Mrs. Zhou provides mental and psychological counseling for woman in rural areas.

It has been 10 years since the implementation of free psychological counseling services in rural areas. Although it seems I have achieved something when looking back, I do not think that the psychological problems in rural areas have been solved. I am the first one to do the psychological health education in rural areas, but the feelings I have experienced are beyond count. With more than a thousand vivid cases and ten thousand group trainings, benefited villagers’ life standard as well as physical and mental health has been greatly improved, which in return benefited me. My comprehensive quality and professional ability have been improved compared with the beginning. I like a dancer in the red shoes and cannot stop on the stage. 

Psychology and physiology are 2 aspects of the health, but most of people do not understand what psychological health is and treat mental problem as physical problem. They seek treatment everywhere which not only increases their economic spending but triggers family conflicts, and even endangers the social peace. The morbid behaviors can be upgraded to moral and legal levels.

Sarta Volunteer Association is run by socially responsible university students who are dedicated to volunteerism and public welfare activities. 

From January 25 through February 15, 2013, a team of volunteers from Sarta Volunteer Association implemented 20-day research projects in villages and towns across Gansu province. The research goals were as followed:  

1) Interviewing and collecting information from children of poor families or orphans. 

2) Learning about the 9-year compulsory education system in rural areas.

3) Assessing the progress of bilingual education (language of Dongxiang ethnic minority and mandarin) in pre-schools. 

Original article written by Xiaoming Ma, translated by Maggie Li and edited by Yanyan Zhang

Yichang Civil Public Student creates caring hearts to fund for families with children with special needs deep in the mountains. They hope that through their efforts and dedication, children can find happiness through learning.

One afternoon in January, I received Jia Mang’s call on my way to Bama in Guangxi Province. He said he dropped by my apartment to return some money. Upon arriving at Bama at 5 PM I received another call from Futao’s mother. Futao is a student from Liu Ping Primary School. She said that something has been wrong with her lungs recently and that she was going to pray at a Buddhist temple. She also suggested me to do the same. I told her that I was fine and thanked her for her concern. I also told her that we had found a sponsor for her son and that we would support him to continue his education.

The next day, another young guy named Wolf called me and said they were preparing a public service activity. They hoped to partner with us and asked if we could find any children in need. With joy, I told him I would make some home visits when my job got out and would let him know as soon as possible.

While I was walking through the village, a child came up to me, reached out his hands, and asked for money. Soon, several children gathered around me, all asking for money. I got upset and saw an old man with white beards standing in front of a shack. I greeted him and looked into the shack, hoping to talk to him, but he reached out his hand and also asked for money. I was overwhelmed 

The first child who asked for money kept following me, so I asked him to show me his school. There was a school with only one classroom. 50 children of several grades had to share a classroom and a teacher.

The Youth Social Responsibility Development Center works with university students to improve public welfare, encouraging more students to care about their community, join relevant organizations, and participate in public welfare activities.

Our TFish Fund-supported project was launched in November 2012, with the goal of guiding young people to engage in social practice, support grassroots organizations, and develop through public welfare activities. The students have been carrying out various activities in their own hometowns, and many have become volunteers at various public welfare organizations.

The students from Northwest University volunteered at a vocational training for teenagers sponsored by Little Bee Public Welfare organization. Some other students participated in a project on mental health, assessing the mental health of children at a child welfare agency and the elderly at a nursing home.

Heart to Heart Community Service Center aims to help children of migrant families integrate into the community and life of the city. 

This Chinese New Year, I had some hard feelings. I felt sad, because we were not able to offer our staff nice new years gifts. We were not able to pay their salaries on time. I did feel consolation because the children from our Dream Classroom received care and love from the Transparent Fish team. But, I also felt disappointment because one of our excellent staff left the team. I felt frustrated because we now have to employee new staff and start over. I was thinking of how to train administrative staff and build the work team, which kept me up at night.

Original article written by Ying Dong, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

I would like to share with you a recent memorable encounter I had while visiting a watch-repair shop.

There is a small watch-repair shop called House of Treasures near where I live. I frequent the shop enough that I've given it a Chinese name—Zhen Bao Wu. The shop owner is named Brad, a jolly and kind boss. He greets people even when he is repairing watches, and he always asks me about any updates regarding the TFish Fund.

I made sure to bring him our 2012 Donor Book when I went in to the shop. He was surprised by all the projects we had been supporting, and, in particular, he was intrigued by the hemophilia project. I found out that his daughter’s boyfriend has hemophilia and, in addition to suffering from the illness, has to pay expensive medical bills.  

On January 25 and 26, two of our EV/TFish Interns, Isabel and Sophia, attended Freedom Summit 2013, one of the largest anti-trafficking coalition conferences to ever be held. The following are each of their reflections on the experience.

Sophia

On Friday, January 25, I attended Freedom Summit, a Bay Area anti-trafficking coalition conference. The event was filled with activist speakers who had gathered to share their own personal experiences related to the issue. Although I had previously been educated on the issue from friends and various media sources, Freedom Summit broadened my understanding of sex trafficking and served as a reality check for me on the importance of the issue. While sitting on the aisle of Harbor Light Church, I listened to various activists sharing several experiences and stories that were troubling to hear. One activist spoke of young girls being strapped to tables and sexually abused until getting murdered. Another activist showed us a video of a little skinny boy, enslaved by a man whose only defense of keeping the boy was so that he could feed himself. The stories were heartbreaking, and caused me to question the morality of this world. How can someone be so selfish as to put their own desires and needs before the lives of others? How can someone take away an innocent child's life without guilt in his soul?

One of the most significant moments of the evening was hearing from a sex trafficking victim. Her name is Leah Albright-Byrd, and she had spent four years of her life on the streets of Cupertino, living a life haunted by sexual exploitation and drug addiction. In addition in becoming a sex trafficking victim, Leah also became a recruiter for her pimp. Her life changed when she recruited a young girl, Bridget Gray. On Bridget's 22nd birthday, Bridget was murdered after being tied to a bed and sexually abused until death. Today, Leah has escaped trafficking and now serves as the executive director of a non-profit organization, Bridget's Dream, which provides practical and immediate clinical services to women who are exploited as she and Bridget had been.

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Associate Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

The two brothers also got to participate in our annual conference themed Love Passing-On. The children and I dressed up as pandas and made various poses. They played along happily. The next event was to raise money for the construction of a warm house for the children. The goal of the fundraising project was 25,000 RMB, and most of the items to be auctioned off were handicrafts made at a special education school.

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Associate Member. It was established for the purpose of serving the needs of impoverished children.

Life for Non Zezhi and Non Zeshao, two brothers, was sad. Their teachers told us that no matter how hard they tried to make them happy, they never smiled. It seemed that smiles had disappeared from their faces. In art class, the teacher asked the children to draw their favorite animals. Most of the students, including Zezhi, drew a panda. When the teacher asked him about the picture, he said he would love to see a panda and his teacher caught a smile on his face. 

With an opportunity annually provided through Rainbow Village, we scheduled a happy journey for the children: seeing pandas that they had been dreaming about for such a long time. We hoped that the journey would bring smiles back to the children.