"What matters to children are most important in poverty alleviation"

--The story between Ministry of Public Security poverty alleviation officials and youths from the Bouyei ethnic group in the southwest of Guizhou Province

"What matters to children are most important in poverty alleviation" --The story between Ministry of Public Security poverty alleviation officials and youths from the Bouyei ethnic group in the southwest of Guizhou Province

During the course of overcoming poverty in the county of Puan and the city of Xingren in the southwest of Guizhou Province, many poverty alleviation officials from the Ministry of Public Security developed profound friendship with local residents. They participated in China's ongoing poverty reduction campaign, and continuously renewed their own understanding of pover ty relief. "Poverty alleviation is not the end, it is the starting point of new lives and new struggles. What we care about the most at this starting point are the children."

"Education is the most imperative priority"

"The house is dusty, the rooms are dark, only the eyes of the girl, Wang Ni, are bright." Until today, Qi Chaodong, a poverty alleviation official from the Ministry of Public Security, still cannot forget the scene when he first visited villager Wang Yuangui's home. Qi was hurt and ispired by what he saw, the child's hopeful eyes kept reminding him that although Renxing City had officially bid farewell to abject poverty by government criteria, consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and realizing rural prosperity remains a tough call.

Wang Yuangui, the father of Wang Ni, was blinded in a car accident, and they hence became a low-income family. As time went on, both the adult and the child became reticent. Young Wang Ni could not imagine that her life would be closely connected with a policeman from Beijing, and this connection would also transform her home.

Through door-to-door investigations, Qi Chaodong discovered that in the remote villages of Xingren, stay-at-home children left behind by parents working away from home and single-parent families with low incomes have outstanding problems. "Only by protecting the children as they are growing up and raising the quality of education can we sever the poverty that is 'passed on from generation to generation'." While Qi strives to help Xingren develop plantation and health industries, he still holds the enhancement of education as the most important mission.

The majority of students at Xingren City Luguan Elementary School are children relocated with their families under poverty alleviation programs. In 2018, the Ministry of Public Security donated 20 million yuan in expanding the school. Qi coordinated donations from public security organizations and other resources from Shanghai, Zhejiang, and other regions, he also coordinated public welfare organizations to dispatch volunteer teachers to fill up the cultural aspects of the school. As a result, children were well taken cared of, and received emotional companion.

"Education is the most imperative priority!" Qi is always racing against time. After assisting Xingren for over two years, he secured over 12 million yuan of charitable funds for direct aid tailored to the needs of the Xingren education system, where he established a kindergarten, strived for aid projects, soliciting financial support for students from low-income families taking part in the College Entrance Examinations, and received the affectionate nickname “Education Mayor” from local teachers, students, and parents.

Nowadays, Wang Yuangui enjoys national minimum subsistence allowances. With Qi's help, Wang Ni receives a student grant, and their family gradually became warm and have bright colors of hope. Qi advises Wang Yuangui: "Difficulties will always pass, manage the donation money well, and there must not be a deficiency in the learning materials for your child."

" Let the children grow up with confidence, and transform their hometown"

Ni Yangsheng drove his car into Xilong Elementary School. As soon as he got off, Wu Changhuan, a kindergarten student, tugs his hand and swings it left and right, in a very intimate manner. Ni feels comforted, as Wu was not this enthusiastic and lively in the past.

Qi is a poverty alleviation official from the Ministry of Public Security, and the first secretary of Xilong Village of Puan County, in the southwest of Guizhou Province. Two years ago, he visited Wu's family for the first time, and "as soon as I stepped into the room, I could feel the shaking in the surrounding atmosphere." When the child saw a stranger entering the house, out of fear, he hid under the table.

"How can this change?" Ni decided to let children enter school, learn knowledge, have their horizons broadened, become confident and transform the destinies of their own lives as well as their hometown. Ni proposed to the teachers at Xilong Elementary School to bring extra care to the students. As a result, everyone started to establish archives for children from impoverished families. No matter in the classroom or during extracurricular activities, during meal times or on the way home, these children are being accompanied attentively.

Ni and the teachers made the most out of the resources in the school library and the activity room to enrich children’s' extracurricular life. In addition, Ni brought poverty relief live-streaming into Xilong Elementary School. He invited influential KOLs to bring TV, teaching materials, and stationary donations to the school, and made children to engage with online viewers through live-streaming.

Nowadays, local residents discover that their children smile more, and they no long hide away when encountering strangers. "They even raised their voices by several keys when speaking."

Ni used many holidays to organize students to engage in social practices at the village cooperative. He mobilized enterprises and charitable people to set up education funds, to provide financial aid to the 65 students with financial difficulties in Xilong. In 2019, senior year students who received financial aid were all admitted to colleges, and they confidently went to developed cities to attend school.

Contributed by Peng Jinghui and Lv Shen, reporters from Guangming Daily

Translated by Zhang Junye