College student Fan Qianning was becoming desperate. Her Beijing-bound train, was about to leave in 30 minutes and her uncle had not arrived with the money he had promised.

 

The 18-year-old was standing on the platform at Nanning Railway Station in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and was looking forward to starting her new life as a student of finance at Beijing Jiaotong University.

 

But her uncle, and the money she needed to pay for her college fees, had not arrived.

 

"At that time, I had only 1,000 yuan (US$125) in my pocket. My uncle agreed to borrow the money to pay the 5,000-yuan (US$625) tuition fees for me, but half an hour before the train was scheduled to depart, he still had not appeared," Fan said. Luckily for her, her uncle did eventually show up, and with the 5,000 yuan. Her generous uncle also offered to give her some money every month for the first year of her studies.

 

This all happened three years ago. Fan is now 21, and her life has changed since then thanks to a special grant.

 

But it has been a rocky road.

 

"Although I could continue my studies, the debt my family and my uncle owed was a big burden. From my first college year, I had to spend most of my free time doing a lot of part-time jobs to earn a living," Fan told China Daily.

 

In her second year, Fan obtained a grant of 3,000 yuan (US$375) a year from the Soong Ching Ling Foundation. Fan was able to secure the grant for two consecutive years.

 

"The money not only reduced my family's burden, but also gave me some confidence to face life. I had been chosen to make speeches on how to fight poverty to other college students. Poverty now is not a shame to me any more," Fan recalled.

 

The grant gave Fan the opportunity to focus on her studies. As a result, she excelled in her work and won other prizes at school. A frugal person, she was even able to offer some financial help to her sister.

 

Fan is one of nearly 4,000 beneficiaries who have received grants over the past four years from the Future Project launched by the Soong Ching Ling Foundation and funded by leading local and international enterprises, which have donated a total of 148 million yuan (US$18.8 million).

 

According to Li Ning, secretary general of the foundation, the Future Project has injected more funds to remote areas where financial resources are tighter.

 

The project offers financial assistance to poor college students and many beneficiaries are subsequently invited to write a thesis or talk with other college students about poverty.

 

Statistics show that there were 2.94 million college students living in poverty in China in 2005. This accounts for 20 percent of the total college student population.

 

"The strength of one foundation (in helping poor college students) is far from enough. We will try to create a more broad-ranging mechanism to help poor college students," Li said.

 

Yang Dongping, an education scholar at Beijing Institute of Technology, said while the government should offer more support, more grassroots charity groups should also be involved in these efforts.

 

Yang added that charity groups should work to increase their cooperation with the government, banks and other donor agencies to diversify assistance rendered to poor students.

 

"Measures to attract private donations and the individual participation of the general public are also urgently needed," Yang stressed.

 

(China Daily November 6, 2006)