Su Mingjuan, former poster child for the Project Hope education charity, has grown up to become a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
In 1991 when Su was 8, photographer Xie Hailong took her picture in a shabby classroom in poverty-stricken Jinzhai county, East China's Anhui Province.
That photo was picked up by the China Youth Development Foundation and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China as the image for Project Hope, an official charity financing education for students in underdeveloped areas in China.
Su's eyes moved viewers and attracted donors across China. Classrooms were renovated and children received a better education.
Su worked part-time at college and donated her monthly living allowance to Project Hope. After graduating from college and getting a job as a bank clerk, she continuously donated part of her income every month to support poor students.
In 2006, she auctioned the photo's copyright and donated 300,000 yuan to build a primary school in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
In 2018 she set up a scholarship fund with 30,000 yuan of her own savings. As of September, Su has raised about 4.9 million yuan for the construction of five Hope primary schools.
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