Recently, the results of the selection of outstanding alumni of the Open University of China (OUC) were announced, recognising 328 alumni from various industries across the country.
These individuals, with accomplishments as their foundation and technology as their wings, demonstrate resilience, confidence, and a pragmatic, enterprising spirit, writing a unique chapter of progress of the OUC people. From today on, the stories of some alumni will be selected for sharing. By reviewing their outstanding deeds and listening to their life insights, the OUC’s achievements in talent development over the last 45 years are highlighted.
Kang Kuanjun enrolled in the Legal Affairs major at the Open University of China (OUC) in the spring of 2019. In 2020, he was awarded the title of "National Model Figure for Respecting, Loving and Helping the Elderly". In 2022, he was elected as a deputy to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; in 2021, he was elected as an alternate member and then (by filling the vacancy) a full member of the 15th Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Kang Kuanjun is a veteran. During his three-year military career, he not only joined the Communist Party but also developed a firm character and cultivated a strong will to serve the people and the country. After leaving the military, he chose to find a job on his own and entered the mechanical processing industry. Although his living conditions were good, as a wanderer away from home, his heart was still haunted by his hometown.
In 2017, Kang Kuanjun, full of enthusiasm, resolutely decided to give up his high-paying job and returned to his hometown, Fuwan Village, Anhe Township, Shangyou County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province. After his return, through election, he became the Party branch secretary of Fuwan Village. He adhered to the people-centred principle, worked hard, fulfilled his duties conscientiously, was down-to-earth and good at thinking and studying, and made extraordinary achievements in his ordinary grassroots position: Under his leadership, Fuwan Village improved its infrastructure, strengthened organisational building, developed industries for the prosperity of the people and enhanced the quality of people's livelihoods. It successfully got rid of the labels of "deep-poverty village" and "zero-industry village" during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period and won the title of "Advanced Collective in Poverty Alleviation in Jiangxi Province", and the villagers' lives are becoming increasingly happy.
Strengthening the Party Organisation, Consolidating the Battle Fortress
For a village to develop fast and well, it must have a strong Party organisation. Therefore, Kang Kuanjun always regarded strengthening the construction of the Party organisation as his top priority at work.
Optimising the team structure and strengthening the Party membership. For a long time, the Party members in Fuwan Village were mainly "aged" and of "low-education level". Kang Kuanjun clearly realised that to change this situation, he must start with the Party member team. He went around, visited friends and households, and had in-depth exchanges with young people, capable individuals in wealth making, and college graduates in the village. Under his enthusiastic influence, a batch of "fresh blood" with good political qualities, strong working abilities and high enthusiasm for work were recruited into the Party organisation. Now, the Party branch of Fuwan Village has 44 Party members, including 11 with college or undergraduate degrees, 2 with postgraduate degrees, and 11 young Party members under the age of 35. The Party member team has been expanded and strengthened.
Innovating the management mechanism and enabling Party members to fulfill their duties. In order to better stimulate the enthusiasm of Party members to perform their duties, Kang Kuanjun proposed the "Party building + grid" model. He divided the 19 villager groups in the whole village into 3 comprehensive grid areas, assigned specific positions to Party members, integrated Party members with grid service management, fully stimulated the vitality of Party members, and established a four-level service management network of "Party branch + grid + Party members + the masses" covering the whole village, forming a Party-building-led pattern in which the Party branch oversees the grid, the grid manages Party members, and Party members serve all the masses.
Innovative Ideas, Booming Village-Level Industries
There must be industries in place for rural development and for villagers to get rich.
In the past, Fuwan Village mainly relied on traditional agriculture, resulting in low incomes for villagers staying in the village and a weak collective economy. Therefore, Kang Kuanjun took the initiative to lead a team to go out for visits and inspections to learn advanced practices, and finally decided to introduce the greenhouse vegetable planting industry.
Building a fruit and vegetable greenhouse base inevitably involves land acquisition. At the beginning, restricted by the long-standing small-peasant ideology, the villagers were not optimistic about the prospects of greenhouse vegetables. In particular, the villagers whose land was to be acquired were worried about the boundaries of their fields and were very uncooperative. To dispel the villagers' misunderstandings and doubts, Kang Kuanjun conducted aerial photography of all the land to be acquired, marked the plots, clarified the boundaries, drew renderings, presented development plans, and formulated cooperation models, and went from door to door to answer questions. Moved by his sincerity, the villagers overcame their concerns and actively supported and cooperated. Finally, Fuwan Village built 110-acre high-standard greenhouses.
According to the "Party building + enterprise + farmer" model, Fuwan Village effectively linked more than 30 poverty-alleviated households to receive dividends through four ways: "daily management income, income from picking work, rent income, and village collective profit sharing"; in the form of daily management and picking work, it absorbed about 20 people to achieve employment and income increase at their doorsteps, with an average monthly income increase of 1,200 yuan per person, and an annual increase of 50,000 yuan in the village collective economy. With the successful initial exploration, Kang Kuanjun continued to find ways to broaden the "path" of the industry. Now, an industrial layout of "one garden, one area, and one base" has been formed, namely a 110-acre ecological fruit and vegetable picking garden, a 350-acre navel orange planting area, and a mushroom base. These three "drivers" are driving the village to develop better and the villagers' wallets to get fatter, and the village collective economy exceeds 800,000 yuan.
Caring for the People, Thriving People's Livelihood Undertakings
Coming from the masses and going to the masses. Kang Kuanjun, with his people-centred feelings of "always having the people's well-being on his mind", has always kept the urgent, difficult, and worrying needs as well as the living conditions of the masses in his heart.
During his daily household visits, Kang Kuanjun found that there were many left-behind elderly people in the village. These elderly people lived alone at home, had difficulty in moving around, and had few recreational activities. Therefore, he actively contacted the civil affairs department, actively strived for funds upwards, and established a "filial piety cafeteria" for the elderly in the village, providing a good place for the elderly in the village to have meals, relax and have fun. The "filial piety cafeteria" not only enables all the elderly over 60 years old in the village to have low-cost nutritious lunches every noon, solving their dining problems, but also provides a place for the elderly to chat, read newspapers and play musical instruments, enriching their spiritual lives. This move has won unanimous praise from the masses. At the same time, Kang Kuanjun mobilised social forces to form a volunteer service team, which regularly arranges the appearance, cuts hair and trims nails for the elderly in the filial piety cafeteria. So far, more than 100 volunteer service activities have been carried out cumulatively, and the elderly have praised one after another: "The filial piety cafeteria is the happy cafeteria for the elderly!"
The original Fuwan Bridge had become a dangerous bridge due to long-term disrepair, and the villagers urgently hoped to rebuild the bridge. Therefore, Kang Kuanjun took advantage of the opportunity of paired assistance from relevant departments and successfully obtained project funding. In less than half a year, a "military-civilian unity bridge" with a total investment of 1.23 million yuan was completed and opened to traffic.
In addition, dozens of acres of farmland in the upper and lower village groups of Fuwan Village had no irrigation canals for a long time, and farmers could only irrigate by pumping water. After learning about the situation, Kang Kuanjun contacted the assistance unit many times and obtained more than 200,000 yuan of project funds to build a new canal. Thanks to his efforts, Fuwan Village has convenient transportation and complete infrastructure, and the appearance of the village has taken on a new look, and the villagers are beaming with joy.
At the right time for revitalisation, bravely standing at the forefront. As a grassroots Party representative rooted in rural areas, Kang Kuanjun personally participated in and witnessed the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and he felt the call of the times more strongly. He will continue to lead the whole village people to walk steadily on the broad road of rural revitalisation with a sense of urgency that time waits for no one and a sense of self-imposed responsibility.
By OUC News Network