On 7 and 8 January 2022, a delegation headed by Ju Chuanjin, vice president of the Open University of China (OUC), went to investigate Weixian County, designated by the Ministry of Education for assistance in poverty alleviation, with a special trip to Weijiazhai Village, where Dr. Li Ruifu, a full-time teacher in the OUC Faculty of Forestry and Medicine, serves as the first village-resident secretary.

In the village, Ju Chuanjin expressed his desire to help, and thanked cadres for their hard work fighting poverty and coordinating rural revitalisation. At the same time, on behalf of the university, he donated equipment for the community cloud classroom, including TV screens and computer equipment, altogether worth over 35,000 yuan. The classroom is equipped with educational resources related to Party building, law, family, entrepreneurship, skills, leisure, and other areas. Ju Chuanjin expressed the hope that the cadres and villagers there would make use of these resources and equipment to better their lives.

With the assistance of the Ministry of Education and related colleges and universities, the village has made great progress in grass-roots Party construction, infrastructure, education, medical treatment, industries, and other areas, rising out of poverty on the tide of rural revitalisation.

Ju Chuanjin and his delegation saw the achievements of the MOE in helping Weijiazhai Village, and visited an exhibition of pictures of its proposed revitalisation, while expressing their desire to help the families of the farmers living there. They also observed classes at the village kindergarten, and visited the library built with funding from the previous minister of education, as well as the Pandian primary school.

During a meeting, Cui Yaopeng, secretary of Weixian County Party Committee, introduced the coordinated work of poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation in Weixian County, and the assistance of the MOE. He expressed the hope that the OUC could support Weixian Open University in infrastructure construction, discipline development, and county-level demonstration-site construction of colleges for older adults. Ju Chuanjin said that the OUC will continue to implement the decision-making of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, meet the assistance requirements of the MOE, and maintain existing policies. It will carefully study the requirements for support put forward by Weixian County Party Committee, continue to support training directed toward rural revitalisation in Weixian County, and rely on the cadres there to make the village a model of this effort, which will cover Party building, resource services, community education, and IT-based help for the elderly.

Bai Feng, deputy mayor of Weixian County; Sun Hui (from the MOE), deputy mayor (interim position) of Weixian County; Zhang Yanfeng, director of the Weixian Bureau of Education; and MOE representatives, among other, attended the meeting.

Since 2017, the OUC has been following the poverty-alleviation requirements of the MOE in Weixian County. The 4.51 million yuan allocated for training and construction, together with donations of furniture and equipment, have directly benefited nearly 3,000 people.

By Li Ruifu, Yu Zhangli, OUC