Tong Dawei and his wife Guan Yue endorses the campaign. [Photo by Chen Mengwei/chinadaily.com.cn]

Philanthropists are calling for more social support in China to better help high school students in poverty.

On Sunday, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation started its second annual campaign at Peking University to encourage more people donate money to help poor high school students stay in school.

The foundation connects more students through an established virtual classes program throughout 832 poor counties and areas. Not only does this provide students with money, but also gives them a community to share life stories and support each other.

The program was established in September 2007. By the end of 2015, it has organized 401 virtual classes in 165 counties reaching 25 provinces in China, helping 45,995 students in total, with 72.05 million yuan raised.

Celebrities Tong Dawei and his wife Guan Yue along with government officials from the State Council's office for poverty alleviation and the ministry of education and international company representatives were on-hand to endorse the campaign.

Yan Zhitao, assistant secretary general at the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, said the foundation has made its way to help the poor more in accordance with the central government's latest guidance, specifically leaning towards high school students from poor families whose financial difficulties have been officially recognized by local counties' governments.

At the end of the ceremony, a group of entrepreneurs offered to give financial supports to 2,200 students. Each student receives around 2,000 yuan per year.

Zhang En, vice director of the corporate social responsibility center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that helping the poor via education will enable children living in poverty gain knowledge, change their fate and bring better life to their family. Zhang said he believed that this is the most effective and direct way of helping the poor.