Poverty（贫困）is a big problem around the world. But China has found its own way to fight poverty. Instead of just giving money to poor people, it has tried to educate people and give them the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Common people and good partnerships（合作）play a big role. President Xi Jinping honored role models in the fight. Here are two of them.
Born in Heilongjiang Province, Zhang Guimei traveled to Yunnan when she was 17. She has been helping girls get education for more than 40 years. As a teacher, Zhang was sad when she saw her students quit school（辍学）. Many of them couldn't go to college because their families couldn't afford it. So in 2008, Zhang started a free school for poor girls. Since then, Zhang has been busy asking for donations（捐赠）to provide money for the school. She has convinced（说服）parents to send their daughters back to school. The school has sent more than 1,800 students to universities and colleges.
In 1997, Mao Xianglin started to work as the Party secretary of his village. Around the village are 1,000-meter-tall cliffs（悬崖峭壁）, and there was only one pathway（小路）out of the village for many years. It took villagers three days to walk to the nearest town. Mao decided to build a road. He led more than 100 villagers to build the road with their hands. It took them seven years to build an eight-kilometer road. But their work has improved people's lives. It now takes just one hour to drive to the nearest town. Mao then encouraged the villagers to grow oranges. Last year, their orange yield（产量）was nearly 40 tons. By the end of 2019, 269 villagers had been lifted out of poverty.
