Foreign news

Zhang Guimei – woman fighting for girls’ education in China

Published

4 years ago

July 1, 2021

Zhang Guimei – woman fighting for girls’ education in China

When girls came back from their exam site for the Gaokao, China’s annual college entrance exam, on June 8, Zhang Guimei hid in the office, refusing to come out. She wouldn’t let reporters interview her nor have students bid her farewell.

This year, she sent 150 female students to college from a free all-girls high school she had founded in 2008 in southwest China’s deep mountains. For the past 13 years, a total of 1,954 female students have graduated from this school, the first and only one of its kind in the country.

“To educate a girl is to change the destiny of three generations,” Zhang said. The 64-year-old teacher from southwest China’s Yunnan Province was presented with the July 1 Medal by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, at a ceremony in Beijing on Tuesday

A fighter

Zhang was born to a family of ethnic Manchu minority group in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province in 1957. At the age of 17, she came with her sister to Yunnan as part of a team supporting the country’s border regions. She met her husband in the pastoral city of Dali and worked as a teacher in a local school.

But the good times didn’t last long. Her husband died of gastric cancer in the mid-1990s, five years into their marriage. Inconsolable, Zhang decided to leave this place with which she was too familiar. After her husband’s funeral, she packed her stuff and went some 260 kilometers away to Huaping, an impoverished county nestled in the mountains.

There she witnessed dire poverty and the tragedies that it led to. “The destitution just sprawls in front of you, naked and straightforward,” she recalled.

One day, Zhang saw a teenage girl sitting beside a shabby grass basket with a sickle in hand and staring at the opposite hilltop. She went to ask her if there was something wrong. The girl replied, “I want to go to school, but my parents are too poor to afford it. They have me engaged to be married, as they can get betrothal gifts (also known as “bride price”) from the bridegroom.” Zhang went to her home to persuade the parents, promising she could afford her tuition and living expenses, but to no avail.

Over those years, she discovered that many female students would just disappear after studying for a while. The reasons varied: to pay for the younger brother’s tuition, the girl’s parents would have her quit and return home for a job or work on the farm; the family received betrothal gifts, and the teenage girl would have to get married.

After becoming a “mother” at a welfare home for children in 2001, which she renamed as “Children’s Home,” Zhang learned more about the backgrounds of those young kids. Some of the mothers went to prison for killing abusive husbands while others died from childbirth due to medical misconceptions, leaving behind their newborns.

Over time, Zhang witnessed the gender gap in education up close in relatively poor rural areas. Urban and rural students already faced unequal access to quality education, and the traditional notion of male superiority only exacerbated rural girls’ inferior situation. Some girls were even pulled out of class just before the college entrance exam because they had to provide for their brothers.

In 2002, Zhang came up with an idea which, to many, seemed crazy: to found a free high school for girls. That was a tough task. She had to raise money and hire teachers. Six years later, she founded the Huaping All-Girls High School. Given the rugged environment, however, nine of the original 17 teachers later resigned. With the goal of never letting a girl fall behind in schooling, Zhang often works overtime despite suffering from a bone tumor, aneurysm and chronic lung illnesses. Despite her debilitating health, she has walked to almost every household deep in the mountains, talking to the parents about the importance of education for girls.To educate a girl is to change the destiny of three generations. A cultured, responsible mother won’t let her daughter drop out of school. – Zhang Guimei

Since the students there had weak academic backgrounds, the class day at this school is counted in minutes: five minutes to freshen up in the morning, 10 minutes to settle in for early study period, one minute to make it to the field for morning exercise. Students all pretty much have to run when going to classes, canteens and their dorms.

Women’s education in China

Because of Zhang’s endeavors to improve female education in China, more girls can change their destiny.

When the People’s Republic of China wad founded in 1949, female illiteracy was much higher than that of their male counterparts. In the 1950s, the Chinese government launched campaigns that helped some 16 million females become educated.

In recent decades, wiping out illiteracy and improving the reading skills of women is regarded as one of the highest priorities in China, according to the government’s guideline for helping the country’s females. The female illiteracy rate for those above age 15 has decreased from roughly 90 percent in the early 1950s to 7 percent in 2019.

In 2021, China scored 0.973 in the Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum (with a score of 1 being completely equal).

Share on Facebook

Featured

Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Published

1 month ago

September 28, 2025

The Gleamer

African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

The discussions took center stage at the Big Push Against Malaria: Harnessing Africa’s Role high-level political engagement in Abuja, where Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda showcased new homegrown financing strategies aimed at reducing dependence on dwindling donor support.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases. In 2023, the world recorded 263 million cases and nearly 600,000 deaths, with 94% of cases and 95% of deaths occurring in Africa. Nigeria alone accounted for 26.6% of global cases and 31% of deaths, according to the World Malaria Report 2024. Children under five remain the most vulnerable, making up 76% of deaths.

Despite progress — with Nigeria cutting malaria deaths by more than half since 2000 through insecticide-treated nets, preventive treatments, and the rollout of the new R21 malaria vaccine — leaders warned that global targets are off-track. The World Health Organization’s technical strategy for malaria (2016–2030) has stalled since 2017, with Africa unlikely to meet its 2025 and 2030 milestones without urgent action.

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

According to the House Chair on ATM, Hon. Linda Ogar, a bill is underway to restructure the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) into a multi-disease agency that will address HIV, TB, and malaria.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

“These resources will provide sustainable funding to strengthen health systems and accelerate malaria elimination,” Ogar said, stressing that Africa must stop relying solely on foreign donors. “We cannot continue to take two steps forward and five steps backward. Africa must begin to show the world that we are ready to solve our problems ourselves.”

Similar models are already being piloted in Ghana and Uganda, where levies on mobile money and telecoms are being redirected to finance health interventions. The Abuja meeting urged other African countries to adopt this approach as part of a continental framework for sustainable financing.

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, emphasized that while malaria is preventable and treatable, it still kills hundreds of thousands yearly due to funding shortfalls, climate change, insecticide resistance, and humanitarian crises.

“To truly defeat this disease, we must rethink, join forces, and mount a concerted ‘Big Push’. Funding gaps remain a major obstacle, and innovative domestic financing is the way forward,” Salako declared.

From the civil society front, grassroots representatives pledged to act as “foot soldiers”, demanding that communities have a seat at the decision-making table. The World Health Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation, and other partners reaffirmed support but stressed the need for stronger political will and local ownership.

Private Sector and Global Support

Representing billionaire philanthropist Aliko Dangote, the Nigeria Malaria Council reiterated that private sector investment must complement government financing. Meanwhile, the Global Fund confirmed it has invested nearly $2 billion in Nigeria’s malaria response and committed an additional $500 million for 2024–2026, including support for local production of malaria drugs.

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Abuja, Nigeria – African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Private Sector and Global Support

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

The Big Push: From Talk to Action

Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda are pioneering a shift from donor dependence to domestic revenue mobilization via tobacco, alcohol, and telecom taxes — a model hailed as central to financing Africa’s health futures and ending malaria by 2030
Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

Share on Facebook