Students helped by Yu Shufan visit her at home.	Since 1996, Yu Shufan has supported nine students through higher education.	Wang Xiaoyan (left) has received financial assistance from Yu Shufan (right) since 2001, and is currently working towards a PhD at Peking University.

CHANG Weiguang is a postgraduate majoring in electronic engineering at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. When he received an admission letter for a doctor’s degree from Canada’s McGill University, the first thing he thought of was telling Yu Shufan. Like many others, Chang owes his education to Yu’s philanthropic efforts.

Yu funded Chang from his first year of college in 2001. “She is very kind,” he says fondly. Yu not only provided money, explains Chang, but also cared about his family and all aspects of his life. “Her care really warmed the heart of a poor student who had just arrived in Beijing,” he recalls. Like many of Yu’s “children,” Chang still visits the charitable elder every month, keeping her up-to-date on his life and study.

Yu Shufan is a 79-year-old retiree from China International Book Trading Corporation. Since 1996, she has helped fund the education of Chang and eight other college students to the tune of RMB 1,000 per student each year.

Yu began helping students in 1996, when she came across a newspaper story about the plight of a poor undergraduate at Peking University. She talked with her son about the possibility of helping, but when they went to the university they found somebody else had already stepped forward to lend a hand. University staff suggested another student in need of assistance: Sun Yuangen of the School of Physics.

Born to a poor family in Xinyang City, Henan Province, Sun was an outstanding student, who had attained second place in the National Mathematics Contest. Yu’s funds helped him finish his degree and he is now manager of Datang Telecom’s Technical Department. Even though 10 years have passed since Yu began giving him financial assistance, Sun visits her every year to offer thanks and pay his respects.

In 2001, Yu started funding Wang Xiaoyan, who was also studying at Peking University, in the Health Science Center. Throughout her eight years of study from a bachelor’s degree to a doctorate, Wang’s mother has been sick and in need of money. Wang has seriously considered dropping out of university and getting a job. Yu has encouraged her not to give up, and Wang continues to study while working part-time as a doctor in the Dermatology Department of Peking University People’s Hospital.

Of Yu’s nine “children,” three are now working, four recently completed Masters degrees and two are working towards PhDs. Although gratified they have achieved so much, Yu never ceases to encourage them to keep studying and further their personal development. “Poverty can be an asset. The point is how you use it,” she says. Poor beginnings often make students study harder than those from more comfortable backgrounds, and the less well-off instinctively learn to be thrifty. They treasure what they have and strive to realize their dreams.

Yu is overjoyed to see those she has assisted help others in turn. Zhang Shufeng, a student at China Agricultural University, was funded by Yu in 1996. After graduation, he went to work on a private farm on the southern island of Hainan. There he made a small fortune. He cheerfully told Yu he had earned RMB 300,000 and wanted to help other poor college students. Nothing could have made Yu happier.

“Yu treats us like her own children,” says Ding Shanyi, another student recently funded by the retiree. Ding will graduate from the Central University for Nationalities this year and then work in his hometown in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. On his monthly visits to Yu, he happened to see some other students she has helped. It was only then he realized how many people Yu has assisted.

Before her retirement Yu was an ordinary wage-earner, and her family’s income fell markedly when her husband passed away. But her sustained efforts over a decade have made a huge difference to many young people’s lives. She still sees plenty of want around her though. “In TV coverage of the Wenchuan earthquake I saw so many children in need,” she says sadly. “I am old, but I want to do all I can to help more children.”