China poverty alleviation, raising standard of living

[JSCh]

Opinion: How education can change the destiny of people in rural areas
Wang Yan
2018-10-15 11:39 GMT+8

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‍Editor's note: Wang Yan is a senior specialist at the National Institute of Educational Sciences. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

China sets October 17 as the annual Day for the Eradication of Poverty. For years, the country has been prioritizing education in its efforts to help poverty-stricken areas and has gained great achievements in this regard. But still, poverty remains a major problem facing rural regions.

Reasons for China's poverty issue

China is a developing country. It started with underdeveloped industries and agriculture as well as as a poorly educated population. Though the Chinese government's commitment to poverty reduction has impressed the world with its pace of development, it has hardly achieved prosperity for all. Poverty and inequality remain challenges for China.

Students wear their new free school uniforms in Wuhan, Hubei Province, March 15, 2018. /VCG Photo.

Given China's size and diversity in geography, ethnicity as well as economic levels, neither a centralized policy (once size fits all) nor decentralization (leaving the responsibility to local authorities and communities) works in China.

In particular, in the earlier period of China's opening-up and reform, characterized by entrepreneurial experimentation in certain areas (“crossing rivers by touching stones”), some regions and people got rich first, leaving others following traditional developmental approaches behind.

This was compounded by the process of urbanization, which entailed the rapid development of infrastructure and business as well as education and health care in cities. However, it widened the divide between the haves and have-nots.

Achievements in poverty eradication

In spite of all these challenges, China has had success in reaching poverty elimination goals. Since 1978, the country has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. It was also the first developing country to meet the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations, ahead of the 2015 deadline.

Education, as a driving force, and growth and poverty reduction, also achieved impressive progress. The average years of schooling for the population aged 16-59 increased from less than five years to 10.35 years in 2016. Enrollment rates in pre-primary education, primary education, secondary education, and tertiary education have all seen considerable growth.

A rural teacher and his students in Puyang City, Henan Province, June 14, 2013 /VCG Photo.

Strenuous efforts have also been made by the Chinese government to universalize nine-year compulsory education, and universal access to primary education and lower secondary education was achieved in 2008, free of charge with the support of earmarked funds allocated by governments.

Education and poverty reduction are interlinked. The educated population and skilled workforce created a solid foundation for growth, but without accumulated national wealth, it wouldn't be possible to achieve such educational progress.

In retrospect of the development over the past four decades, growth and poverty reduction, as part of the economic reform and opening-up, are motivated by a desire for change, a thirst for learning and “catching up” extending from the top leaders to villagers.

The people are empowered by assets crucial for growth, such as land for physical capital and education for human capital which is essential for development opportunities. The shared distribution of opportunities through the intervention of the government increased individual productivity and income and contributed to poverty reduction.

Difficulties in promoting education in poor areas

Nonetheless, there are still many difficulties in developing education related to poverty reduction, as the landscape of education in both cities and villages has changed drastically. Education management can be increasingly complex, with rapidly changing demographics and social and economic environments.

A volunteer teacher helps students in primary school put on their new cotton coats in Dayang Village, Yunnan Province, December 12, 2016. /VCG Photo.

Given the rural-urban gap in social and economic development, it is hard to attract and retain effective teachers in rural areas.

As expectations for education quality rise, rural schools also have higher education objectives to achieve, such as academic performance, creating curricula relevant to rural areas and fostering students' soft skills to ensure success in the larger social and economic environment.

Though rural-urban migrant children could secure their place in public schools in cities, they still might face the challenge of curriculum and learning transition.

Hence, teachers count. Without quality teachers, it is hard to enable children to engage in effective learning, equip them with skills for desired employment in the labor market and a bright future.

To address the challenges, the Chinese government has launched several initiatives. It started a program to reinforce the teaching force through national level professional development programs for rural teachers at the beginning of the century (Guopei Program).

A volunteer teacher hands a gift package to a primary school student in Laibin City, Guangxi Province, July 10, 2014. /VCG Photo.

Then the central government issued a more comprehensive scheme, the Rural Teachers Support Program (2015-2020), which created an array of incentives to attract teachers to work in rural areas by improving rural fringe benefits and increasing fiscal budgets related to rural teachers.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education, together with four other ministries, developed the blueprint for the Teacher Education Invigoration Action Plan 2018-2022 this year. It mapped 10 specific measures to improve the quality of teachers, particularly rural teachers, including developing codes of conduct and related education, creating curriculum standards for teacher education, increasing enrollment of teacher education programs, strengthening professional development through online courses, developing quality assurance etc.

Hopefully, this will address the challenges of poverty reduction, though it will be an incremental process. Changes will take place gradually and in the process, more experiences and lessons will emerge.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

 

[JSCh]

Innovative methods used in China's targeted poverty alleviation campaign
CGTN
2018-10-16 11:32 GMT+8

China has made outstanding achievements in its targeted poverty alleviation campaign in recent years with many innovative measures being taken in various regions and industries. Poverty alleviation has therefore transcended the traditional one-size-fits-all relief model.

Special industrial opportunities

Anxi County, Quanzhou City, in southeast China's Fujian Province has actively introduced a photovoltaic project and launched pilot programs for villages in poverty.

The county's rural houses are suitable for installing power plants on the roofs, as there are no property disputes and less obstruction to the panels. The good air quality is also a plus for generating power efficiently.

Workers install photovoltaic panels. /VCG Photo

As of this May, the county has completed 56 photovoltaic projects and brought a combined annual income of over 1.8 million yuan (260,900 US dollars), benefiting over 2,000 poverty-stricken families.

The project has therefore become an optimal choice for impoverished locals and is playing an active role in creating power load.

Green measures

With its unique geographic environment, Tibet Autonomous Region has concentrated poverty-stricken areas and faces difficulties like the high cost of poverty alleviation.

But with ecological protection measures and subsidies on afforestation being provided by the country's forestry authority, the region has seen fresh opportunities in poverty alleviation.

Siji Jixiang Village in Quxu County, Lhasa City and Tongmai Village in Mirui Township, Nyingchi City are on their way to ridding poverty by introducing green means like afforestation and ecological businesses.

A woman tends a plantation at Siji Jixiang Village in Quxu County, Lhasa City. /VCG Photo

There are a total of 700,000 foresters in Tibet, among which 12,155 foresters are in Lhasa and 1,395 are in Quxu County. The first group of foresters in Siji Jixiang Village have already shaken off poverty with a basic income and dividends.

Located on the bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, Tongmai Village is a key part of the region's afforestation project. The village's afforestation subsidies reached 1.14 million yuan (164,700 US dollars) in 2017, the largest source of collective income for the village.

Ecological forest in Nyingchi City, Tibet Autonomous Region. /VCG Photo

Last year, Tongmai Village planted 1,247.3 acres of trees, and the villagers there gained a year-end bonus of nearly 20,000 yuan per person by participating in the initiative.

The two villages also tapped fresh business opportunities based on their ecological advantages. A Tibetan medicine planting base, modern dairy farming plant, organic fertilizer processing plant, health industrial park were established to fully exert the natural advantages, effectively driving the employment of the local and surrounding areas.

E-commerce

Suqian E-commerce Industrial Park in eastern Jiangsu Province was established two years ago, which has become a gathering place for e-commerce entrepreneurs, most of whom are farmers in the region.

Some farmers, for instance, seized the opportunity and began to grow succulents – a new favorite for urbanites. More than 8,000 farmers in the region have opened their own online flower stores and earned a lot by growing succulents and selling them online.

A farmer grows succulents at a greenhouse in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. /VCG Photo

E-commerce has helped save labor, rental and other costs, which brings better gross margins and cheaper prices for customers. Some can receive over 3,000 orders per day, bringing in over 12 million yuan a year.

Meanwhile, over 280 well-known Internet companies such as Jingdong, Dangdang, Xiaomi and Tuniu have established a pilot base in the park.

In 2016, the total e-commerce transactions in the park reached 20.2 billion yuan, an increase of 94.98 percent compared to a year ago. The total fiscal income reached 550 million yuan, up 45.12 percent year-on-year. Also, 14,400 new jobs were created and the total employment amounted to 26,000 in the same year.

 

[TaiShang]

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d774e786b444f7a457a6333566d54/share_p.html

 

[JSCh]

Across China: Anti-poverty campaign takes to the skies
Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-17 21:15:43|Editor: Shi Yinglun


CHANGSHA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- When passengers boarded plane CZ6929, operated by China Southern Airlines, on Wednesday morning, pictures of oranges and rural views were everywhere.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard China Southern Airlines, today we will give you a glimpse of China's anti-poverty efforts in Xinning, a poverty-stricken county in central China's Hunan Province," said a steward via the plane's intercom service.

The pictures may have popped out of nowhere, but the anti-poverty theme did not just come out of thin air. Public attention is once again on poverty relief as Wednesday marks China's fifth national poverty alleviation day.

"We arrived early to decorate the cabin," said chief steward Yang Wei. "We put pictures of Xinning's beautiful landscape and its specialties inside the plane." Yang said they wanted to tell the public more about China's anti-poverty efforts via pictures, intercom services, videos and activities.

Xinning is a poverty-stricken county in Hunan's southwestern part, population 623,500. According to government figures, the county has more than 120,000 poor residents.

The plane flies between Changsha, capital of Hunan, and Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As it took off at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, videos started to play of the airliner's staff helping Xinning locals out of poverty. After the plane climbed to cruising altitude, flight attendants began to tell their personal stories of poverty relief in Xinning.

"I worked in Xinning's Datang Village as a volunteer, and I felt people's simplicity there," said steward Jiang Shangqing. "They have great agricultural produce, but sadly they do not know how to sell the products to the outside world."

"I know that they want to make money with the oranges they grow from hard work, and their children want to go out of the mountains to study, and their dreams are coming true."

Some passengers offered to buy the oranges, and the attendants showed the barcode of a local company that collected the oranges from Xinning farmers.

After the story, the stewards began a question and answer contest, during which they asked questions about the county's tourism. They gave out gifts to the winners, including tickets to a tourist area in Xinning, and oranges grown in Xinning.

Jiang said she was "very proud to have helped the poverty alleviation campaign in such a special way."

The passengers were also impressed.

"We may be 10,000 meters above ground, but we are very close to poverty relief!" said a passenger surnamed Gao.

Authorities with China Southern Airlines said they would continue to implement the anti-poverty campaign using their resources in the air.

Over the past five years, more than 68 million people have been lifted out of poverty, including a total of 8.3 million relocated from inhospitable areas, and the poverty ratio has dropped from 10.2 to 3.1 percent, according to this year's government work report. The country is aiming to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty this year and eradicate poverty by 2020.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

It is no exaggeration to say that China’s poverty reduction performance is equal to the sum of all other countries combined together.
China has made 1 billion people from abject poverty to a near-middle class(From 156 USD per capita in 1978 to 9000 USD in 2017).

 

[TaiShang]

It is no exaggeration to say that China’s poverty reduction performance is equal to the sum of all other countries combined together.

Actually, it is 78% of all poverty reduction in the world since the UN Millennium Goals in 2001.

 

[JSCh]

PV power station benefits impoverished households in China's Shanxi
Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-23 22:32:07|Editor: Xiang Bo


Aerial photo taken on Oct. 23, 2018 shows a 40-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) power station in Tianzhen County of Datong City, north China's Shanxi Province. The PV power station covers an area of 73.6 hectares and benefits 1,400 impoverished households of 102 villages in Tianzhen County, providing an extra per capita income of 432.54 USD every year. (Xinhua/Yang Chenguang)

 

[JSCh]

China's Suide county turns idle lands to photovoltaic power stations
Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-08 07:20:30|Editor: Yang Yi

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2018 shows a photovoltaic power station built under an inter-village poverty relief program in Huojiaping Village of Yihe Township, Suide County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Located on the Loess Plateau, Suide County has abundant sunshine and idle lands which are ideal for the construction of photovoltaic power stations. Currently, local authorities are working with a provincial branch of electricity service provider State Grid on a 33-megawatt photovoltaic power station. (Xinhua/Liu Xiao)

​

 

[TaiShang]

China allocates 90.98 bln yuan for poverty alleviation

Source: Xinhua Published: 2018/11/28


China's central government has dispensed in advance part of its 2019 poverty alleviation fund to local governments, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday.

The poverty alleviation fund already allocated to 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities totaled 90.98 billion yuan (about 13 billion US dollars), accounting for 86 percent recorded last year, according to the MOF.

Some 12 billion yuan of the fund will be used to support areas in deep poverty, including Tibet, Xinjiang, and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces.

The ministry also delegated its power to review and approve the use of poverty alleviation funds to county governments, stressing funds should not be used for any projects or tasks unrelated to poverty reduction.

In 2015, the Chinese government set a goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020.

As of October 2018, China has seen 153 counties officially removed from the country's list of impoverished areas, with the documented people in absolute poverty accounting for less than 3 percent of local population.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1129339.shtml

China allocates 90.98 bln yuan for poverty alleviation

Source: Xinhua Published: 2018/11/28


China's central government has dispensed in advance part of its 2019 poverty alleviation fund to local governments, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday.

The poverty alleviation fund already allocated to 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities totaled 90.98 billion yuan (about 13 billion US dollars), accounting for 86 percent recorded last year, according to the MOF.

Some 12 billion yuan of the fund will be used to support areas in deep poverty, including Tibet, Xinjiang, and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces.

The ministry also delegated its power to review and approve the use of poverty alleviation funds to county governments, stressing funds should not be used for any projects or tasks unrelated to poverty reduction.

In 2015, the Chinese government set a goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020.

As of October 2018, China has seen 153 counties officially removed from the country's list of impoverished areas, with the documented people in absolute poverty accounting for less than 3 percent of local population.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1129339.shtml

 

[DADY]

Here's what the media doesn't tell you. Since 1978, 800 million have gone homeless, unemployed, sick, or turned to crime, thanks to Xiaoping's reforms. What they also don't tell you is that in 1966, there were no poor people. Virtually No crime. No homeless. No unemployed. Everyone who wanted to see a doctor got to. That's no longer the case.

 

[JSCh]

Livestreamed classes help to bring new hope to Chinese students from rural areas
CGTN
2018-12-14 13:42 GMT+8
Updated 2018-12-14 14:32 GMT+8

Over a decade ago, chances were nearly zero for students from poverty-stricken areas in southwest China to attend the country's top two universities. Livestreaming is changing the whole picture.

According to China Youth Daily, in a 16-year effort of a Chinese online school, 88 out of 72,000 students who had learned through livestreaming were admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University, the best two universities in the country. And most of the 72,000 were accepted into universities.

Students from a county high school in southwest China's Yunnan Province learn via livestreams. Photo via China Youth Daily's Weibo

These students, some of whom came from schools that struggled to send a single student to college, watched livestreamed courses being taught at Chengdu No. 7 High School in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Ranked as one of the top schools in the country, it is renowned for its education, all-round development of students and high college acceptance rates. The courses included English newspaper reading, lessons taught by native English speakers and watching Ted Talks, all of which led to confusion at first.

The challenging classes made the students from a county high school in southwestern Yunnan Province realize the huge gap between them and their peers behind the screen nearly 1,000 kilometers away. While the latter were sharing their experiences of travelling around the world, some of the students in the class had barely left their county.

Students from a county high school in Yunnan Province study over the weekend. Photo via China Youth Daily's Weibo

Witnessing the possibilities realized by others, the students and teachers first felt frustrated and anxious. However, those feelings soon became sources of motivation to change. Students changed their study mode to learn more efficiently, and some would only sleep four or five hours a day to catch up with their peers, while teachers began instructing freshman to aim for where they wanted to be in the next three years.

"Let's go high from the low," said a poster in the school's main teaching building.

According to a staff member at the online school, the livestreamed courses also helped students adapt to their university education. Though their early education was limited, their potential was still untapped.

Many netizens were touched by the fact that technology had bridged the education gap for kids from underprivileged areas. Former students who took the class years ago shared their experiences on Weibo. "Many thanks for the online school. It gave me hope," one former student said.

This February, Xinhua News Agency reported that China's Ministry of Education had cooperated with China Unicom, one of the country's major mobile network operators, to boost Internet speeds in rural schools so that information technology could continue to facilitate the development of education in these areas.

+++#####+++​

The destiny of 70,000 people changed Neteases Ding Lei because of the live broadcast of online lessons: donated 100 million yuan to support it
2018-12-13 12:01:04 category:Internet click:350

Ding Lei said, This is great! But I think only 200 schools are far from enough. There should be 2,000 and 20,000 schools. Netease decided to donate 100 million yuan to support more schools landing in this mode, so that knowledge flows without class, so that China is full of school districts.

Ding Lei was so touched by the report "This screen may change fate" just published by China Youth Daily. According to the report, 248 middle schools in poverty-stricken areas have changed the fate of their students through live broadcasting and synchronizing classes with the famous No. 7 Middle School in Chengdu. These schools with relatively backward teaching resources follow the live broadcast of parallel classes in Chengdu No. 7 Middle School all day through a network, which has greatly increased the schools enrollment rate. Some schools have won the provincial top prize, and some undergraduate enrollment rates have increased several times or more. Over the past 16 years, 72,000 students have followed Chengdu No. 7 Middle School through three years of high school. Eighty-eight of them were admitted to Qingbei, and most of them succeeded in their undergraduate studies.

Wang Kaifu, Director of Education Bureau of Luquan County, a state-level poverty-stricken county in Chengdu mountainous area, lamented, In a poverty-stricken county like ours, investing in education is the best way to prevent intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Ding Leis circle of friends has aroused praise from all walks of life. Many people left messages saying this is a very positive energy and the overall pattern of Ding is still big. Many people also lament that Netease is serious about education and Ding Zongyi has been educating for more than ten years.

Ding Lei has always attached great importance to educational equity. In March 2018, Ding Lei, as a member of the CPPCC National Committee, put forward that at present, high-quality educational resources are concentrated in large cities and very few schools. He believes that the expansion of educational technology means will promote the equitable development of educational resources: Teacherscourseware and curriculum model can be promoted without region. Children on the third, fourth and fifth lines do not need to go to the city to build school districts, but also have the same opportunities to receive education.

Netease has been practicing the public welfare model of poverty alleviation through industry business, devoting itself to breaking through the limitations of traditional education through scientific and technological innovation, and realizing the sharing of high-quality educational resources nationwide or even globally. As one of the earliest Internet companies to lay out online education, Netease has launched Netease Open Courses as early as 2010, and it has been eight years since then. In addition, in 2014, Netease and Higher Education Society jointly built a MOOC platform for Chinese universities, and launched university courses in cooperation with more than 271 universities nationwide to open high-quality higher education resources to the public welfare of users. In May 2017, MOOC of China University formally joined hands with the Beautiful China Supporting Education Project to launch the Seeing a Greater World Together Public Welfare Plan, aiming at improving the current situation of the lack of quality education curriculum resources in middle and western primary and secondary schools through the relay of Excellent Supporting Teachers + High-quality Network Courses and promoting the inclusiveness of education resources.

 

[JSCh]

UN adopts resolution on rural poverty eradication raised by China, G77
Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-21 09:41:23|Editor: Yamei


UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly adopted its first ever resolution addressing poverty eradication in rural areas on Thursday, underlining the importance of concerted efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda goals.

Put forward by China and the Group of 77 (G77), the largest bloc of UN developing member states, the resolution noted that nearly 80 percent of the extreme poor live in rural areas and on agriculture and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) makes it a priority to end poverty.

The resolution underlined the importance of promoting socioeconomic development in rural areas as an effective strategy for the eradication of poverty, including measures to improve infrastructure, inclusive financial facilities, employment, education, social welfare system and minimize digital gap, among others.

After adoption, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN Ma Zhaoxu told reporters that China and the G77 aim to propel the international community to work together to eliminate rural poverty and implement the 2030 Agenda.

Recalling China's progress in rural poverty eradication - over 700 million Chinese rural people have been lifted out of poverty in the past four decades, Ma said the resolution contains some Chinese concepts in this regard, including "targeted poverty alleviation", "win-win cooperation" and "the building of a community with a shared future for humanity."

As the largest developing country, China will support the poverty eradication efforts in the developing world with concrete actions, accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, share Chinese experiences with the world and build a new type of international relations based on win-win cooperation, Ma said.

 

[JSCh]

Two million disadvantaged families to benefit from home renovation
By Hu Yongqi | China Daily | Updated: 2018-12-25 09:46

National campaign will see major work carried out on dwellings for key groups​

China will proceed with its national campaign of renovating dilapidated houses for the remaining 2 million families categorized as poor and other key groups by 2020, including families with members who are disabled.

The goal was disclosed in a three-year action plan released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance last week.

The campaign covers four key groups: poverty-stricken families, families categorized as on a minimal living standard, families earning incomes lower than the local minimum, and families with members who are disabled.

The action plan aims to ensure that the country's last section of disadvantaged families, including the 2 million registered as poverty-stricken, can move into refurbished houses before China accomplishes its mission of lifting its population out of poverty and building a moderately prosperous society.

The document asks for a stricter process to identify families that can qualify, requiring the housing and urban-rural development authorities to work with departments in charge of poverty relief, civil affairs and managing people with disabilities, to recognize the right groups.

Precise records should be made for every single family that receives subsidies in the renovation plan, and dilapidated houses must be renovated to a standard in line with local conditions. All houses have to be reviewed before completion, the document said.

The renovation campaign, which started in 2008, has helped more than 20 million poverty-stricken families to build new homes up to 2016. According to the 2017 Statistical Communique on National Economic and Social Development by the National Bureau of Statistics, China completed renovation of dilapidated houses for 1.52 million families, who used to live below the poverty line, last year.

Subsidies fluctuate for different regions, mostly ranging from 2,000 yuan ($290) to 20,000 yuan, depending on the economic situation of the families and the original condition of their homes. Families in Western and Central China are endowed with higher subsidies than those living in eastern areas. For example, the Tibet autonomous region has subsidies from 15,000 yuan up to 25,000 yuan, because of the higher cost of building new homes.

The renovation plan was welcomed by disadvantaged families, such as Zheng Fang, a 26-year-old primary school teacher in Yuexi county, Anhui province.

Zheng said her family was one of the beneficiaries and was given a 20,000-yuan subsidy to refurbish their house five years ago when she was still a college student. As traditional farmers, her parents spent all their earnings on her study at university, and had insufficient funds to refurbish their house that was built with mud bricks in the year she was born.

"I hoped my parents could move into a better home and encouraged them to build a new one," the teacher said. "The 20,000 yuan came to our aid at the right time, though many will think it's not that much. But it helped my dream come true."

Cai Jiawen, head of Zheng's village in the Dabie Mountains, said many people in rural areas have built new houses, but some cannot. Therefore, the renovation campaign can help narrow the gap between villagers and promote social fairness, he said.

Li Chang'an, a researcher at the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said housing renovation is a key part of China's poverty relief campaign.

The two ministries emphasized reviewing of applicant families in the action plan as they used to do, showing the importance attached to precisely targeted families and further reducing costs, Li said. Needy families should be included into the housing renovation campaign, Li said. If not, those who really need the aid will miss out on the favorable policies, leading to inequality, he said.

Meanwhile, the action plan set strict requirements concerning quality of location, structure, anti-earthquake reinforcements and construction materials. The researcher Li said the quality requirement for housing renovation not only meets the demands of beneficiary families but also is necessary to maintaining poverty relief as a sustainable process.

 

[TaiShang]

‘Ice Boy’s life changed after viral photo sparked donations in 2018

CGTN

2019-01-06

Then 8-year-old Wang Fuman arrives at the classroom with his hair and eyebrows fully covered with frost. /Weibo Photo

Better known as “Ice Boy”, nine-year-old Wang who studies at Zhuanshanbao Primary School in Ludian County of Zhaotong City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, used to trek a 4.5-kilometer-long mountain path for over an hour to get home every school day.

Braving frigid temperatures and wearing nothing but a thin coat, the kid's firm insistence on attending school warmed the hearts of millions and his story triggered a flood of donations.

In the year that has gone by, how has life changed for "Ice Boy"? Journalists from People's Daily paid a follow-up visit to his home not long ago.

A recent photo of "Ice Boy" at school. /Photo via yn.people.cn

According to the report, his life has been much improved as the family has moved from their cracked mud hut in Zhaotong into a new two-story building in the village of Zhuanbaoshan, meaning Wang has to walk just 10 minutes to get to school.

Wang's father, who worked hundreds of miles away, and came back home a couple of times a year, now works at a construction site in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan, and makes about 6,000 yuan (874 U.S. dollars) a month, which is a quite handsome salary.

"Ice Boy's" new house. /Photo via yn.people.cn

“Life is much easier,” said Wang Gangkui. Part of being able to take better care of the 9-year-old, Wang's siblings and their grandparents, the father bought a pig – weighing more than 100 kg – for the upcoming lunar New Year.

Wang (R) at school. /Photo via yn.people.cn

Wang's primary school, which had no heating facilities in classrooms, is now fully equipped with high-powered heating installations.

Wang's plight is just a small part of the rural poverty in China's mountainous areas and the enormous attention his story got last year helped the school get donations of cash and materials like sports goods, clothes and heaters.

Wang (C) stays with his classmates at the school's dormitory. /Photo via yn.people.cn

With the money received from charities and individuals alike, the school now boasts an art room, a computer unit and a laboratory. The cafeteria was also upgraded and a new dormitory was built so that children who still live far away don't have to make the lengthy trek in frigid weather.

Zhuanshanbao Primary School located in the mountainous area is cold in the bitter winter. /Photo via yn.people.cn

“Ice Boy”, a team leader now, is still calm and diligent despite all the publicity he received after his rise to fame – including receiving gifts, getting interviewed and being invited to visit his dream school in Beijing after the People's Public Security University of China learned that Wang's dream is to become a policeman.

Wang's resolution has not changed. He's always saying he dreams of “catching the bad guys” and shares stories of his trip to Beijing with his classmates occasionally.

The school has been renovated with donated money. /Photo via yn.people.cn

“He is a top student and gets along well with his classmates,” said Fu Heng, the deputy principal of the school.

“All the attention the pupils have received made them feel the wonders of the world and made a difference in their lives. They are hopeful for the faithful future, which is leaving the mountains to see the outside world,” Fu said.


https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9L1fGEbbj7Iv2cD8v6R9Tw

 

[JSCh]

Capital city Lhasa leads poverty reduction in Tibet
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 16:52:08|Editor: Yamei


LHASA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's plateau city Lhasa announced on Monday that the last remaining 44,000 people were taken off the poverty list last year, signaling a victory in the campaign against destitution.

A total of 44,439 people lived below the poverty line, defined as per capita annual income of 2,300 yuan (around 335 U.S. dollars) at 2010 prices, in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.

Through creating jobs, relocation from less-inhabitable places, education funding and social welfare programs, residents perplexed by poverty now earn much more than they used to, said Pi Zhishuai, deputy director of the Lhasa poverty reduction office.

Lhasa spent more than 9.3 billion yuan (1.35 billion U.S. dollars) in creating jobs by developing modern farming, craft-making and other industries. Another 1.4 billion yuan (200 million U.S. dollars) was spent on financing resettlement in more habitable places.

Another big chunk of investment, roughly 800 million yuan, was spent on free food, free dormitories, and scholarships for children of farmers and herders.

Lhasa is the first to complete its poverty reduction target, leading other cities in Tibet, he said.

More than 85 percent of the land in Tibet is located over 4,000 meters above sea level. Harsh natural conditions have been part of the causes of entrenched poverty.

In 2015, the Chinese government set a goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020 to create a moderately prosperous society.

Across Tibet, a total of 181,000 people were taken off the poverty list in 2018. Roughly 110,000 people still live below the poverty line.

The poverty rate has been declining in Tibet since the battle against abject poverty started. The poverty rate dropped to 7.9 percent by the end of 2017 from 25.2 percent at the end of 2015.