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