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. 15-year-old Yufeng was a sickly child. He was unfit and often caught colds and had diarrhea. The villager doctor believed that Yufeng’s heart had an unhealthy sound. Because their family is poor, Yufeng’s parents did not take him to a larger hospital for a checkup until late 2014, when Yufeng had constant headaches and chest aches. His weak body can no longer hold the serious illness at bay. Upon seeing Yufeng’s struggle with the painful disease, his father vowed to take Yufeng to Lanzhou. After looking at Yufeng’s various checkup reports, the doctor recommended immediate surgery. Because of their poor economic condition, Yufeng’s parents cannot afford the high price of surgery. With Little Red Scarf’s help, Yufeng now has a healthy heart. Half a year after surgery, Yufeng feels healthier. He used to have a hard time walking on sloped roads and would experience tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. Now he can climb sloped roads just fine. Yufeng’s family consists of 4 people. His mother can no longer do physical labor because of health problems. Yufeng is a sophomore in Yanguan Second High School. His per-semester tuition is 2500 yuan. The old school building does not provide food or board, so he needed to rent a house outside of school and cook for himself. This year, the school moved to a new building and provides free board and has a cafeteria. The daily meal cost is around 15 yuan, or 72 yuan a week. His living cost per year is around 3500 yuan. Yufeng also has a little brother. Because there are no middle schools near Yufeng’s home, his little brother needs to be a eighth grader at Qishan Middle School 10 kilometers away. Qishan does not provide dormitories, so Yufeng’s brother had to rent a house with his classmates for 700 yuan a year. After finishing a day’s worth of homework, they need to immediately return to the house and cook for themselves. They bring rice, flour, and cooking oil from home. Even in the economically prosperous town, Yufeng’s brother still uses a petroleum stove to cook. Compared with middle school students in the city, Yufeng’s brother is a lot more mature and responsible because of poverty. Yufeng’s brother’s living costs each year is only 640 yuan. Calculated this way, the two brothers’ expenses alone amount to over 10000 yuan a year. Yufeng’s mother had a stroke ten years ago. Her condition visibly improved after two months of treatment, but the treatment cost 2000 yuan. Unfortunately, the good fortune did not last. Five years ago, when getting water on a snowy day, she broke her kneecap. After treatment, although she can walk normally, she cannot do hard physical labor and can only do some household chores. The occurrence of multiple family emergencies forced Yufeng’s father to work locally doing miscellaneous tasks. Working as a construction worker moving concrete earns him .60 yuan per bag of concrete. This hard work can only earn him 6000 yuan a year. Longwan Caring Home is located in Dahua County, which was listed as one of the poorest counties in Guangxi Province. Longwan Caring Home is a big family consisting of orphans, single parents, and abandoned children. The normal expense of the Home is sustained by plantation, breeding, and small business. Guishan came to Longwan in 2010. He draws very good pictures and performs well for silent show. He also does handcrafts, plays basketball and swim. He is an orphan. His father died in 2002 and his mother died in 2004. He brother got very sick and died later. In December of 2014, his grandmother died, too. His 2 older sister got married, so he lives with his grandfather who is a blind man. Life became difficult for them. Despite of these difficulties, he is still optimistic and positive. A few days ago, he felt sick in stomach. We took him to hospital and he was diagnosed chronic superficial antral inflammation. He has been feeling stomachache since he was in Grade 5. The teachers did not expect the serious result. Guishan seemed not so optimistic when he got stomachache. Sometimes, we felt helpless to the unfair fate. Guishan had to take so much disaster and agonies. Each of the children in Longwan has to take pressure that should not have fallen on them. Each child has his own story and problem. We hope them grow up happily. Original Article Written by Banai Hua, 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. One month after Hongyan was discharged from hospital, we accompanied her mother to reimburse from New Rural Cooperation Medical System (NCMS). We would like to learn something more about the system. When we saw her mother, she looked great. According to Hongyan’s cousin, the office of NCMS is in the county hospital. It was noon. Yun Yun and Hongyan’s mother re-organized and printed the paper works for the reimbursement. Hongyan’s mother is an illiterate, so her cousin accompanied her to the county. Her cousin read relevant regulations of reimbursement to Hongyan’s mother. According to the staff, the reimbursement now should be done at township clinic level. The township clinic is 40 kilometers away from the county. There are 2 shifts of bus. If the 2 shifts were missed, they had to take private small bus, which takes 50 minutes and 60 RMB. The paper works were not complete. Hongyan is juvenile and has no ID, so they need to take a resident certification from the local police office and a photo. When we learned all paper works they need, we took actions separately. The only photo shop was closed and we had to go back to the county. The next day, all papers were ready and submitted to the staff. When we asked about the reimbursement ratio, the staff told us there were new policies and they were not sure. The family would receive the money in early June. With the field visit, we got to know the process of the NCMS. Though everything was not going well, we still learned a lot. It was valuable experience and we would tell our clients and serve them well. Original article written by Ying Guan, translated by Maggie Li, and 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. On April 15, when we completed home visit at Hong Xia’s home, we went to visit Xiao Ma, Hongyan’s cousin. Xiao Ma is kind and hardworking. She took care of Hongyan when Hongyan was in hospital. We were moved by her kind-hearted and hardworking and our friendship was established. Xiao Ma is good at raising sheep. We would like to take this opportunity to visit her and her family. The owner of the house went out for work for a long-term, so she takes care of the house and the family of 4 can live here. They had been living here for 3 years. We saw 2 sheep by stepping into the gate. Xiao Ma was feeding the goats. The main food of the goats was crashed corn stems and powder. She put more time in taking care of the sheep. The 2 sheep looked healthy and would give birth to small sheep soon. The sheep were released and bathing under the sun. The air was fresh and it was a heavy rain last night. It’s time to shear the sheep, but she was too busy for planting the potatoes. The sheep is 3 and would give birth to lambs. Xiao Ma hoped the sheep mother would give birth to 3 lambs. Another sheep is a little bit smaller. If the 2 sheep give birth to lambs successfully, there will be 5 lambs. When they ate full, Xiao Ma drove them into the sheepfold. We also visited Xiao Ma’s new house. The family would move to the new house this summer. They would buy simple but necessary furniture. The blank part in the picture will be the sheepfold. Xiao Ma works very hard and looks forward to a better life. We believe she will become better in the future. There are many households raising sheep in the village. They are sheep from Xiao Ma’s neighbor. They will be driven home when it become dark. Wish all hardworking people a better life! Original article written by Yunyun Jie, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang Grounded on core values of respect, love, and service to the elderly, the Xin Yue Senior Citizen Service Center of Chongqing, China, promotes social work services for senior citizens and builds harmonious living environment for them.
According to the interviews, we got to know senior citizens like activities on plant nursing. On December 1, 13 senior citizens and 17 volunteers participated in plant nursing activity held by Management Institute of Chongqing Technology University and Youth Association. To promote the participants to know well with each other within the group, the social worker introduced the contents, purpose and meaning of the activity. They also helped the senior citizens to do self-introduction. Grandpa Li’s self-introduction surprised people. He is 106 years old. He is still healthy except his hearing is not very good. He likes playing Majiang and plants. Then the social worker played a video to demonstrate how a plant grow, from sprout, growing up to mature, which just like the process of a life of people. Its similarity caused emotional resonance among the senior citizens. Every day has almost the same life process. What we can do is to let each stage of our life become meaningful. Cherish the present and do not leave regrets. After sharing, social workers and volunteers gave plant, flowerpot, earth and plastic gloves to them and assisted them to plant trees. The senior citizens chose their plants they like and start to work with them. They were very careful to plant and take care of each piece of plant. Unexpectedly, we found all senior citizens were good at planting. They did each step in an orderly way. Soon, pots of plants were seen. Looking at the flowers they had planted, their eyes were swelled with pity. Then the social workers asked the senior citizens to give a name to their pot plant and stick with a label. They would love and take care of their plants. Granny Ou gave a name, Xiao Jiaojiao to her plant. She said Xiao Jiaojiao is her little baby and will accompany her for the rest of life, so she would take good care of it. The green or little flowers let the senior citizens have more expectation about them. We hope them be rewarded from the life of plant. Original article written by Ling Feng, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu and Yunnan 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.
I have been thinking a lot on how to start this email. There’s too much, so I did not know how to start. Finally, I decided to start with gratitude. So far, I still remember the day I heard the good news from Little Red Scarf. I was relaxing and slept well that night in hospital. I was sent to operation room on September 5, 2014. I fell asleep when the anesthesia began to work. I thought I could not know how anxiety my family members were when they were waiting outside. Luckily, I passed a major test. We were all relaxed. It’s December 26, 2014, and I am sitting in front of a PC and reviewing days passed in a few months. The happiest thing is the change of my health and the transformation of my mentality. I completely knew the situation of my health. Albinism Children’s Home is a public service platform designed to help and support albinos and their families living in China. The organization's main goal is to improve living standards and promote equal participation in society for albinos. Abinism Children's Home is in Xi’an, Shanxi province. I have been thinking of writing a story about father, but I am afraid I am not able to describe the unusual life of an ordinary father. After participating the activity themed on thank father, I would like to share a story of my father. My father was born in 1950 in a poor peasant family. My father is the second child of 7 siblings. My father did not have the opportunity to be educated. He had to help to do field work when he was quite young. The family was poor, so it’s difficult for my father and 3 of his brothers to get married. My father married my mother, one of the family’s relatives, after being made match by his parents. My parents love each other, but relative marriage buried a hidden trouble. My older sister and I have disabilities. I am an albinism and my sister suffers from skin diseases. My father took us to many hospitals for treatment, but we had never been treated thoroughly. My father kept working hard to found treatment for us, but the results were always disappointing. There hasn’t had treatment for albinism so far in the world. The hospitals could not give any confirmed result for my sister problem. She lost her hearing when she was 13 and her intelligence had stopped in her 13. When she was married and gave birth to a baby, she could not walk due to the increasing weights. All the troubles come from relative marriage. Grounded on core values of respect, love, and service to the elderly, the Xin Yue Senior Citizen Service Center of Chongqing, China, promotes social work services for senior citizens and builds harmonious living environment for them.
Winter came near and the temperature dropped lower. Many senior citizen hope they could taste a bowl of warm dumplings. On November 27th, we carried out an activity by cooperating with Voluntary Association of Chongqing Industry and Commercial University. 31 senior citizens and 25 volunteers participated in the activity. The senior citizens were interested in making dumplings. They all like to do by themselves. When the volunteers made the fillings ready, the senior citizens were involved them into the activity immediately. Some of senior citizens helped granny Li who seats on the wheelchairs with fillings and dumpling wrappers. With their hard working, dumplings with various shapes came out. Grandpa Ding made dumplings with special shape, just like a lace round the dumpling. With such a nice dumplings, the volunteers could not help taking his dumplings to show to the other persons. Grandpa Ding shared his skills with other senior citizens by demonstrating time and time again. The volunteers took the dumplings to cook. After being cooked, the senior citizens were sitting together and enjoyed their working results. The atmosphere was warm and happy. When the volunteer asked a senior citizen how many he had had. He answered 8 and said confidently, “eight is okay for me, no problem!” We hope the senior citizens would feel the warmth and care in cold winter days. Original article written by Ling Feng, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School in Beijing.
In November, at Teacher Gu’s Workshop, the elder students led the younger students to create. The elder students were divided into groups and each group was assigned task. The elder students observed the younger ones. They elders encourage the younger to draw bravely and inspire their imagination in the meantime. The younger’s confidence would be built increasingly. Every 2 elder students were responsible for 15 younger students. Each younger student was cared. The method also enhanced their friendship among the students. In English class, each student knew the usage of the words. During the teaching process, some of words were used, such as mountain, river, tree, house, etc. During the painting, Teacher Gu reviewed relevant words with the students. The teacher would asked someone to teach those who could not give the right answer. Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan. Visits went on in November. We organized 21 volunteers from abroad and visited Yangquangou village, Zhushan, Yimen, providing services to 42 lepers. Medical services were for Wu and Wang Anzhu.
1) Visit Zhushan and Yangquangou villages of Yiliang county Considering the health situation of Bao Cai’s father and the needs of the lepers in Zhushan, we organized 13 volunteers on Ocotber 30 to visit Yangquangou and Shushan. We brought rice to 4 people and helped to cut firewood. We also brought life necessities and medical help for 18 people in Yangquangou. Liang Ping went down half way and visited a leper. There are many lepers supported by Shalom. They hope Liang Ping could stay a little bit longer so as to treat them. Liang Ping did acupuncture therapy for a patient. |
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