Longwan Caring Home: My Teaching Story

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.

The Yaos have lived in mountainous areas for generations and often lack access to adequate health and education. Lan Xiuju for example witnessed her grandparents, mother and younger sister died within a month. In their village of 130 people, half of them are children. Parents do not have the income to provide for their children. An estimated 30% of villagers sell their blood to earn money, 30% of them work in the cities and 40% of the villagers grow corn.  

As founder of Longwan Caring Home, I was raised in such an environment and know the importance of the education for the future of the Yao people. 

The children in mountainous areas have a dream to go to kindergarten

In 2001, I met some of villagers from my hometown. I got to know more about their needs. I came up with an idea—to create a study and living space for the children. The fields, forests or hills are the places to tell stories, teach them or play games with them. Every year, I was sending more and more children to schools. Some of our kids have even graduated from college and found jobs in the city. According to my teaching records, there were at least 80 orphans or single-parent children received an education through us. 

I am a grass-root teacher, but I think to promote education is the responsibility that each person should have done. I tried my best to learn more and cultivate them to be self-respect and confident. I always think back to a boy named Liao. I met him in 2007 when he was only 11. He was an orphan, and didn't have anyone to properly care for him. As a result, he started to steal from those around him.  One day, I asked him to lock the door for me. When I came back in the evening, I found my 50 yuan under the pillow was missing. I did not tell anyone.

The next day, I said to the children in the whole class, “a mouse must have taken my money during my absent. Could you help me to look for it to corners? Maybe you will find it.” After half an hour of looking, Liao took the money from his bag and returned it to me. I thanked him for helping to find in the mouse hole. He lowered his head.

I found out recently he found a job in the city. After his update, he apologized to me. It's moments like that help me continue my work with these children. 

Our kindergarten was officially registered in 2012. Most of the children come from disadvantaged families. We provided full-day boarding service. We have tuition exemption for the children without parents, with single parent or from poor families. We hope the children in the village can receive pre-school education as the children in the city.  

Each time to participate in workshop is an opportunity to expand my vision. Advanced teaching methods and rich experiences of the trainers inspired me to do more for the pre-school education in rural areas 

Original Article Written by Banai Hua, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang