Society

Student works hard to help teens stay in school

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-12-13 20:03

Wang Jingguan, a junior at Nanjing Xiaozhuang College, has donated 20,000 yuan to eight poor students who were forced to drop out of school. He saved the money by working overtime off campus and eating only one meal a day.[Photo/Modern Morning Express]

Wang, 22, who was born into a poor family in West China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, started working part-time jobs while in middle school to help his family, and there he met several smart dropouts at Ningxia Red-Cross Association. "It is at that time that I decided to help them get back to school," Wang said.

In college, when he moved from the small town in Ningxia to Jiangsu province, he found he had to work hard to support himself. However, his dream of helping dropouts had not faded.

Li Xiu (L), 14, was able to go back to school with Wang‘s help in Ningxia Hui Autonomous region. [Photo/ Wang Jingguan]

Li Xiu, 14, one of the beneficiaries, is an only child whose father was paralyzed after an accident in Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Li receives 200 yuan a month from Wang in living expenses. Her family lives on low-income subsidies from the local village, and Li was planning to quit school. But Wang, who worked as a volunteer at her school, learned of her situation and lent her 1,200 yuan for school fees.

"Without Wang, I might now be working in the field or begging in the street," a grateful Li said after hearing about how Wang lives in college.

Now Wang is assisting eight students every month, with a total of 1,200 yuan by working part-time jobs, and his classmates and teachers are also working with him. They've organized two charity campaigns on campus, collecting over 3,000 yuan, as Wang proudly told a reporter.

Wang's biggest dream is to set up a charity foundation for young students forced to drop out of school. After learning that setting up a charity foundation requires at least 1 million yuan just in registration fees, Wang said, "I can't wait until the day I get rich enough to help them, and I don't know when I can earn 1 million, but what's important for me is the present. As long as I have the ability to help one dropout, I will do it now."