Luo Wangshu

In 2019,Buyinza Farduk,a seventh grader in Uganda,received a backpack filled with school and daily supplies.He loved the bag,which had a panda painted on it,and wrote a letter of thanks to the sender of the gift in China.

“Thank you,though I don't know who you are,”the letter said,explaining that Emma,the project's local staff member who distributed the bag,couldn't tell him the name.“Thank you all.I hope one day I can go to a Chinese university in the future.Emma said that if I take this bag to go to China,many people will recognize me.Is this real?Then that's a deal.Thank you all again.”

Buyinza is one of more than a million children who received such gifts,known as“panda packs”.In February 2019,the Panda Pack Project was established in China to send schoolbags with supplies to students in need in developing countries.Children in 11 countries have received them in the first three years of the project.

The backpacks contain supplies including crayons,colored pencils,markers,exercise books,a lunch box,a water bottle,soap,a toothbrush,toothpaste and so on.Designers have incorporated local and Chinese characteristics in some items.For example,drawing paper in the backpack for Ethiopia (埃塞俄比亞) includes pictures of coffee pots and cups,the Blue Nile Falls,Peking Opera and the Great Wall—icons representing China and Ethiopia.

This year,the program will send backpacks to students in 10 countries,including Myanmar,Nepal and Pakistan.More elements will be introduced to the packs this year,such as an environmental protection theme.

Reading Check

Why was the Panda Pack Project established?