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Girl Dropouts in Yunnan Return to School
More than 10,000 girl school dropouts in southwest China's Yunnan Province have returned to the classroom thanks to the "Spring Bud Project," which is a national endeavor that has been helping female school dropouts in poor areas for the past six years.
Because many ethnic minority people living in the mountainous and border areas of Yunnan still hold the idea that men are superior to women, 200,000 students there have discontinued their studies in recent years, and nearly two thirds of them were girls.
The "Spring Bud Project" was initiated by the Children's Foundation of China in 1989. It developed into a national program with the goal of seeing that all girl drop-outs return to the classroom and complete their nine years of compulsory education.
The Kunming Girls' Middle School has enrolled 150 girl students from 23 ethnic groups and 71 poor counties since 1997. The provincial Women's Federation and Children's Fund have provided them with clothing for all seasons, books, and stationery, along with tuition fees.
In addition, the local Women's Federation has helped 63 laid- off workers in urban districts send their children to junior and senior middle schools since 1998.
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