After her initial happiness at being admitted into the prestigious Peking University, Qin Jinyan and her family began to worry about how they would pay for her study.

Qin, the daughter of farmers from the Xiangxi Tujia Autonomous Prefecture in central China's Hunan Province, said it was not until being informed by local officials she would receive a donation for her study that her and her family's worries were eased.

The donation was provided by the "New Great Wall" program, launched last September by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFFPA) specifically for providing financial aid to college students from poor families.

The foundation unveiled a donation drive Sunday to raise money for the subsistence and study of 10,001 newly-enrolled students from needy families. The drive is expected to raise over 20 million yuan (about US$2.5 million) by Aug. 29, a date to be observed as the nation's first "Care for College Students Day".

College students used to pay only several hundred yuan a year for their higher education. However, since the nation began to reform its higher education system in the 1990s, college students saw an ensuing rise of fees. Generally, today's college fees range from 3,500 yuan (about US$400) to 5,000 yuan (about US$600) a year.

Of the country's 16 million college students, about 20 percent are from needy families, CFFPA statistics showed.

He Daofeng, vice-chairman of CFFPA, said that college students would become the backbone in developing and constructing the nation, "so society should assist students from needy families."

Qin's parents are both farmers. Besides Qin and her sister and brother, they also have to feed their grandparents. Qin said they did nothing but worry when she got the admission letter.

She said she felt quite excited and fortunate when she knew that she would get a donation.

"The New Great Wall has opened a way for us needy children to realize our dreams," she said.

Kenneth Wong, director of Shell China Exploration and Production Co., Ltd., said that it is rewarding to be able to help needy young people achieve their goals.

"We hope everyone can do something to help these students," he said.

Shell China and its workers have donated over 300,000 yuan (over US$36,000) to the program.

Zhang Hu, a student from the China Agriculture University who received a donation from the program last year, said that he would do his best to employ all he will learn at the university to help make his hometown, a village in north China's Hebei Province, richer.

The donation hotline of the New Great Wall program is 8610-62611023, 8610-62615766.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2003)