Huang Xiaowei (L), Secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation; and Ma Yongsheng, Secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and Chairman of Sinopec Group, jointly unveil a plaque of the "Spring Bud Gas Station" at a ceremony in Beijing on July 23, 2022.[Photo/CCTF]

The charitable project "Spring Bud Gas Station" was launched by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) and the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) at a ceremony in Beijing on July 23, 2022.

Representatives of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund and the China Petrochemical Corporation sign a strategic cooperation agreement on the implementation of the charitable initiative at a ceremony in Beijing on July 23, 2022.[Photo/CCTF]

The two sides signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the implementation of the charitable initiative at the ceremony.

Huang Xiaowei, Secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF); Ma Yongsheng, Secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and Chairman of Sinopec Group; and Ling Yiqun, Member of the Leading Party Members' Group and President of Sinopec Group, attended the inaugural ceremony.

Chen Xiurong, President of the CCTF, presided over the ceremony.

Attendees pose for a group photo at the ceremony in Beijing on July 23.[Photo/CCTF]

In their speeches, both Huang and Ma gave specific instructions on the implementation of the charitable project.

They called for intensified efforts to act on President Xi Jinping's important discourses on the work for children and teenagers' affairs and the development of charitable causes, make special contributions to the "Spring Bud Project—Dream of the Future Action", remain true to the original aspiration of cultivating talents for the Party and the country, incorporate the goal of nurturing virtue through education into the entire process of the charitable initiative, deepen bilateral cooperation, leverage their own strengths to ensure the smooth operation of the charitable program, endeavor to become a guide for children's growth, a guardian for children's rights and interests, and a builder for children's futures, give full play to the functions of the charitable initiative in helping girls grow up and realize personal dreams, and greet the convocation of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

As an innovative measure and key component of the "Spring Bud Project—Dream of the Future Action", the newly launched charitable initiative was designed to create girl-friendly growth venues, which consist of psychological counseling stations, Spring Bud platforms, reading corners, wish walls and roundtable story-sharing gatherings, in a move to provide girls with spiritual guidance, mental encouragement and psychological caring, and guarantee their healthy and all-round development on the basis of financially assisting disadvantaged girls in the completion of their academic studies.

The charitable initiative will organize monthly theme activities, lectures and group-based interest activities to enrich the extracurricular life of schoolgirls, empower rural teachers with a special growth action, and extend their love and appreciation via the distribution of packages, which include inspirational publications, pressure-relief notebooks, female hygienic products and learning materials.

Over the next four years, the charitable initiative will be primarily conducted in schools, which have built a partnership of paired assistance with Sinopec Group in the implementation of national rural revitalization strategies, extend assistance to no less than 1,000 schooling girls, build 100 girl-friendly growth venues under the "Spring Bud Gas Station" brand, and bring concrete benefits to about 200,000 girls and their parents.

A group of schoolgirls sing a song titled "Remain Loyal to the Party" at the launch ceremony in Beijing on July 23.[Photo/CCTF]

During the launch ceremony, representatives from the two sides jointly unveiled a plaque for girl-friendly growth venues.

Meanwhile, a group of teachers and students from Sinopec Middle School in Dongxiang, a county of northwest China's Gansu Province, where the country's first girl-friendly growth venue has been put into operation, gave an introduction to attendees via video link about the design and functions of the special site.

A photo of the girl-friendly growth venue [Photo/CCTF]