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.
Cuimei is four years old this year. She was wearing a beautiful skirt with a cute mushroom hair style when we saw her at the hospital. She was waiting in the hallway for admission into the hospital. Her father said, "My legs started trembling when I stepped into the hospital."
With the help of Little Red Scarf, Cuimei was admitted to the hospital. The tests results showed there was a ventricular septal defect of 4mm. This means an interventional surgery could be started and surgical risks are therefore reduced. However, Cuimei's parents still worry constantly about her because their two other children passed away because of congenital heart disease. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle. Thank you for your contributions: PC $220; Anonymous JW $70; James Ko $90; En-Yong Foundation $100. Total: $480 (equivalent to 3,000 RMB).
We continue to follow up with Dongsheng's family as part of our Adopt a Family program. The family has had several health issues they needed to address with the donated money. The dad often has headaches and severe dizziness; the mother has gallstones, but because of the medical expenses, she delayed having surgery. We hoped they could take Dongsheng for a dental checkup as well. We gave the donation in two parts. The first part: On May 2015, the staff visited Dongsheng’s home to understand the actual situation of the family. The 2,000 RMB was given in cash to them. The family, in order to express gratitude, got a brush to write "thank you!" The second part: In early 2016, we gave the family 1,000 RMB, hoping they could have a good year. Lanzhou Jingcheng Public Service Center is located in the Gansu Province and mainly serves the disadvantaged groups in society, helping them renew their confidence in life and build up their self-reliance. Services include: 1) Care for the rural children left behind 2) care for children after surgery. 3) concern about the old public service areas. 4) carrying out a variety of public training, consulting, and advocacy activities.
Back in May 2016, Lanzhou JingCheng Public Service workers visited Zhengjia Elementary school in DaShu Xiang DongXiang County with Gansu Xingbangbai teachers. The school is located in the mountain area, half of the 2.5 hr drive was spent driving on the dirt road between mountains, which is narrow and steep. Because of the year long lack of water, the main crops are potato and corn. Although you can still drive to the school, there are about 20 kilometers of drive that are narrow and windy. Those parts of the road are very dangerous. Even experienced drivers need to drive over 35 minutes. The school is a Type 4 6 grades elementary school, which serves 7 communities in the area. There are total of 137 families and 700 residents in the area. There is the total of 64 active students currently study at the school including 25 1st graders, 7 2nd graders, 6 3rd graders, 15 4th graders, 6 5th graders, 5 6th graders, with 4 teachers (1 female teacher). Among the students, there are 33 girls. Half of the students cannot go back to home for lunch due to distance, with the furthest distance at 5 kilometers from school. Due to the small class size, 5th and 6th grade students share the same class. The existing well can only hold some water, which is about 2 week coverage for the teachers and students. It is even worse during summer time.The school has a plan to build a new well, which can hold 20m³ of water and serve the school for 3-4 months. Lanzhou Jingcheng Public Service Center is located in the Gansu Province and mainly serves the disadvantaged groups in society, helping them renew their confidence in life and build up their self-reliance. Services include: 1) Care for the rural children left behind 2) care for children after surgery. 3) concern about the old public service areas. 4) carrying out a variety of public training, consulting, and advocacy activities.
To solve the drinking problem of Zhengjia primary school, we came to the village again on October 11, 2016. We visited a few households. The first household we visited is Zheng Waixi’s family who is 10 kilometers away from the school. Teacher Chen gave us a motorbike ride. We asked a few questions on the way, but Waixi kept silent. I have thought she was afraid of her teacher, but I learned later that she is too sky. Thanks to Teacher Chen’s motorbike, we arrived at Waixi’s home 10 minutes later. There piles of millets outside of the family’s yard. Teacher Chen said these are their all harvest this year. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle. Yumei's First Surgery: May 2015Yumei was admitted to the hospital on May 11, 2015 with a complex heart disease. One week after admission, she had a fever that turned out to be chickenpox. She was transferred to the Department of Infectious Diseases for 11 days. The doctor told Yumei’s father, "The child's condition is very serious. She needs two operations, and even with that, we might not be able to completely cure the disease. In combination with the surgical risk, the operation cost is high." On June 1, 2015, which was Children's Day, we wanted Yumei to be happy, so we sent her a toy. In order to allow family members to take care of Yumei while they waited for the surgery, we also gave 2,000 RMB to her father. Yumei’s surgery was on June 11, after she had been hospitalized for one month. The family was in a high state of tension. Seven hours after she was in the surgical room, her family received news that night: “The situation is not very optimistic.” Her father, outside the intensive care room, kept telling Yumei to stay strong. On June 16, she was transferred to the ventilator, and two days later, she was transferred to the general ward. On June 25, 44 days of hospitalization later, Yumei was discharged. The family agreed to stay in touch with us and contact us when she undergoes her second surgery. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.
Qiqi underwent a heart surgery in 2011 with support from LRS. In December 2015, while Qiqi’s brother was on holiday break, we delivered 5,000 RMB of donations into his hands personally. Physical Status Qiqi is already a big girl. She is in second grade. She is tall and can participate in many sports. Her mother says that her overall fitness is good this year; Qiqi has less colds. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle. Family Situation Ruijing’s family has six people in it. Her grandmother suffers from multiple health issues, including gallstones, kidney inflammation, hepatitis, mild Alzheimer's, and edema. She spends every day in bed, and the family spends nearly a few hundred dollars every month on medicine for her. Ruijing's grandfather has poor eyesight; anything within 3 meters is blurry. Her mother has always had a weak stomach, and her dad has a herniated lumbar disc and cannot do heavy physical activity. Her father did not go out to work this year. The family planted some oats and beans. However, for some reason all the bean seedlings died (nearly half of the villages experienced this as well) so there is no income at home this year. In August 2015, a Little Red Scarf staff visited Ruijing’s home to give her family 1,000 RMB. Because Ruijing’s grandmother is chronically sick, Ruijing and sister need someone to take care of them. As a result, her mother is unable to go out and work. We will donate 1,000 RMB to help them buy three Juemu pigs and to help with usual living expenses. Juema pigs are local commodities and yield good profit. In 2016, Little Red Scarf will be donating the remaining 1,000 RMB to Ruijing's family in hopes that it can help with some of their expenses. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle Xiao Ai is one of the beneficiaries of our Adopt a Family program in 2016. To care for her rural family, we wanted to raise funds for them to get a goat for milk. When I called Xiao Ai, she had just picked up her daughter from kindergarten. Her older son was about to come back from school. She was preparing lunch. Through our phone conversation, I learned how her family was doing. Heath Situation Xiao Ai is doing fine, although the scar has not healed very well. She was feeling better but still did not do much manual work. Xiao Ai is in charge of the domestic chores, such as taking care of the 3 children and housework. Her husband is in charge of the field work and feeding the milk goats. The whole family’s life is back on track. Her health is recovering and her children are growing. We are happy for them. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle. LRS helped Huzi have heart surgery in 2010. After the follow-up visit in 2015, we decided to accept Huzi's family into our Adopt a Family program for poverty relief. Huzi's mother passed away years ago. His father was physically unfit for migrant labor work, and could only take care of his own farm. Unfortunately, the yield of their small piece of land was very poor. In 2015, Huzi was to finish his high school education in the city. He rented a tiny room, cooked for himself, and lived without heat under the meager budget. His part-time job helped a bit, and sometimes, he received financial aid from his big sister, who's a migrant labor worker. Huzi's home was in a distant countryside. Their house was a deteriorated adobe building with mud walls and a clay roof. It leaked everywhere from rain and wind. We were worried. The condition was so bad that whenever it rained, we would call his father to check if the house was still standing. LRS evaluated the situation, and launched a fundraising effort to help Huzi's family. The objectives were to encourage his education and to rebuild their decaying house. The needs were met by Grandma Chu's Love Fund and Henry & Lisa, who donated $1600 USD and $400 USD respectively. The sum exchanged to 12,500 RMB. Immediately, we released 500 RMB as an urgent aid on March 16, 2015. It was for the family to purchase fertilizer and landscaping fabric sheets for the sowing season. In the following eleven months, we wired monthly 300 RMB to Huzi for his schooling expenses. When Huzi completed high school in the early summer of 2016, we released the balance of 8,700 RMB to rebuild their house. The new building was completed with concrete floor, board walls, and a tile roof. The demolition and concrete foundation were done by the family and volunteers from the village. A thank you letter from Huzi to LRS had more details of the project. Meanwhile, we received good news that Huzi was admitted to the Medical School of Hexi University. We in the LRS Lanzhou office are very happy for the outcome. And more importantly, we are so grateful that the donors, Grandma Chu's Love Fund and Henry & Lisa, stepped forward at the most critical time, giving life to this initiative. Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle Follow the journey with Xiejuan as she undergoes surgery and recovers. September 4, 2016 Finally, Xiejuan's father received the long awaited phone call from Dr. Liu, who invited Xiejuan to check in to the hospital the next day, because the specialist was on the way for her operation. It was arranged to have a specialist from Beijing perform the surgery since Xiejuan had a very complicated heart condition. Her father felt great about the news, but on the other hand, he was also nervous because of the inevitable risks. September 5, 2016 We went to meet Xiejuan early in the day. "Little Red Scarf!" she yelled out, even before we arrived at the door. Obviously, our efforts of communication had paid off. She accepted us, and acted upbeat. September 11, 2016 Operation Day
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