Changing Your Trajectory: Helping More out of Poverty

Professional instruction and constant publicity has been another major aspect of CCB’s poverty-elimination initiative in Ankang. Professors from the city’s Tea Technology R&D Center have been invited to teach the cooperative members how to pick and stir-dry tea leaves in a scientific way. Moreover, thanks to its promotion efforts, the annual sales value of tea leaves from Cailiang Community through its on-and-offline channels reached about 210,000 yuan (U.S. $ 30,600) in 2016.

For all the good thinking and practices, “to lift the people out of poverty, the first thing should be inspiring them to help themselves,” said Fan, concluding from his one and half years of poverty-relief experience. “To adopt right approaches matters the most,” he continued.

When the community authorities provided the residents with tea seedlings for free last year, some villagers even unreasonably asked for reward for “digging holes.” This year, it is required that the applicants must get the farmland prepared in advance and pay for the seedlings first; and if the seedlings flourish with their intensive care, the farmers will then have their fees refunded.

“No one called for the ‘hole-digging’ money any more. And I’m sure the sapling survival rate will be much higher than the previous year,” Fan asserted.

Not Merely ‘Giving Fish’

There is a Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In addition to helping the deprived adults in Ankang, the CCB has also been focusing on educating the local children, aiming to help them develop abilities that will produce life-long benefits.

It has funded the construction of eight "Hope" primary schools and made donations to four schools for upgrading infrastructure, with the investments totaling 5.85 million yuan (U.S. $851,000); also, it helps 1025 high schoolers from humble background to make it through their school years, with 1.54 million yuan (U.S. $224,000) having be offered in total. At the same time, the bank organizes training sessions for teachers in the remote area, with at least one session provided each school year.

Fan revealed that he hopes to build the “Hope” primary schools into “smart campuses”, so that children in the mountain will have access to online classes from famous teachers in big cities like Beijing.

Once walking past one of the CCB Hope Primary Schools, a child asked Fan: “Where are you from?” and he replied “The Construction Bank.” Feeling surprised, the kid said, "Construction Bank? Isn’t it our school?"

Recalling the incident, Fan still feels deeply touched. “For the general public, the bank is for all kinds of financial services; for me, it’s my company; but for the kids, it’s their school and the place where they learn and interact with their peers every day.”