Little Red Scarf: Visit Xiao Ma

This is where Xiao Ma’s family is living

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.

On April 15, when we completed home visit at Hong Xia’s home, we went to visit Xiao Ma, Hongyan’s cousin. Xiao Ma is kind and hardworking. She took care of Hongyan when Hongyan was in hospital. We were moved by her kind-hearted and hardworking and our friendship was established. Xiao Ma is good at raising sheep. We would like to take this opportunity to visit her and her family.

The owner of the house went out for work for a long-term, so she takes care of the house and the family of 4 can live here. They had been living here for 3 years. We saw 2 sheep by stepping into the gate. Xiao Ma was feeding the goats. The main food of the goats was crashed corn stems and powder. She put more time in taking care of the sheep.

The 2 sheep looked healthy and would give birth to small sheep soon. The sheep were released and bathing under the sun. The air was fresh and it was a heavy rain last night. It’s time to shear the sheep, but she was too busy for planting the potatoes.

The sheep is 3 and would give birth to lambs. Xiao Ma hoped the sheep mother would give birth to 3 lambs. Another sheep is a little bit smaller. If the 2 sheep give birth to lambs successfully, there will be 5 lambs. When they ate full, Xiao Ma drove them into the sheepfold.

We also visited Xiao Ma’s new house. The family would move to the new house this summer. They would buy simple but necessary furniture. The blank part in the picture will be the sheepfold. Xiao Ma works very hard and looks forward to a better life. We believe she will become better in the future. There are many households raising sheep in the village. They are sheep from Xiao Ma’s neighbor. They will be driven home when it become dark.

Wish all hardworking people a better life!

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

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Xiao Ma and her family

Xiao Ma put more time in taking care of the sheep