In September 2016, we cooperated with a nonprofit organization called Yue Shi Tuan and asked them to help us select five elementary schools in the poor county of Qin An. (Yue Shi Tuan is a nonprofit organization in the county of Qin An. They work together with the local people and businesses to help poor children get into school, to take care of seniors, to provide severe illness aids, etc.)

​Recommended by our partner Yue Shi Tuan, we finally selected the following 5 schools to give away winter clothes: Yang Po Wan Elementary School and Gao Wan Elementary School in Wang Pu Township, Wu Zhuang Elementary School and He Li Elementary School in Ye Bao Township, and Song Gou Elementary School in Guo Jia Town, totaling 209 people.

Special thanks to Grandma Chu's Love Fund for donating $320 USD to Bao Lan, hoping she would increase her nutrition after the operation.

Bao Lan lives in a family with three members. Her father was born deaf and mentally disabled. Her mother is thin and small with bad health. The family didn't know she had congenital heart disease until she gave birth to Bao Lan in the hospital. 

The whole family just has 0.2 acres of fields. They grow fruits and vegetables for their own consumption. Her mother drives a donkey cart at scenic tourist sites to earn some money. Her father rows boats in the Yangzi river during public holidays. The income of the whole year is about 15,000 RMB.

The family receives a minimum living allowance from the government. Bao Lan also receives a government subsidy for her serious disease, but she has no deposit during the beginning stage. So LRS accepted her family into the post-surgery care program for poverty relief.

Bao Lan's Recent Developments 
After her surgery, Bao Lan rested for a year before going back to school. She is in grade 5 now. She attends PE and has grown much taller. Her scars have healed well. Her mother said they were not able to tutor her.

Family Situation 
The new house has not been decorated, for it will cost a lot of money. The village resort has not been started. They live in 2 of the rooms. Her father is mentally disabled, so the family’s burden falls on her mother alone. All of their income was used to return loans.

Her mother was thankful for loving people’s care. With help, their lives will become better. 

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

Compassion Nayong Public Welfare is based on Nayong, a poverty-stricken area in Guizhou Province. Taking the network as the platform, it carries out various public Welfare activities to aid education.
 
On 12/13/2016, a well-planned workshop on “Young Health Seminar” started in ShuGuan middle school, Baixing middle school, and Haizhu elementary school, which was sponsored by the Compassion Nyong Public Welfare and County Birth Control Commission Organization. There are more attendees from Shuguan Middle school than those attendanees from other schools. Two teachers provided 2 separate seminars in two different locations in 4 classes with the total 700 students who attended the seminar. After the workshop, handouts on youth health were distributed as donation from Zhuhai Dishui Water Foundation.  Those handouts would help inform the students on the details relating to their health after school.  Those volunteers and school teachers introduced how to use feminine products on site as preparation before class.  Volunteers in groups distributed the feminine products to students and felt very warm hearted when they saw students smile shyly. It is very important to teach those youth in their teen age to learn how to handle puberty properly. The right knowledge should help them to set correct outlook towards the world and life. This activity truly benefits them all.

Lanzhou Jingcheng Public Service Center is located in 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 for the old public service areas 4) Carrying out a variety of public training, consulting, and advocacy activities.

​Our second home visit was to Juanjuan’s home. Juanjuan's family has 5 people in it, but right now only 4 of them are living in the house. They have 10 mu (about 1.5 acres) of land on which to plant crops.

There are three mu of alfalfa to feed the sheep, three mu of corn, three mu of potatoes, and one mu of millet. Wheat is not drought-resistant and generally has a low yield, so many families, including Juanjuan’s, choose not to plant it now.

Juanjuan’s mother is 40 years old. She has never attended school or worked anywhere other than her home town.  She doesn’t understand much Mandarin and regularly speaks the Dongxiang language.

We weren't originally planning to visit Maria's uncle's house. But since we visited Maria's home, Juanjuan's home, the school, and the villagers' water sources, Maria's uncle was very enthusiastic about us visiting his home. He was very warm and kept inviting us to his house again and again. Since his passion was very rare, I decided to visit his house as well. 

​Maria's uncle may have seen the water reservoirs we were planning to give to the schools. He had his own ideas and asked me in a friendly way, "Are you still building reservoirs? Can I apply for one?"

I replied that this was our Transparent Fish Fund project, and that our organizations worked worked together to implement the project for the school. So this project was not able to give his family a reservoir.

The uncle, who is very proficient in the world, said, "It’s up to you to determine your permission within the project scope."

I said, "We currently do not have such a project, and I do not have this permission." Although I said it very directly, the uncle was still very persistent.

On October 11, 2016, Gansu Care officially launched the beginning of the water reservoir project at Zhengjia Elementary School. (Zhengjia is located in Dongxiang County.) While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit four families in the area. From them, we learned a lot about their living conditions, including their drinking water, family health status, students' schooling, and crop harvest. Through the understanding of these situations, we could have a general understanding of the present situation and future difficulties. This was all done for the preparation of our future new projects.

Maria's family is the first family we visited. Maria's father said that he and his wife had never taken a picture together in their lifetime. So, during this exploratory trip, I took the opportunity to take family photos for them, hoping that these photos could help them retain some memories. 

Currently, four people live in the household: the parents, brother, and Maria. Her two older sisters had already gotten married about ten years ago, so they did not live in the house with them. 

The father is 63 years old and the mother is 57 years old. Both of their bodies are very healthy without any major pains or illnesses. In the village, if they can still walk up and down the mountain, they are in good shape.

However, the decay of the father’s teeth is very serious. Just from speaking with him, one can tell that he is missing his front row of teeth. Two years ago, the mother broke her right arm and has been disabled since then. Although there are no present problems with it, she does not have any strength in that arm. She is unable to do simple tasks. When they are cooking and there is a task that requires some strength, the father will be the one to do it. Since the mother can only do simple tasks, she is unable to help with any farm work. 

Dongxiang County is considered a poor region at the national level. The water supply is very limited all season long here, so the locals rely on wells to store water.

​On May 11, 2016, representatives from the Hong Kong Growth Hope foundation and the Gansu community service center visited the three elementary schools at Dashuxiang. They observed that the residents and schools needed to rely on water transported from the county center.  

The Zhengjia Elementary School had an old well that leaked constantly and only held about 2-3 cubic meters of water, which was not sufficient to cover a 2 week supply, especially during summer time.  We wanted to build a well that could hold 20 cubic meters to cover 3-4 month’s water supply for the school, which would significantly improve the situation.

In 2016, TFish support enabled ZOE children to receive essential preventative healthcare, including flu vaccines, vitamins, and de-worming medicine.

​The ZOE kitchen prepares over 450 meals per day for their children, staff, and volunteers. Over the years they have made great strides in improving the nutritional level for our children. Improvements include having fresh fruit at every dinner meal and a box of milk for each child with the morning meal. Although the amount of food is plentiful, they believe that there are certain minerals and vitamins missing from the children’s diet. For example, vitamin C and iron are lacking due to lower citrus and protein consumption. Having a full complement of necessary vitamins and minerals is essential during the critical developmental years of children and teens.

We are excited that this week:

• All ​nine iPads are being delivered to our project manager.
  
• iPad shock proof covers are traveling from the US to China on Thursday.
  
• The finalization of the purchase of the PC's are happening in China.
  
• Adaptive mice are being ordered in a few different countries. One will be delivered this week, some will be delivered later on.

Our staff in China are so excited to get their new computers and iPads for the kids.  I look forward to sharing photos and updates with you as soon as they are delivered.

Thank you for everything. I was just in China for a week before the holidays. I had the privilege of sitting with one of our teenage girls with Cerebral Palsy who is using her chin to operate a computer. She was in the middle of writing a story about her dreams for the future. It was so powerful to see her ability to communicate with the use of technology available to her.  It made me realize that many more children will now have that opportunity because of the TFish funding.