The Spring Bud Project was launched in 1989 by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF), under the leadership of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), to improve the education of girls from impoverished families. During the past decades, with the attention and concern of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Government, and with the participation of and generous donations from all segments of society, the project has conducted various activities, focused on girls' education, safety and health, to care for and support girls. The project has helped many Spring Bud girls complete their studies, realize their dreams and achieve healthy growth and development. Over the next five years, CCTF will focus on the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, and it will make the implementation of gender equality in education and the promotion of girls' all-round development important tasks. In addition, CCTF will adhere to its goals and missions of serving girls, promoting and implementing the Spring Bud Project — Dream of Future Action, adjusting its efforts to promote economic and social development and meet the diverse demands of girls in their all-round development, expanding the coverage and methods of its assistance, and endeavoring to help more disadvantaged girls receive good education, realize their dreams and have a bright future.

To comprehensively promote the Spring Bud Project — Dream of Future Action, and to strive to provide more girls with ideological guidance, help the girls receive good education, protect their safety, ensure their physical and mental health, and guarantee their all-round growth, CCTF formulated the Program for the Development of Spring Bud Project (2021-2025), in accordance with the Charity Law of the People's Republic of China, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Minors, the China National Program for Child Development (2021-2030), and the Constitution of the CCTF, and on the basis of the Program for the Development of China Children and Teenagers' Fund (2021-2025).

1. Purposes

With the joint efforts of women's federations, at all levels, the Spring Bud Project intends to provide 500,000 girls with assistance as they complete their studies, in accordance with current assistance standards (from 2021-2025). In addition, the project will roll out diverse social-practice activities, such as offline home visits, online communications, charitable classes and summer camps, and it will introduce a one-on-one companion service, to benefit about 25 million girls. (The girls mentioned in this program generally refer to primary school, middle school, college and university students.)

2. Strategies and Measures

— Redouble efforts to advance the education of girls. The Spring Bud Project will implement a campaign to help girls complete their studies, provide targeted assistance to girls in less-developed areas, the three regions (Tibet Autonomous Region, the Tibetan regions of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces, and the southern Xinjiang region, including the Hotan, Aksu, Kashgar and Kizilsu Kirgiz prefectures) and three prefectures (Liangshan in Sichuan, Nujiang in Yunnan and Linxia in Gansu), and 160 key counties for national rural revitalization. The project will expand its coverage from girls in nine-year compulsory education to include girls in high school and university. Girls who fail to enter a high school or university will be provided with a wide range of option for free, competitive vocational education. The project will continue administering the Spring Bud Girls' Sci-Tech and Music Literacy Improvement Project, strengthening girls' digital education, and making full use of digital technology to enhance girls' accessibility to high-quality, online educational resources. The project will also unveil a charitable scheme to expand the accessibility of education and support the all-round growth of girls in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan Province.

— Strengthen the protection of girls' safety and health. The Spring Bud Project will launch an action on girls' safety and health, continue administering the Adolescent Girls Care Project, conduct relevant training for parents and teachers, and donate and distribute hygienic health publications and products to help girls grow up in a healthy, confident and happy way. The project will also focus on the protection of girls, cooperate with professional institutions in conducting publicity and education activities on safety education for girls, parents and teachers, and raise the awareness of society on the need to care for girls. The project will attach great importance to the mental health of girls, conduct various activities, like offline home visits, online communications and exchanging letters, to learn more about the girls' lives and psychological health, and to ensure the smooth operation of its service account, Little Spring Bud. The project will push for the building of a sound social environment –– in which the girls are respected, cared for and protected –– through charitable advertisements, open classes and case-supported law interpretation. The project will also explore the building of a Spring Bud Safety Officer working mechanism, promote collaboration among women's federations and the departments of education, civil affairs and justice, and advance resource integration for girls' comprehensive protection.

— Enrich girls' social-practice activities. The project intends to launch a series of activities aimed at safeguarding the dreams and growth of girls, and on guiding the girls as they experience urban life and traditional Chinese culture, to help them foster lofty ideals. The project will create an endeavor scholarship, provide nationwide outstanding girls with financial assistance and encourage more Spring Bud girls to become contributing members of society. The project will organize activities for girls, at different ages and from eastern and western regions of China, to communicate with each other and to achieve mutual development.

— Provide diverse companion services to girls. During implementation of the paired-assistance program for girls, the project will do its utmost to meet the girls' demands for academic achievement, mental health, character development, their ability to give back to society, and future development. The project will build online and offline interactive platforms between the girls and charity-minded individuals, and it will pool the strength of the public and make full use of the one-on-one companion service, to provide girls with ideological education, social practice and mental care in a precise and effective way. The project will also promote the extensive participation of experts, social organizations and college students in the building of a solid and professional team of companions for the girls.

— Help girls receive a good vocational education. The project will implement the Spring Bud Girls Vocational Education Project, to provide vocational education and technical training to adolescent girls from less-developed areas, and to give full play to digital platforms to boost their technical skills. The project will encourage and guide adolescent girls to enter vocational institutions, receive vocational education and technical training, and strengthen their capacity for future employment, entrepreneurship and the creation of a better life. The project will pool the strength of government departments, vocational institutions, enterprises, research agencies and social organizations, to build vocational-education bases for Spring Bud girls. It will also establish market-oriented courses for girls, and it will provide them with free learning, training and internship opportunities, to help them master technical knowledge and skills suitable for prospective workplaces.

3. Supportive Measures

— Strengthen fundraising efforts to finance education and beef up financial assistance to the girls. To expand the coverage of the Spring Bud Project and the girls' benefit rate, CCTF will intensify its efforts to seek financial support among people from all segments of society. First, it will explore methods for obtaining stable and sustainable aid from enterprises. Second, it will optimize fundraising programs and services, and it will leverage online platforms, like Tencent, to bolster the scale of its fundraising efforts. Third, it will deepen collaboration and support between western and eastern regions of China, uncover and integrate relevant resources, and put in place a working mechanism for the shared work between the western and eastern regions during brand building and the implementation of the charitable initiative.

— Harness diverse social forces and improve organizational and support mechanisms. On the one hand, the women's federations are expected to make full use of their roles during implementation of the project. Working groups will be built to closely monitor the development of disadvantaged girls. On the other hand, CCTF will strengthen collaboration with grassroots social organizations that serve children, to ensure distribution of financial assistance and expand accessibility to companion services for girls through campus and home visits.

— Deepen regulatory management and improve project supervision mechanisms. First, CCTF will step up its efforts in institutional and regulatory building, improve the working mechanisms for the Spring Bud Project, establish well-designed project-management mechanisms for risk prevention and control, and win wide public trust and support with fine organizational credibility. Second, CCTF will strengthen the regulation and supervision of public donations, in accordance with the Charity Law, and it will leverage key links, such as budget drafting, follow-up monitoring, summarization and feedback, in the oversight of fundraising activities. In addition, it will ensure appropriate use of special funding, prevent special funds from being withheld, misappropriated or diverted for any other purposes, and it will make the utmost efforts to guarantee the collection, management and utilization of each donation for correct purposes. Third, CCTF will redouble its efforts in project supervision and assessment, step up review of submitted reports, conduct regular inspections of the conditions of girl beneficiaries, and strengthen verification and supervision of the authenticity and precision of the beneficiaries' information.

— Intensify publicity and promotional efforts, and foster positive social environment. The CCTF will focus on the arrangements of its key subordinate schemes in the planning and organization of large-scale charitable promotional and communication activities, which feature wide participation, positive social results and influence, to make the Spring Bud Project better known among the public. It will also tell the stories of donors, foster a favorable social environment for girls' all-round growth, and motivate more people to participate in and support the charitable and public-welfare cause.