Air Force Donates to Spring Bud Project a Seventh Time, Prioritizing Funds for Xinjiang, Tibet and Other Ethnic Minority Areas

 

On September 1st, 2009, a donation ceremony for the PLA Air Force’s seventh donation to the Spring Bud Project was held at Beijing’s Great Hall. As this year is the People’s Republic of China’s 60th anniversary, this gift can be seen as representing the Air Force men and officers’ great love for the people of their country.

his year is the Spring Bud Project’s 20th anniversary, and the 15th year in which the project has been supported by the Air Force. For 15 years, the Air Force has carried out many “Love for Spring Bud” activities, and the cumulative contributions have totaled 22.85 million RMB. Every grant has been generously donated by the officers and men using money from their personal wages. These contributions have aided students in Tibet, Xinjiang, and ethnic minorities in other areas, opening up 111 “Blue Sky” Spring Bud classes and funding over 8,000 poverty-stricken girls so they can go to school. The support given to the 2006 session of the “Blue Sky” Spring Bud has resulted in 785 high school students achieving the high grades to continue to college. In addition, following the 5/12 Wenchuan earthquake, the Air Force earthquake relief has been in full swing, and will continue to support 1,000 Spring Bud girls through their completion of junior high school.

On August 1st of 2009, the officers of the Air Force held another “Love for Spring Bud” event. This raised 11 million RMB and will be used to construct 6 “Blue Sky Spring Bud” primary schools in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Gansu. It will also continue to support the 794 graduating high school students from 8 different provinces through college.

Chairwoman Gu, the former Vice Chairwoman of the NPC Standing Committee, the former Chairwoman of the All-China Women’s Federation, director of the China Next Generation Commission, and president of CCTF, attended the donation ceremony, and in her speech gave high praise to the 15 years of contributions made by the men and officers of the Air Force.

Yang Dongming, deputy commander of the Air Force, said in his speech that they would continue to support the Spring Bud Project and hopes that their efforts will be organized and well-implemented. He hopes to make their contributions more regular, institutionalized, and standardized so that more poor girls will be benefited, with concrete actions to improve education in poor regions in order to contribute to a harmonious society.

Others who attended the ceremony included: ACWF’s Vice Chairwoman and First Secretary Huang Jingyi, Vice President of CCTF Fan Jiying, Deputy Director of the Political Department of the Air Force Lin Hongsong, the General Political Department Deputy Director Tang Fen, and other leaders of CCTF, Air Force, Xinjiang and Tibet’s Women Federations, as well as subsidized student representatives.