Chen Na, a recipient of the Spring Bud assistance from Southwest China's Yunnan province, is making plans to return to her hometown and give her utmost efforts to further improve health and hygienic services when she finishes her studies in Beijing.

Meet the charitable project

Chen, 20, comes from a rural family in Yunnan's Qujing city. Chen's mother chose to stay at home to take care of her and her brother and engage in farming, rather than go to remote villages to work. Her father found a job nearby.

Chen said that it was her priority to go to school and study hard in the years before 2022. It was the happiest moment for her in a day to come home from school. She was happy with the love and care of her parents and brother.

The peaceful and beautiful life was interrupted   when Chen's father suffered a serious arm injury in an accident in 2022. The family lost its main source of income. 

Chen said her father needed to have a steel plate put into his arm and that it was a huge burden for the family to pay for surgical operation and rehabilitation.

Back then, Chen just came to Beijing and became a college student majoring in nursing at Peking University. She couldn’t return to Qujing and help her mother take care of her dad because of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Later Chen realized that there was something wrong with her family's finances when her parents didn't wire the monthly living expenses to her.

Nevertheless, Chen's parents haven't made any complaints to her and they have continuously granted their utmost support.

During the winter holiday in this January, Chen received a phone call from a former high school teacher who told her about the Spring Bud project after learning the economic condition of her family.

Under the support of the teacher, Chen submitted her application to the charitable program.

Financial aid add new wings to Chen

This March, Chen got a grant of 6,000 yuan (US$ 821.75) from the Spring Bud project, which was roughly equivalent to the annual per capita  income of her family. It  fundamentally eased the family's financial woes.

Speaking at an interview, Chen said that she extremely grateful especially to her teacher and the Spring Bud project for their tremendous support and encouragement. She added that the grant gave her spiritual strength toward benevolence and growth.

Chen also sent to the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) a special letter of thanks, in which she talked about her recent learning and living condition and expressed personal willingness to get involved in charities.

In their reply letter, staff workers of the CCTF encouraged Chen to remain optimistic and live her life to the fullest. 

Chen said that she was lucky to be a member of the "family" of the Spring Bud project that helps her grasp additional love and warmth.

Committed to build her hometown in Yunnan

Chen has still managed to find time to attend the class of other academic disciplines such as public health and work together with her classmates in the popularization of health knowledge.

Chen disclosed that she will go to Yunnan to build her hometown and further enhance local healthcare standards with her medical knowledge and skills upon graduation.

What's more, Chen said she will do her utmost to help disadvantaged girls finish their studies.