Qiu Zengfa [Photo/Ruian News App]
Qiu Zengfa was born in 1976 in Yangtou village, Gaolou town, Ruian, a county-level city administered by Wenzhou, in East China's Zhejiang province. At the age of 15, Qiu moved with his father to the city of Florence in Italy, where he attended high school. Later, Qiu and his father opened a leather processing factory.
In 1998, Qiu moved to Spain to start his own business and he set up a leather import and export company on the island of Tenerife.
"I left home at a young age and worked hard in a foreign country. I knew that the strong motherland is the backer of Chinese people," Qiu said. "So, I determined to unite the local Chinese and overseas Chinese and to actively participate in the promotion of love for the motherland," he added. In 2015, Qiu founded the Chinese Overseas Chinese Association of Tenerife and was elected its first president.
In September 2015, the founding ceremony and opening ceremony of the Tenerife Chinese School was held. It was the only Chinese school on the island at the time and was organized by the Chinese Overseas Chinese Association of Tenerife.
The following year, the southern branch of the Tenerife Chinese School was established. There are more than 5,000 overseas Chinese people living on that part of the island. The southern branch is very convenient for Chinese children to learn their culture and take on its excellent traditions.
In 2020, when COVID-19 was raging, Qiu actively organized for local Chinese residents to collect protective materials and donate them to China, which won him praise in every corner.
Due to the epidemic, many overseas Chinese can't get their passports replaced when they expire. From May 22 to 25 this year, Qiu led 11 volunteers at the Chinese Overseas Chinese Association of Tenerife to help overseas Chinese people to organize, review materials and confirm personal information. They then sent the materials to the Chinese Embassy in Madrid, to help local Chinese people in need to renew their passports. In just a few days, they reviewed documents for 400 local Chinese residents.
