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. Longwan town is situated in Yao tribe Dahua autonomous county of Guangxi province. It is part of LongMa village. For generations, people there are planting corn plantation on barren land, nearly 90% of the land are rocks, only 10% soil. Throughout the years, the main food source is corn porridge. AiHua Ban, the founder of Longwan Caring Home was born here. Below let me share some of her experience. AiHua Ban’s living condition is extremely difficult. People there are very conservative and superstitious. When they get sick, they don’t have money to see doctors. Instead, they go to witch for help. For instance, if you have headache, witch tells you someone put rocks inside your head and need to use chopsticks to take them out. If people with cancer, the witch would say you’re framed by someone who put your soul side bamboo tube and burned it in a fire pit overnight. Therefore, the witch needs to perform some ceremonies to win back your soul. Finally, ceremonies were performed and people lost life in the end. Similarly, they don’t go to hospital to give birth. Instead, they have midwife help them out at home. They don’t know how to disinfect and sometime the baby died of tetanus. In AiHua Ban’s childhood, there was a cemetery designated as baby burial ground. The worst thing is that this town is small and dead people got buried in the ground right above the underground water. As result, rain washed them into underground water and people drinks contaminated water from there. At present, total population of this small town is 400. About 50% of them lost their spouse before reaching their early 30’s. On top of all this, people are lack of education and this is the root cause of extreme poverty. 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. We are truly a grassroots organization. Our director did not get a college degree nor professional training. She is an ordinary woman born in the depths of the mountains. Finding Transparent Fish Fund was a true blessing for us. like finding an oasis in a vast desert. In 2012, we received, for the first time 3000 yuan seed funding from TFISH’s support platform. We were overjoyed - this was the first grant we had ever received. We felt relieved of the pressure resting on our shoulders and much happier. After a year of hard work, our finances became clearer. Even though work is hard each day, we never stopped recording our blogs and journals, and continued to publish all our activities to the public. Towards the end of 2013, we submitted a second application to TFISH. During the first quarter of 2014, our account received the 7000 yuan administrative fund from across the Pacific. Money cannot solve everything, but we cannot function without it. The several hundred children under our care need this money to survive. We also direly need money for educational expenses, emergency medical expenses, staff costs, and hardware maintenance costs. I always believed that if God shut the door, He will surely open another one for me. I believe that He will not abandon us widows and orphans. I work so hard every day to help all these children, but as soon as I see beautiful smiles on their faces, all my distresses go away. We do this for the kids! As a person in charge of a local nonprofit and as a local preschool teacher, I know how heavy the burden is and how hard it is to move forward. But I never compromise in the face of difficulty. I am over fifty years old and in a race against time, I've learned to treasure every moment that God gave me. Therefore, I plan on doing what I love to do. Following the Transparent Fish Fund guidelines, I complete monthly project reports by myself. I did not know how to upload photos, but I learned. I try blog on the website, which proved to be a little difficult, but I try to learn and understand, even if that mean staying up entire nights. Transparent Fish Fund, is a communication platform and a self-presentation platform. We were asked to be completely transparent and to use every penny to the benefit of the cause. TFish asks us to standardize our growth, being honest people and honest organizations. I want to thank Transparent Fish Fund for supporting us, especially the staff who works on the platform who welcomed us so warmly and generously. They have taught me a whole deal of knowledge and allowed me to realize that: we are more blessed to give, than to receive. Original Article Written by Banai Hua, translated by Allison Zhang, edited by Yanyan Zhang |
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