Project Hope, a Chinese charity dedicated to helping children in poverty-stricken parts of the country access education, has helped nearly 3.5 million dropouts resume their studies over 20 years, an official said Friday.

The program has also financed the construction of 16,345 schools across China, Gu Xiaojin, an official with China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF), said at a conference on Project Hope's achievements in Yinchuan, capital city of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Eighty percent of these schools were located in China's underdeveloped western, central and northeastern regions, said Gu.

"Project Hope has also financed reading rooms, computer rooms and sports and cultural facilities in rural areas, enabling students there to access an education equal to what their city peers receive," he said.

He said the program has also provided training for more than 60,000 teachers in rural areas.

Ningxia, one of China's poorest regions, has received 323 million yuan (US$47.5 million) in donations since Project Hope was initiated in the region in 1990, allowing it to build 339 primary schools.

The region also used the donations to bring more than 60,000 dropouts back into school, train more than 700 teachers and improve school facilities.

Project Hope was initiated by the CYDF and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China in October 1989.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2010)