The face of Project Hope elected as provincial Youth League official

Su Mingjuan, the well-known face of Project Hope, has been elected as deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League in Anhui Province, reports Xinhua News Agency.

Su is from a village in Jinzhai County in the mountainous area of Anhui. In 1991, a photo of Su at her elementary school drew lots of attention after it was published in China Youth Daily, because of her keen eyes for learning.

Su Mingjuan [File photo: IC]

The photo helped raise public awareness of the difficult situation of schools in Su's hometown. It was subsequently chosen as the symbol for Project Hope, which aims to improve schooling in poverty-stricken rural areas of China.

Su received financial assistance from Project Hope along with donations from the public. In 2005, she was admitted to Anhui University and then worked in a bank after graduation. She has been donating 1,000 yuan (around 151 USD) to poverty-stricken students each year.

"We were very lucky to have received assistance from Project Hope, and are grateful to have the opportunity to give back to society. We should do our best to help those who are in need," said Su. 

She added that it will be a long time before poverty can be totally eliminated and hoped that more attention is given to the people living in poverty and more is done to improve public welfare.

Project Hope was launched in 1989 by the China Youth Development Foundation. Up to the year 2016, over 12.95 billion yuan were donated to the project. At the same time, over 5.5 million students received financial assistance and more than 19,000 schools were established.