoverished families nationwide, among which is Su.

The picture of Su, entitled "I want to go to school", has been reprinted nationwide in newspapers, magazines and billboards, and has since become a symbol of the country's efforts to promote nine-year compulsory education among all school-age children.

After gaining national fame, Su received large sums of donations from across the country, and her family no longer needed to worry about her tuition fee.

Su's school, which was originally seated at a traditional ancestral temple with the classrooms only having paper-covered windows full of holes, was renovated into a new three-story building boasting spacious classrooms equipped with computers and other multimedia instruments.

The assistance from kind-hearted people has helped the girl walk out of her mountainous hometown and embrace a brighter life.