Murder leaves a heartfelt legacy

Photo Provided to China Daily

"The Pfrang Association has supported at least 800 students in the poor areas of Jiangsu and neighboring Anhui provinces since it was founded," says Snoey. "We support the students with tuition fees, accommodation fees and send them presents."

The association now has 16 members, most of whom are teachers at Nanjing International School. In the 14 years since the Pfrangs died, many people who knew them have left Nanjing, but new members join the association because of the same belief - that education can change people's lives.

Zhang Liwei, former deputy secretary-general of the Amity Foundation, says he was impressed when Guesten and a lawyer asked him to cooperate. The Pfrang Association needed a Chinese partner, because according to Chinese law it could not establish its own foundation and carry out fund-raising without a local partner.

"At that time, many Chinese people could not understand that the victims' friends wanted to help people of the murderers' hometown," Zhang says. "When I visited those poor areas in northern Jiangsu province, I was shocked by what I saw."

"I still remembered vividly that a man in Lianshui county of northern Jiangsu, who was too poor to find a girlfriend, had only a piece of wood as a bed in his home. Even some officials in the county had to have porridge for every meal due to a lack of food. They really needed other people to help them."

According to Snoey, every year the association holds events to remember the Pfrang family and to raise money for the children it supports.