British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote a letter in reply to four school girls from Gansu Province in northwest China, who had benefited from a British government-sponsored program aiming to support elementary education in the land-locked, impoverished province.  

British Prime Minister Blair said in a return letter written on June 1 that Mrs. Blair and himself were pleased to learn that the four girls could go on with their schooling with the aid of his government and hoped that their dreams and the dreams of other kids would come true.

Prime Minister Blair met in Beijing one year ago with the four girls from four needy counties in Gansu. Afterwards, these girls told him in their letter great changes that had taken place in their hometowns and schools.

The aid program focused mainly at school kids in the Linxia Autonomous Prefecture of Hui Ethnicity in Gansu Province was sponsored by the British Department for International Development (DFID) in 1999. It has since benefited approximately 13,000 school pupils every year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2004)