Background

Project Hope, a public welfare undertaking initiated and sponsored by China Youth Development Fondation, was launched on October 30,1989 with the aim of helping school drop-outs in poverty-stricken regions resume schooling and improving te education conditions in villages. Over the past decade since its implementation, Project Hope has enlisted generous support and extensive participation of all walks of life from home and abroad. By June 30, 1999, Project Hope raised a total fund of 1.78 billion yuan, which was used to aid more than 2 million poor drop-outs to return to the school, provide financial support to building over 7,500 Hope Primary Schools, donate 10,000 Hope Mini-libraries to the Hope Primary Schools with more than 2,000 sets of Sumchime Movie Collections. Prject Hope has met with hearty and generous responses from millions of people. It mot only brought about profound and positive changes to the lives of drop-outs but also gave new momentum to the development of primary education in China's rural areas.