Primary idea

Besides Liu's school, many other schools nationwide are also benefiting from the project. According to Deng, by the end of February this year, his program had received donations of more than 33 million yuan ($5.2 million) and is helping 163 schools in impoverished places in 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in central and west China, such as Hunan and Guizhou provinces, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The program allocates funds to these schools every two months. "So long as these children are in need, we will continue our efforts," said Deng.

Deng is quite satisfied with the progress of his work and optimistic about its future. "Through the project, I also realized that I can do more to help those in need," said Deng.

With the support of many microbloggers, Deng contacted the China Social Welfare Foundation and launched the Free Lunch program in April last year.

The foundation established a special bank account to receive donations and allocate them to various schools. Meanwhile, the program also has an account in Taobao, China's largest consumer-to-consumer business website. Internet users can log on and buy free lunches for the impoverished children.

"Our program is totally based on the Internet. We have special staff to regularly update information related to the project and all the donations and expenditures can be seen clearly on our microblog," said Deng. The program also has strict requirements for the schools that have launched the program. They must post their everyday expenditures and the everyday menus on the Internet.

"We get donations from so many kind people we don't even know and we must let them know that their donations are properly used," said Deng.

The first free-lunch canteen was built in Shaba Primary School on April 2, 2011. Deng was invited to the school for the opening ceremony. "When I saw children's smiling faces while enjoying the hot lunch, I just couldn't hold back my tears," recalled Deng. "I was quite happy that so many people on the Internet are helping these children."

But he confessed that his project was constantly a heavy burden for him. "You know, it is difficult to change my role from a journalist to an executor of a charity program who should be supervised by others," said Deng.

Fortunately, he also got help from many Internet users, including lawyers, accountants and ad agencies. Some celebrities also helped by shooting ads. Famous Hong Kong singer Alan Tam even wrote a song for the program.

"I am very thankful to the more than 900,000 people who donated for the program to help the impoverished children," said Deng.  

Government steps up

Deng's program also got a response from the Central Government. On October 26, 2011, the State Council decided to launch a pilot program to improve the nutrition of students of the six-year primary school and three-year junior middle school in rural areas, at a cost of 16 billion yuan ($2.54 billion) a year. The program covers about 26 million students in 680 counties and cities in impoverished regions. Each of the students can also get a 3 yuan ($0.47) subsidy to improve their nutrition. On February 22, the pilot program was officially launched.

The government program is widely believed to be inspired by Deng's Free Lunch program. "I think the free lunch program is a miracle; and I believe the government nutrition improvement program is an exemplary model of the government responding to non-governmental activities," said Wang Zhenyao, Director of the Beijing Normal University One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute in an interview with Qilu Evening News. Wang added that he was really excited at the news that the government had been so quick to respond to a non-governmental program.

Government's involvement was what Deng and his team wanted to see. In fact, at the beginning stage of setting up his program, he hoped the government could become involved.

"Only after the government gets involved can more children benefit," Deng noted.  

However, he also found some problems in the government program. According to his observations, some schools only buy milk and bread for children with the funds from the government. "That's not what we want. What children need is nutrition and food, not snacks," he stressed.

Deng said after the government takes over the work in national-level impoverished regions, his team will bring the program to province-level impoverished regions. "There are more children we need to help," said Deng. "Since we have more experience, we can also help the government to better promote the work so that these children can be better helped."