By Ou Can, Chen Guoquan and Chen Lie
Editor's Note: This is one of the heartwarming stories from China in this new era. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President Xi Jinping, who cares for the ordinary people, has visited poverty-stricken regions many times to bring solutions to the challenges and obstacles hindering poverty reduction. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has considered its participation in poverty alleviation a concrete move to translate its loyalty to the Party into practical actions. With a strong sense of mission, the whole army is fulfilling its commitment to share the Party’s burdens and strive for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the benefit of the people.
[Playback] When President Xi Jinping inspected the poverty alleviation work in Jinzhai County, Lu’an of Anhui province, East China, on April 24, 2016, he came to a rural courtyard and talked cordially with the villagers. Hearing that Chen Zeshen’s grandson was in senior Grade 3, President Xi asked about the boy’s studies in great detail, saying that significant efforts must be made in poverty alleviation through education to give every child a fair starting line. He stressed that poor education would make generations fall behind, and becoming a professional in a line of work is the way to create a better future.
On the map, the Jinzhai County is thousands of miles away from the nearest seacoast, but when reporters came to Longma village of Yanzihe town, Jinzhai County, they heard many say that “the sea is right next to the mountain!”
A soldier from the PLA Navy Bengbu Non-Commissioned Officer Academy communicates with pupils in the Haiwa Hope Elementary School. (PLA Daily/Tan Lin)
Here the “sea” refers to the Haiwa Hope Elementary School built by the Academy for Non-commissioned Officers of the PLA Navy.
Han Deming, the political commissar of the academy, exclaimed, “In poverty reduction efforts, we not only need to climb over the visible mountains but also the invisible mountain in the mind of the poor.”
What’s an “invisible mountain”? In Dawan village inspected by President Xi, the poor villager Chen Zeshen lost his son, and his wife passed away from illness, leaving him and his grandson living a tough life. Having suffered so much, Chen Zeshen was once obsessed with “geomancy” and turned to “geomancers” for help, convinced that he could change his “fate” by changing the direction of his house gate and building a screen wall in the yard. Yet Chen’s life didn’t get better in the least but continued down the road of poverty.
In 2014, using the poverty alleviation fund provided by the county and township governments, Chen Zeshen started to breed black goats with the help of stockbreeding experts.
Two years’ hard work paid off. Chen got rid of poverty and became more spirited, and he finally realized his dream of living a better life could only come true though hardwork instead of “geomancy.”
In 2016, Chen Zeshen embraced two happy events. The first was that in the courtyard of his house, President Xi attended a group discussion on poverty alleviation with local cadres and residents during his inspection tour to the village. The other was that his grandson was admitted to the university.
Chen told the reporters, he was removed from China’s poverty list in 2017, and his grandson has found a job in Hefei after graduation.
During the four-plus years after President Xi’s visit, the impoverished villages in the county all went through ground-shaking changes. “The people have a deeper understanding of the Party’s and the government’s favorable policies. They are more confident in moving from poverty to prosperity and paying more attention to children’s education!” As long as the mountain of backward ideas is overcome, the mountain of poverty is no longer insurmountable, said Han Deming with full confidence.
The teaching outlet of Yanzihe Central Elementary School in Longma village has a special name – Haiwa Hope Elementary School.
“The students here are all left-behind children from nearby villages. Most of them are from impoverished families,” said Ji Hongzhang, a retired teacher.
At a forum on poverty alleviation and development in 2015, President Xi solemnly announced that education is critical for poverty alleviation and that ensuring a good education for children in impoverished regions is not only an important task of poverty alleviation but also a key approach to tackling the intergenerational transmission of poverty (ITP). When inspecting Jinzhai county, President Xi underscored the importance of education in poverty alleviation again.
Not long after President Xi’s inspection, the Academy for Non-commissioned Officers of the PLA Navy signed with Yanzihe Central Elementary School an assistance agreement and raised funds to upgrade the hardware facilities at its Dayan teaching outlet. The academy renamed the teaching outlet the Haiwa Hope Elementary School.
