From top: Jiang brings donated books to students in a primary school in Ningxia. Jiang looks at a photo album with pictures from when she was involved in the Spring Buds project that helps girls return to classrooms. Photos by Li Jing and provided to China Daily
Jiang was fondly called the "Spring Buds grandma".
"I found her!" Ding Caiting recalls exclaiming to her 10-year-old daughter as she read a book, Living Like Lei Feng, about people who have followed the example of selfless Chinese role models. "The 'Spring Buds grandma' is the one who helped me when I was your age!"
Today, Ding is a doctor in Yinchuan's Xingqing district. She'd picked up the book while participating in a volunteer activity.
"I never imagined that the person sponsoring me would be a grandma," Ding says.
"She has great love."
From the book, she discovered that Jiang was not rich, as she had thought earlier, but was an ordinary person who lived on a pension. With tenacious perseverance, she had overcome the pain of hypertension, a heart disease and diabetes to work on behalf of the children.
"My daughter said we should thank Grandma Jiang. If I hadn't returned to school with her support, I would not have such a good life today," Ding adds.
Jiang's story has inspired many to join the effort. In her handwritten Spring Buds notebook, she has recorded the details of contributors - their names, telephone numbers, places of residence and the amount of money donated. It lists more than 500 people from different walks of life.
In 2007, a Chinese person living in the United States contacted Jiang and donated more than 1.4 million yuan after reading a media report about her.
Jiang has been awarded as a "charity leader" in China. Her work has boosted the development of education in Ningxia, observers say.
"Our family doesn't care too much about the awards," says Cui Wei, Jiang's daughter.
"My mother is just doing what she likes."
More people are now doing charity work, she adds.
Jiang shares her motivation for helping others: "I'm an orphan. I know the feeling of loneliness and what it means to need help."
She was 13 when both of her parents died, and she had to live with her relatives.
In recent years, with the implementation of the compulsory nine-year education in the country, the enrollment rate of primary and secondary school students has risen, so Jiang has shifted her focus to supporting students in high schools and colleges.
