How to understand that Zhang Guimei has persisted for 20 years and connected her life to Huaping and education poverty alleviation, just because "Huaping provides

Zhang Guimei’s name is now a household name. But she is still the same every day: always with a small speaker in her hand, urging students to get up, study, and go to bed. "I am a teacher in a mountain village. Using knowledge to change the destiny of children and sending them out of the mountains is my original intention and mission as a people's teacher and a member of the Communist Party of China," Zhang Guimei said.

"I want to do something for Huaping"

"As long as I still have breath, I will stand on the podium and give my all, even if I die without regrets." At the "July 1st Medal" awarding ceremony, Zhang Guimei raised her voice when she spoke this sentence.

When talking about her fate with Huaping, Zhang Guimei choked up: "My first thought was to repay the favor." At the age of 18, Zhang Guimei came to Yunnan from Heilongjiang to support the frontier. Later, he was admitted to a normal school, and after graduation, he and his husband came to Dali to teach. After her husband unfortunately passed away due to illness, Zhang Guimei left Xizhou Town in Dali in 1996 and was transferred to Lijiang Huaping Central Middle School to teach in relatively poor conditions.

In April 1997, Zhang Guimei was diagnosed with serious illness. Because she was afraid of delaying the graduation exam, she put the diagnosis certificate in a drawer and endured the severe pain until she was sent to the examination room before being hospitalized for surgery. During those difficult days, Huaping gave her warmth. The county launched an initiative to raise funds for Zhang Guimei, and a woman who lived in the mountains donated her only 5 yuan for return travel expenses.

Holding the "love" of the villagers in her hands, Zhang Guimei burst into tears: "Huaping gave me a second life, and I want to do something for Huaping."

From Since then, Zhang Guimei’s life has been connected with Huaping and poverty alleviation through education. "My more than 20 years in Huaping have been the most exciting and happiest time in my life." Zhang Guimei said.

"To set up a free girls' high school"

Walk up the slope along the Shishan South Lane on the edge of Huaping County. On the big red and yellow iron gate, hang " With the slogan "Button the first button of your life", this is Huaping Girls' High School. Since coming to Huaping to teach, Zhang Guimei has discovered that there are always more boys than girls in the class. Zhang Guimei believes that an educated woman can, to a large extent, block the intergenerational transmission of poverty. So she secretly made up her mind to "run a free girls' high school to help girls in the mountains." In order to raise funds for running the school, Zhang Guimei tried her best.

In 2002, Zhang Guimei printed out all the certificates she had received and placed them on the streets of Kunming to "raise donations." In the past five years, she was often misunderstood and called a liar, but she never gave up.

Until 2007, Zhang Guimei was elected as a representative of the 17th National Congress of the Party. During a meeting in Beijing, a report titled "I Have a Dream" spread her dream of running a girls' high school. Later, Lijiang City and Huaping County each provided 1 million yuan to help her run a school.

Today, Huaping Girls' High School has become quite influential in the local area: its online rate has remained above 40% for many years in a row, and its comprehensive ranking of college entrance examination scores ranks first in Lijiang City.

“I am very satisfied with cultivating batch after batch of students.”

Get up on time at 5 o’clock every morning, be the first to appear on campus, and patrol the school at least three times a day. Check classes... Even though she is 64 years old and suffers from heart disease, emphysema and other diseases, Zhang Guimei still works hard.

For more than 10 years, Zhang Guimei has traveled over mountains and ridges, covering about 110,000 kilometers of home visits, and has admitted nearly 2,000 rural girls to school. She persuaded parents over and over again: "We don't charge a penny to go to high school, and we will help when they go to college." She never ate at the students' homes, and everyone in the group brought their own bread, instant noodles, and mineral water; she not only took care of their children's studies , when encountering impassable roads or water, we always coordinate with relevant departments to help solve the problem.

In April 1998, Zhang Guimei gloriously joined the Communist Party of China. She silently made a promise under the party banner: she would work hard to become a person like Sister Jiang. "It is my supreme honor to dedicate my youth to the Party and the Party." Sister Jiang's lyrics have become her belief in life.

Every teacher in the school knows that she loves singing "Ode to the Red Plum" most, and loves watching "Red Rock" and the opera "Sister Jiang". She also brought the party constitution and red songs into the school and taught them to the students. Huaping Girls' High School has a school-wide ideological and political class every week, and Zhang Guimei organizes theoretical study.

Zhang Guimei believes that the high school stage is a critical period for the formation of faith. The inheritance of the red gene is related to the shaping of children's hearts, allowing students to have lights in the distance, roads under their feet, and light in front of them.

“I am very satisfied to train batch after batch of students. They will all have a wonderful life in the future.” Zhang Guimei said with a happy smile when talking about the students. Indeed, many students who graduated from Huaping Girls' High School followed Zhang Guimei's example and were able to endure hardships, be willing to contribute, and bloom their beautiful youth where the motherland needs it most.