The enthusiasm of the benefactors has frosted over with the indifference of the beneficiaries. Five poor college students in central China's Hubei Province have been excluded from financial assistance this year because of the coldness they have shown to their financial contributors.

Having received help for over one year, they have never given a call, written a letter or said a warm word to those supporting their studies, the local website,cnhubei, reported on Wednesday.

At the annual event, devoting to assist poor students, held in mid-August, five students from Xiangfan city in Hubei province were excluded from the ongoing aid program, co-sponsored by the local federation of trade union and the female entrepreneur association.

Last August, 19 female entrepreneurs decided to aid 22 impoverished students, promising that in the following four years they would give the students financial aid worth between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan (US$132 to US$395) annually. And before the semester began, the trade union federation sent a letter to the students, hoping them to report on their studies to their helpers.

However, with one year having passed by, two thirds of them did not write anything to their financial supporters. One student did write back, but only asking for more help, with few words of appreciation.

The vice chairwoman of the local federation, Zhou Ping, who went to great lengths to hawk assistance for the poor, said she felt embarrassed and disappointed, adding that some of those students might have the feeling of too much self-esteem or, alternatively, of self-inferiority, and thus lack the right attitudes in how to treat others.

(CRIENGLISH.com August 23, 2007)