Girl in an iconic photo elected as a Congress delegate
Su Mingjuan's image was used for a poverty-relief campaign in 1991 when she was a first-grader.
Su Mingjuan, whose glittering doe eyes mesmerized millions of Chinese when she was photographed 31 years ago for a poverty-relief project, has been elected as a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress.
Su, an employee of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Anhui Province, is the deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League of the branch.
Su Mingjuan is a delegate at the ongoing 20th CPC national congress.
She was featured in a photo titled "I Want to Go to School" in 1991 when she was a first-grader. The picture melted the hearts of people across the country and garnered overwhelming attention for the Hope Project, which was aimed at bringing schools to poverty-stricken rural areas and helping children from poor families get an education.
As Su, who is now in her 30s, received more funding than she needed, she gifted some of the money to the Hope Project, hoping to help more students.
In 2018, she used her savings of 30,000 yuan (US$4,143) as a startup fund to set up the "Su Mingjuan Student Aid Fund," which was aimed at helping build schools and sponsoring impoverished college freshmen.
Su said that the fund had raised about 4.9 million yuan and helped in the construction of five Hope Project primary schools, Jiupai News reported.
Su once told Xinhua news agency that she didn't want too much personal attention. Instead, she hoped people would focus on the project and how to help those underprivileged and needy students.
