In 1989, a shocking report from the national census of China showed that 4.8 million kids aged 7 to 14 were deprived of education, the vast majority of which were girls. In response to that, the “Spring Blossom Project” was launched in the same year by China Children and Teenager’s Fund (CCTF). Spring Blossom aims to promote and sponsor the education of these underprivileged girls, and has in the past 18 years raised over RMB 600,000,000, which has been used to build more than 300 schools in 30 different provinces.

Spring Blossom tries to reach out to girls living in poverty-stricken rural areas where clean water and electricity are scarce and proper education is hard to afford. Parents with traditional Chinese values will often treat their daughter’s education with less priority than their son’s, which means that girls are more likely to miss out on school. In poor regions, girls in general may also face problems such as family and sexual violence, malnutrition, social and sexual discrimination, and sometimes even desertion. Spring Blossom strives to provide schooling for these girls, hoping that through good education, they would have a brighter future.

As our tenth anniversary for Spring Blossom, KGV is embarking upon a two-week expedition to the province of Hei Long Jiang in Northeast China . Initially planned was a trip to Nepal which was cancelled due to political strife and the risk of our own safety. Although Hei Long Jiang is less poverty-stricken we believe that any place in need deserves a hand.

We aspire to open the futures of our young Spring Blossom girls who are bound to domestic tradition, by providing them with education opportunities. The prospect of school is even unknown to most of them hence our visits to give them a flavour of knowledge, to inspire.

We are taking off on the 13 th of October, 2007 and returning on the 25th , a fortnight later and we will be sure to have reached out and made a change – for all we see lies of the horizon .