The Jingjieniao Home is in Xi’an, Shan’xi province. It provides services for the mentally handicapped from poverty-stricken families. The organization is dedicated to improving their spirit and living standards and advocating for every disabled individual to have adequate access to social resources.
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In July, Bird Home hosted many activities. The children not only got to receive donations from kind-hearted people across many different fields, but also began a meaningful summer camp activity.

According to their motto - “Love, truth, and service to community” - Xingyang Volunteer Federation works to enhance people’s sense of social responsibility through providing them various volunteer opportunities.The office is in Xingyang, Henan province.
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The Beautiful Childhood Activity has reached a successful conclusion. As a new volunteer, I also gained a lot during my time spent eating, sleeping and studying with the children.

• Through this activity, the children’s closed hearts opened up. We have a group of special kids. Because of certain circumstances, their living environments, materialistic conditions, and spiritual life are not as fulfilling as those of other kids. Children grown up in environments like these are self-abased, fearful, shy, and introverted. They are unsure about their future life and learning and about how to plan their life and face challenges. Through this activity, their souls received a thorough cleaning. Many children showed the world their deepest, most protected secrets and pains and were able to free themselves from resentment for the unfair world. They realized their past mistakes and felt much happier, smiles evident on their faces. Seeing the children’s genuine smiles proves to us as volunteers that our hard work has not been in vain.

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.

Let’s first talk about the children. I teach preschool. At first, I felt slightly frustrated because, whether I coo or punish, the kids would not sit quietly. They climb on stools and desks, run around inside and outside of the classroom, and create a huge disturbance. After spending more days with them, however, I got used to this behavior. The children are very creative: making beautiful works out of paint, clay, and paper. Some boys have no hesitation swinging their fists at other children, and when I turn my head to check on them a few minutes later, they are already on top of the basketball net. When I look at their drawings, however, I see cute animals and bright colors. Discoveries like these always surprise me and make me stare in awe. I silently pray that, in their growing up, they will never lose this ability to express their true feelings because if they do, the grown-up world will be extremely boring.
 
There are also many older children (4th to 6th grade) in the Home who are so considerate and obedient that they make our hearts ache. Many of them are orphans or have single parents. I don’t know if I can understand even a fraction of what they have been through. All I can do is try to suppress the hurtful pity in my eyes when I look at them. All I want is to get along well with them. They are very skilled, able to do all kinds of chores, take care of their little sisters and brothers, dance, play music, sign language, and play many different sports. They gave me my first lesson in ballroom dancing.

Thank you for joining us in this season of giving.

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.

In the afternoon of Dec. 15, we held the 24th birthday party for 177 senior citizens with the support of Chongqing Sunshine Public Service Foundation. 

In this summer, birthday party had been concealed for 3 months due to high temperature. Social workers visited all senior citizens who were born in July, August, October and December before the activity. They got to know their wishes and needs. The senior citizens were invited to participate in the activity. Many senior citizens were grateful. During the activity, the senior citizens shared cakes and their happiness with each other. The volunteers presented their performances and greetings. 

After the activity, the social workers visited those who were not convenient to move. They sent wishes and cakes to their rooms. Some of them though could not move, they still knew and said thank you with weak voices. 

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.

In the morning of September 12, we hold birthday party for 10 senior citizens with the support of TFish. There are 35 participants. The activity got supports from Chongqing Sunshine Public Welfare Foundation.

The weather was hot, sot the activities in July and August were cancelled. The senior citizens expressed their understanding for the arrangement. Meanwhile, the birthday party in September became expected. Some of senior citizens said they would attend the coming birthday party. Their expectations are the support and encouragement for our work. We would like to do better. 

At 8:00 in the morning. The volunteers came to the site and began to organize everything for the party. At 9:30am, the party was opened in the speech of secretary of Chongqing Sunshine Public Welfare Foundation. The senior citizens introduced themselves and expressed their thankfulness. They said they seldom celebrated their birthday in the past. Now they were very happy to spend their birthday with many lovely friends. The cake was brought to the site in the birthday song. The senior citizens were tasting sweat cake and smiled. The volunteers also performed wonderful performances.

After the birthday party, the social workers and volunteers visited those who could not come to the party site. They brought cakes to them. Grandpa Zhang had been paralysis for years. He was laying in the bed with eyes open when we came to his bed and brought cake. His face showed smile, though he could not speak. His expression told us he was happy. When we say goodbye to him, one of the volunteers could not help thinking of her grandpa.  

If you pay attention, you will found senior citizens were simple. What they say or do shows plain pretty which moved us a lot.

Original article written by Ling Feng, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

With the support of TFish, this project aims to support poverty-stricken villagers living in Huining county, Gansu province. The project provides microloans to promote income and provide development opportunities to the villagers.

I was impressed by the face of Uncle Mao when I first met him in 2006. His face was full of wrinkles. He was almost 60 at that time. He was not married and stayed with his old mother. He took care of her, so he had to find temp jobs to do around the village. During the slack season, he would leave the village to do temp jobs. As he grew older, the income only came from the fields, which was only enough to meet the basic needs of life.

Entrusted by my friend, I was tasked with finding poverty-stricken families in the village. After visiting 5 households, Uncle Mao was one of the ones I chose.

I gathered the families and asked them to choose one item to generate their income. Most people chose sheep farming, but Mao chose differently.

He said, “I do not want to raise sheep. I want to buy a popcorn machine. I saw some people in the county doing popcorn. Furthermore, popcorn selling does not require going around the mountains. I can just find a place in a market.” I agreed, for everyone has the right to choose what he wants to do.

Uncle Mao and I bought the set of popcorn machine and materials in the county. We set the machine on his old tractor. We shook hands and said goodbye to each other. He started the tractor and disappeared on the road home.

When I met him again one month later, he gave me a big bag of popcorn. He was telling me costs and interests of his little business while I was eating. 

ongwan 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.
 
Lu Fengchao was a shy girl when she came to Longwan Home. She did not speak. She even messed her pants with her urine and excrement. After living in Longwan for a semester, she became cheerful. Luo Shengshi is a naughty boy. He likes hanging around Longwan and touch things. He has 2 elder brothers and 2 younger brothers. They live and study in Longwan. Luo Shenghua is Luo Shengshi’s little brother. His nickname is A Fu. He would correct his teacher that his name is Luo Fu instead of Luo Shenghua. He always follow his brothers. Lu Shanshan is the youngest child. She is only 2 and cannot speak. She would cry if she was unhappy. Ban Lina has a princess name, but she behaved as a boy. She is independent and stubborn.

By autumn semester of 2015, Longwan has had 137 students. 63 (34 are boys and 29 are girls) of them are in kindergarten. 16 of them are from single parent family and 5 are orphans.

Keeping accompany during kindergarten period is important. To promote the base education in rural areas and make up the blank for childhood education, we built Long Wan Kindergarten. The kindergarten has registered as a legal kindergarten in Dahua county in 2012.

Out kindergarten is boarding management model. The children live in Longwan Kindergarten. Some of children can reunion with their families during summer or winter holidays. Some of them stay in Longwan all year around. Our staff have to act as different roles. They do not have strict on or off work, nor work days or holidays.
  
Education and health care are also the problems that Loangwan has to face.

Original article written by Aihua Ban, 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.

18 patients were discharged by hospitals in September, 2011. We called them 4 years later. We got to know they latest developments and reminded them to do re-check in hospitals. 

265 Jinyu: the service has been suspended.

266 Nana. Nana is in Grade 3. The school is 1 kilometer away from home. She attends PE and she was recovering well. Her grandparents are fine. Her grandfather just came back from city and her grandmother takes care of her. Her grandfather thanked LRS.

267 Yongkang. Yongkang is in Grade 4 and his parents work in Lanzhou, so he go to school in Lanzhou. He takes school bus and he attends PE. He became healthier this year. He eats less, so he is thin and short. Everyone in the family is fine. They thank LRS.

268 Xinyi. The number has been changed.
 
270 Weijie. Weijie is in pre-school. The school is 10 minutes away. He is fine and could run or jump. He became healthier and seldom caught cold. His father works in the city. His mother raise about 50 sheep. Life became better and they thank LRS.

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 July 2, Dayong left us forever, which made us very sad. I got to know Dayong’s mother was in poor health when I was talking in the phone with Dayong’s father. She has been suffering from stomachache which became serious when Dayong passed away. The family have owed about 50,000RMB for medicine treatment for Dayong. His father had planned to work in the city with his mother in the coming year and return the debts as early as possible.

Dayong’s family is one of families cared by LRS. The donors were sad to hear his passing away. They sent email and said they would continue to help Dayong’s family. On September 7th, we transferred 3000RMB to Dayong’s family. We hope his mother would cure her stomachache and recover from sadness of losing her son.

After receiving money, Dayong’s father sent text. He greeted all staff in LRS and Teacher Guan. He thanked us for our help for Dayong. He said he would keep everything we had done in his mind. He again thanked us and wish us all the best!

Thanks for his response and wish Dayong’s parents good health!

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