Zambian first lady Maureen Mwanawasa visited the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) Wednesday in Beijing, acquainting herself with China's education relief work.

Tu Meng, standing vice secretary-general of the CYDF, said: "China always attaches great importance to development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, taking such program as Project Hope to help children in poverty-stricken areas pursue primary education."

Project Hope was founded by the CYDF in 1989 as a public welfare program, with a mission to educate and motivate society to help relieve the education problem in poverty-stricken regions.

Under this project, China has raised 1.6 billion yuan (193 million US dollars) to provide more than 2.58 million children from underprivileged families with the opportunity to go to or return to school, and to build more than 11,000 primary schools in poverty-stricken regions, Tu said.

China is facing tremendous challenges in educating its 1.3 billion people, particularly children and teenagers in underprivileged rural areas. About 40 million rural students are unable to acquire adequate education due to their families' financial problems.

"Education is very important for every country," Mwanawasa said, noting that Zambia also faced the same challenges as China in education problems.

The first lady expressed her appreciation for the achievements made by the CYDF, hoping that Zambia would learn from experiences of the CYDF to improve the schooling condition of children in Zambia.

Source: Xinhua