Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

On November 30, 2012, the staff of LRS got to know Juhua, a mother from a poor family at Lanzhou University Hospital. She was suffering from congenital heart disease and admitted by the hospital. She is the beneficiary of Care Mother Program of LRS. This March, she came to the hospital for physical check and told us her son was not feeling well, with symptoms of nausea and getting cold regularly. She said after spending the Chinese New Year and paid the costs of her re-examination in hospital, the family also spent their savings.

Considering Juhua could not do much field work after the surgery, her husband came back from the city. Their son had not been feeling well for a while, so her husband took their son to see a doctor in Lanzhou. The doctor checked the child’s digestive system which showed fine, so they went back home.

A year later, the event was almost forgotten until we received a call in the end of November. Juhua told us her son was admitted in the same hospital where she received surgery. Her son was even arranged to the same bed. They applied serious disease pension from the civil bureau of Gansu. 

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

Dongdong was 11 when he accepted the surgery. 4 years passed, and we would like to know the current situation of him as well as the changes brought to the family. The family changed the cell phone number, so we lost contact with them for a while. Fortunately, we finally got their number via Teacher Guan’s relatives. It was a surprise, so we visited Dongdong on December 10, 2013. 

Hearing the sound of the vehicle, Dongdong’s mother came and met us. The car we rented is bright red and seemed striking with the yellow earth background.  

We arrived at Dongdong’s home. His grandma was sitting in the yard and doing housework. Her daughter-in-law told her we are from LRC. She asked her daughter-in-law to help her up and invited us to into the room. 

We saw this little toy panda when coming into the room. Dongdong’s mother said it was given by an American supporter when he was in hospital. The children in the village like it, but she did not allow them to take it. It is important for the family and it more likes a memory. “Looking at the panda, we would think of people who helped us”, her mother said. We showed his mother the picture taken before the surgery. His mother seemed a little excited. It’s not easy to identify, as 4 years have passed and he was wearing nebulizer in the picture. 

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

Nana’s lives in Pingliang of Gansu province. LRS supported her for surgery in 2010. She was a student in grade 11 then. In the same August, she participated in summer camp held by LRS in Pingliang. After the summer camp, her mother told us that Nana had changed a lot since she got the support from LRS. She became open to talk and confident. After the surgery, she became positive and tried hard to prepare for university entrance examination. 3 years later, she was no longer a shy girl. She fulfilled her dream—she became a student in Tianshui Normal College.

Current Nana is cheerful freshman studying early childhood education in Tianshui Normal College.Thanks to the supporters, Nana could accept the surgery.

Nana told us she could run 800 meters easily at school. The surgery not only brought energy, but positive life faith to her. 

Nana guided us to visit her school. We knew it is the first place where Nana achieves her dream. We will cheer for her and wish a color life for her. 

Original article written by Yujue Yun, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

In March of 2011, Qi Ming was admitted by the hospital because of congenital heart disease. With the help of Little Red Scarf, he was accepted surgery. He was 13 and in grade 5. In April of 2012, a year after the surgery, the staff of LRS gave the scholarship donated from the USA to Qi Ming’s father, hoping to alleviate the burden of the family. 

In December, 2013, LRS visited Qi Ming’s family and witnessed the life of Qi Ming and his father. It was cold in December in the north. Knowing we were coming, Qi Ming’s father walked about 1 hour to meet us at the station. When we saw the familiar face again, we found more wrinkles which had added by the burden of life. 

Yu Disabled Persons’ Association is located in Zhengzhou city of Henan Province. It is a non-governmental organization working with disabled persons. The organization aims to help people with disabilities to get out of self-closing and encourage them to be confident and independent.

In the morning of November 13, with the guide of the volunteers, some of disabled persons came to Xi Xin Zhuan village and visited Liu Shao, a disabled person who lives alone. 

They are 72 wheelchairs that purchased by Yu Disabled Persons’ Association. 

According to the villager, Liu Shao’s leg was injured in a fire accident when he was 3. One of his legs was amputated. His mother died when he was 5. He has been raised by the families in the village. Later a tumor was found growing in his disabled leg. He had to accept another amputation, which made him cannot walk at all.  

Hearing this, Yu Disabled Persons’ Association sent him wheelchair, hoping to improve his life condition. Yuan Haijun also brought him ointment and medicine for his leg to recover.

Wang Yunfeng, a disabled person donated 500 RMB in the name of the organization when seeing his difficult condition.

Liu Shao was so happy and appreciated the helps from other disabled friends. He expressed no matter how hard the life is, he would be optimistic. He began to learn to use wheelchair.

Wheelchair donation activity will continue no matter what difficulties we may have in the future. We hope more people and media care the group, for they are eager to involve into the society and reflect their own value.

Original article written by Haijun Yuan, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

In Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, with the principles of “serve the society, dedicate love, help others and delight ourselves, Changzhou Volunteers Association actively promotes volunteerism around the city.

In the early morning of November 24, about 40 volunteers bought fresh vegetables and meat from the market. They would like to visit Yonghong Nursing Home of Changzhou City. They would make dumplings with the senior citizens. 

With people’s efforts, vegetables and meat became various shapes of dumplings. Bowls of steaming dumplings were sent to the senior citizens.

People in Changzhou stepped into aging in 1985. According to the experts, the aged population would make up about 22.46% by 2015. Caring the senior citizen has become a social topic. Senior citizens are the wealth of the society. What should we do for the elderly people? A bowl of hot dumplings not only can warm the stomachs of the senior citizens, but warm their hearts. 

Original article was written by Yuan Kong, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang

Iseek Cultural Center is a public welfare organization initiated by patients with PAH (pulmonary artery hypertension), which aims to provide support and service for people with invisible disabilities as PAH.

On November 16, 2013, together with Beijing Iseek, FYSE, an organization doing social enterprise research and training went to the classroom of Beijing 101 Middle School. They brought public lessons on pulmonary hypertension (PAH).

Huang Huan, the person-in-charge of Iseek shared his process of diagnostics and treatment of PAH in fluent English. He wanted to use his story to explain what PAH is as well as the difficulties that a patient has to face. The students got to know that the illness is more than a medical problem and is also related to the patients’ families and medical organizations. Meanwhile, people with PAH face social problems in school education, employment and marriage. 

After the introduction for the “Blue Lips” activity, the students were inspired and started to act. Some of them painted their faces as a cat and some of them drew a blue loving logo on the face. Some students even painted their eyelids blue.   

The illness may seem far away from the students. They may not be able to feel the pain brought on by PAH, but now the word PAH will always be in their mind. If anyone mentions blue lips in the future they can all say "I understand." 

Let's care for people suffering with PAH together and unite with blue lips. 


Original article written by Zhe Fan, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

The first time I saw Ga Lan, she and her husband looked dispirited and their clothes were shabby. They looked like they had stepped out of the 1970s. Ga Lan is 40. Her cheeks were red and she was wearing a red headscarf. Her clothes had not been cleaned for some time. She was holding a three month old baby in her arms. Doctors and nurses thought the baby was sick, but the sick person was Ga Lan. She had to bring the baby because there is no one at home to take care of it.

Ga Lan’s father is over 80 and his eyes were injured during the war. Her mother is over 70 and her spine was injured. Her parents raised 5 children, but not one is healthy. Ga Lan’s older brother died due to heart disease when he was 10. She has a 50-year-old brother who is disabled. Her 2 older sisters were married. Her parents expected she could carry on the family line. She was married 3 years ago to a man in the village. Her husband has a very big family of 15 siblings. The family could barely eat. He is the youngest and married Gan Lan in his 40s. Her husband is honest, but his spine was injured and it is hard for him to do field work, so the family’s burden fell on Gan Lan. They planted wheat and beans. They keep wheat for the family use and sell beans. The income of the whole family is about 1000 RMB per year.

Life after the marriage has not been smooth. Her first child died 6 months into the pregnancy. She gave birth to a son this year, which was a happy event for the family. 40 days after the child’s birth, Gan Lan was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. The doctor advised her to accept surgery in Lanzhou. She borrowed 8000 RMB from 5 families in the village and the couple took the train to Lan Zhou with her nephew.

Loving Public Welfare Association of Anding District，Dingxi City of Gansu Province is consisted of teachers and students from universities, which is engaged in helping vulnerable groups by means of voluntary services.

Even when life gets dark, our hearts are still as bright as the sun. We recently visited the Gaoshan Primary School of Tongwei county. 

Tongwei is located in the middle of Gansu province. It is in the gully area of Loess Plateau at 1410-2522 meters above sea level. Most of area is exposed without vegetation coverage. The area lacks water and is often hit by natural disasters.

The view alongside the road is bleak in the winter wind.  It’s about 130 kilometers between Dingxi city and Gaoshan Primary School. There were a few students walking towards the school.

When we arrived at the school with schoolbags, dictionaries and sports supplies donated by Water Drop Public Welfare, the children had been sitting in the classrooms. The school is small, but clean. According to the teacher, there are 53 students and 7 teachers. Some of students are left-behind children. We were sorry to hear this.

When the bell rang, the students came out of classrooms. They smiled when they saw their brand new schoolbags and dictionaries. Holding schoolbags and dictionaries in their hands, they seemed thoughtful. I asked an 8-year child what use he would get out of the dictionary. He told me seriously that it would be the best teacher, especially when he did not know to write a certain word. He said again that the schoolbag was very nice and he liked it. I saw the gratitude in his eyes. The children have not been intimidated by the harsh environment, nor by their poor lives. They are steadfast and eager to learn.

Original article written by Jingtian Yao, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang