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8/6/2017

Follow the journey with Xiejuan as she undergoes surgery and recovers.

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
 
Shi Rui is a young girl in a family of four. Her older brother has just entered junior high. The family owns about 4 acres of farmland in which they use to grow rice, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and other low-maintenance crops. After deducting from the amount they need to pay to grow the crops, they earn an annual income of about 5,000 RMB. Although they are poor, the family is very loving and peaceful. When Shi Rui was about five months old, she came down with a fever that continued on for days. After going to the clinic to check her condition, they received the devastating news that she had congenital heart disease. This was the beginning of her road of constant medical checkups. In order to pay for these checkups, the family has had to take on a lot of debt. 
 
Being in the countryside all their lives, Shi Rui’s parents do not have much of an educational background. Since they did not know how they could improve Shi Rui’s conditions, they could only borrow more money to spend on Shi Rui’s medical treatments. The doctors say they it is imperative that Shi Rui goes through surgery in order to get better. However, surgery would cost them tens and thousands of dollars- an amount that they could not afford to pay. When they though that all hope was lost, they were introduced to Little Red Scarf by the local clinics. To their surprise, Little Red Scarf contacted them shortly after they handed in their application. After receiving their call and saying that they could finance Shi Rui’s surgery, they quickly packaged their luggage in preparation to bring their child to the city. 

In August Cheng Xiang and his parents went to Beijing for his third surgery. However, the hospital had so many people waiting for surgery, Cheng Xiang had to register for the waiting list. He got number 129. 

While Cheng Xiang and his parents were in Beijing, they got a phone call that Cheng Xiang’s grandfather was not doing well. So after Cheng Xiang registered for the waiting list, the family quickly returned to their hometown. Cheng Xiang’s father is currently taking care of the grandfather. 
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Every month Cheng Xiang goes to the hospital in Lanzhou for a checkup. This includes blood tests and an ultrasound. Once the hospital in Beijing is ready for Cheng Xiang, they will call the family to let them know he can come again for the next surgery.

At the end of July 2016, Cheng Xiang’s father called our Lanzhou staff to give an update on Cheng Xiang’s situation. The 2-year-old’s heart rate has been slow recently and he’s been exhibiting other symptoms, so they took him for a checkup in Lanzhou on July 27th. Based on the Lanzhou checkup, the doctors suggested he go back to Beijing for a follow up since his 2nd surgery was done by the experts there. The Beijing doctor suggested Cheng Xiang be treated as soon as possible with another surgery. The estimated cost for the 3rd surgery is $18,000 USD.
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Cheng Xiang’s family is still in heavy debt from the 2nd surgery. Now that Cheng Xiang needs a 3rd surgery, their burden is even heavier. We’d like to raise $3,000 USD to help subsidize Cheng Xiang’s 3rd surgery.

​Xiejuan’s family lives in a small village located in the mountainous regions of Gansu. It is the only multi-ethnic autonomous community in the region. Those that live there mainly grow local potatoes, corn, peppers, and other crops for a living.

​Xiejuan’s family consists of four people: her grandmother, father, older sister, and herself. When Xiejuan was three years old, her mother left the family because she was not used to the way of living there. Xiejuan and her sister were raised solely by their father. 

Hao Yu is a cute and shy little boy who is one year and nine months old. He looks more mature than most kids his age. He is from the Yao tribe in Yunnan. Both of his parents are farmers, and they own 0.3 acres of land. Their annual income is around 10,000 RMB ($1,500 USD).

There are 8 people in Hao Yu's family. Both of his great grandparents are approaching their 90's and need assistance. It costs several thousand dollars to cover their medical expenses. Both of Hao Yu's grandparents are almost 60 years old. Hao Yu also has an older sister who is 4 years old. This family is mostly composed of seniors and children who are not able to work.

When Hao Yu was 5 months old, he kept getting colds. This led to his diagnosis of an atrial septal defect. His parents spent a lot of time going to the hospital for his checkups. However, the doctor told them that only the hospital in Kunming would be able to perform the surgery for their son. The surgical expenses would be tens of thousands of dollars, which is an astronomical figure for this poor family. 

Little Red Scarf is in 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.
 
A cute and shy little boy from tribe of Yao. Jin Jun is 8 years old but looks mature for his age. This young boy from tribe of Yao of Yun Nan is still not able to speak Mandarine fluently. He speaks his own dialogues with his family.

He looks confident when he communicate with his family. However when I ask him questions using Chinese, I can sense the nervousness and uneasiness from him. His grandfather told me Jin Jun is not able to understand much Chinese, he can only speak some simple words so he is struggling at school. The school teachers are all speaking Chinese  and he is not able to understand the language well enough so he is behind in his class which makes him feel less confident about himself. Because of language barrier, he did not want to go to school for a long time. The happy school life has become stress and nightmare for him.
 
The first time I saw Jin Jun was in an afternoon at the time when his grandfather and aunt brought him to Yun Nan hospital for medical examination. His parents were working at Xishuangbanna so they were not able to come back in time to go with Jin Jun.  They arrived two days later. His grandfather told me only one of his parents would come for his operation for the purpose of saving money.

When I went to visit Jin Jun the second day, he was happily eating his congee dessert. When he saw me, he stood up immediately next to his bed. Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture of him. This is the only second time we met. He is still not comfortable with me because I speak Chinese to him all the time. However I can totally understand how  he feels.

We visited Yu Cai in the hospital, considering he was going to leave hospital soon. At Cordial Surgery Department, we found his doctor and asked about the child. The doctor said he did not stay in hospital. He lived outside and came to hospital for dressing. We curious if he had relatives or friends in Kunming. Doctor said he stayed in guesthouse near hospital. The beds in hospital were not enough, so many patients had to stay outside. We found his number and called him. His cousin said they would bring Yu Cai to hospital soon.

We met Yu Cai’s family. Yu Cai is as thin as his father. He looks pale with big eyes. His face is lack of cute and energy as his contemporaries. He was staying near his father and cousin. We took photos in a public room outside of nurses’ station. According to his cousin, the family has 5—her grandmother, father, mother and a 7-year-old brother. His grandmother got bad eyesight and high blood pressure. They spent a lot for her medicines every year. The family grow tobacco and corns. The income (about 20,000RMB a year) was not good due to the draughts. Now the family has awed about 30,000RMB.  

Yu Cai was diagnosed congenital disease in 2015. He had been easy to get cold when he was quite year. The child also felt out of breath during PE. His cousion said they got to know LRS from township clinic. Children in neighboring village benefited from the program. Thanks to LRS, Yu Cai accepted the surgery timely. Yu Cai told us his wounds got a little painful, but much better than before. His heart beat not so fast. He is a nice child. He is in his recovery. His cousin said he had been eating less, so he did not have full energy. Teacher Ye, a partner of LRS encouraged him to eat more.
       
They were serious during the period to take photo. After that, his father bowed deeply to us and kept saying thank you to us. I found we forgot to leave him souvenir of LRS when I was sorting the photos at night. I contacted them again, hoping to take another 2 more photos. His cousin told me he would leave hospital the next day. I had to meet them at 8:00 in the morning. I gave the child bracelet and badge and tool several photos. They were still serious. For a family with 20,000RMB of income in one year, the costs in guesthouse were definitely not cheap. I hope Yu Cai will recover soon and become a strong boy. The smiles will come to the faces of the family then. 
      
Original article written by Lin Guo, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang