Yang Dexia still remembers the suffering five years ago, when she and her husband had to sweat on a 0.3-hectare farm on a mountain range to support a three-member family.

"All the work we put in wasn't enough to feed us due to poor harvests," said Yang, 31, from Lixin Village in Hongya County in southwestern Sichuan Province.

But the hard times are just a memory for Yang and her family as they have turned to long-haired rabbits. The breeding brings the family 5,000 yuan (US$600) a year, which goes on daily necessities and their son's education.

It was a poverty-relief fund from Hong Kong compatriots that helped the family shake off their impoverished life, Yang recalls.

In April 1998, nine months after China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong, the Standing Committee of the Hong Kong Association for the Celebration of the Reunification of Hong Kong with China bestowed 10 million Hong Kong dollars (US$1.3 million) - which was donated by Hong Kong enterprises and citizens for celebratory activities - to the All-China Women's Federation.

The money was used to establish a special fund to help women in the nation's poverty-stricken areas.

The China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF), a nation-wide non-profit welfare organization dedicated to improving women's development, manages the fund and poverty-relief program.

Yang and her fellow villagers began to benefit from the fund in 1999, when she was given a 1,000-yuan (US$120) interest-free loan.

Statistics from the CWDF show that, in the past five years, the fund has assisted more than 25,000 poverty-stricken families in 85 counties in 14 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

Source:chinawestnews.net