Upon arrival, Ma didn't even realize it was a school at all.
There were only three classrooms and a small playground. It was February and in the depths of a cold winter, everything looked even more desolate. The first thing Ma did with help from his colleagues was to fix the school ceilings, which were all broken. He painted doors and the frames of windows, drew some murals on the walls and repaired leaky classrooms and dorms. A simple gate for the school was made, with the school name on it.
Mayin village is on the top of a mountain, where the water contains high alkali and tastes bitter and salty. Even though the country had built a water pipeline network, because of the high terrain, water pressure was often insufficient, and the water supply was constantly blocked in the school. The situation prompted Ma to apply for the school to be rebuilt and that a solution is found for the problem with drinking water. After three years, from reporting, requiring land acquisition, building a new school, and then relocating, Ma, along with his colleagues and students, moved to the new campus.
'They said the water tastes sweet and clean,' Ma said. The purifier at Mayin school is one of more than 50 water purifiers in Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture, donated by Coca-Cola China in 2019.
Improving drinking water quality in poverty stricken areas has been a pillar in poverty alleviation efforts to improve the quality of life and hygiene conditions in these areas. Since 2017, the program initiated by Coca-Cola China has invested 448 sets of water purifiers for a total of 434 schools in poverty-stricken areas in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Gansu province, Southwest China's Yunnan province and Central China's Hunan province, providing clean and safe drinking water to more than 210,000 teachers and students. Having worked to get safe drinking water and a new campus for his students, Ma's next goal is to cultivate the first batch of university students from Mayin village.
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