Gansu Care: Visited Zheng Waixi’s Family

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.

Waixi's teacher gave us a ride to her home

Waixi's house

Waixi is a quiet and shy girl

Water tank looks better

Following Waixi, I stepped into the yard. It is small, but neat and clean. The corns were piled neatly in front of the house. There was no one at home. Waixi went out to find her parents. For a long time, a short and thin man came in. Teacher Chen explained out purposes and introduced us to him.

There are 5 in the family. They are Waixi’s parents, older brother and older sister. Waixi’s brother is 19 and her sister is 17. They went out to work when they were 14. Waixi is 10 and I was curious if she will work when she is 14. According to her teacher, Waixi is a shy girl. Her father was just released from the jail. Her mother had been taking care of the children alone for years.

When we talked about the house, her father explained the government had supported to build the house.

The family’s water tank looks better. We learned later her mother built it on her own.

To generate income, the family loaned money and raised a few sheep in 2013. Waixi’s father had come back for just one month, so he could not give us more information.

The debts have not been paid off and the interests were high. It was potato harvest time, so Waixi’s mother was busy for harvesting. We were not able to know more about the family.

Seeing the sheep, we can imagine Waixi’s mother had been working hard for years.

Waixi still kept quiet though she was at her own home. She was just squatting in the corner and looking at us. On the way back, we walked together with Waixi. She talked a little on the way. We showed her the photos we had taken and told her to study hard. She said yes to us and we saw her determination.

Original article written by Wang Li, translated by Maggie Li and edited by Yanyan Zhang

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