(Xavier is one of CTEF volunteers for the student sponsorship project. Xavier lives in Canada and China. He visited Sichuan Xingwen county on behalf of CTEF in April 2011. There he visited some of the students we had in our 1+1 program to validate their application information, and collected some new students' applications. After he came back to Canada, he reached out to his community to raise funds to help those kids he visited through CTEF 1+1 program. Here is his story.)
March 2011
By Xavier Bonifay
I used my holidays to give a small hand to a Chinese association helping very poor children and financing schools in China.
I have been in places that cannot be found on Google Map, visiting schools, students and their homes. I travelled through the mountains and the fields in Sichuan province on the south west of China. I met very courageous children living in terrible conditions. I talked to them, I hold them, I gave them a little hope and, sometimes, some minutes of happiness.
These kids need help to survive, to be able to go to school, to stay the good persons they are. Their average annual living cost is less than 200 dollars! If you want to help them, let me know.
I send you today some of the pictures I took and stories I heard...
Su YuHan 9 years old, she has a 17 years old brother who is in High school. Her parents are working as labourers in ZheJiang province. She lives with her grand-father.
Shao XiaoQing, 11 years old, she was abandoned by her parents when she was born and she was adopted. Now she is living with her adoptive father, grand-father and adoptive uncle’s family. Her adoptive father has a mental problem. He felt down from the stairs and broke his leg. He never fully recovered. Her father receives 8 dollars each month from the government.
Yang Yi, 10 years old. His parents died in a car accident. He his living with his uncle who has a 18 years old son and his grand-mother. They receive 8 dollars per month from the government. His uncle is a veterinary. He had also a daughter who died in a car accident.
Tang GuangYing, 9 years old. She has a 22 years old brother who is in prison. She is leaving with her parents who are working in the mountain to protect the forest. Her home is on the other side of the mountain. She needs 2 hours to come to school and around 3 to go back home walking through the mountain every day. Her father is disabled. Her teacher said that her home is totally empty. They do not have any furniture.
Tang TianYong, 8 years old. His father has a cerebral concussion from a traffic accident. His mother is totally blind. He has a 3 years old sister. Their only revenue is from his father. He is just working from time to time, under somebody’s guidance and doing very low level job on construction sites. As he does not have enough money to pay the school, he often does not eat for lunch.
Luo Xin, 11 years old, his mother has a kidney problem. She needs to take very expensive medicine every months and she borrowed several thousand Yuan from relatives. His father has a mental disease. Luo Xin is a very good boy taking care of his parents.
Luo Xin house. Inside the house, the main room.
The primary school of the village... a photo with the first and only foreigner these children saw in their life. A happy moment in a very difficult life.
Li ShiYang, 10 years. His father has a serious mental problem. He often beats him and does not give him anything to eat. His mother abandoned them some years ago. Most of the time he eats in his neighbors’ home. He does not eat for lunch, even no breakfast. The teacher and neighbors give him clothes. He is extremely poor. He is a smart and nice boy. He needs 10 dollars per month to eat every day.
Hu ZhiQiu, 8 years old. She has a sister who is deaf and mute. Her mother has epilepsia. Her father was hurt in the back and two legs. They receive 15 dollars per month from the government.
Inside Hu ZhiQiu house, the kitchen.
All the kids want to take photos with the foreigner. A good occasion to have fun.
Wang YongJi, 11 years old. His mother abandoned him 3 years ago. His father has a bone cancer. He lives with his grand-mother. He needs to take care of his father and grand-mother. They do not have any revenue. He is an excellent student.
Luo HuaXiu, 16 years old, high school. She was abandoned by her parent the day she was born. She was adopted by a very nice farmer couple. She has a 27 years old adoptive brother, working in another city. Her parents’ revenue come from the grain they grow and 2 pigs they can sell every year. Her home is in the mountain. She is an excellent student and a very nice person. She wants to go to university.
Huang Yong, 15 years old. He has a 4 years old sister. His father just had an operation on the leg. His mother is working on their farm. He spends every weekend to collect wild vegetables from the forest. During the season he can collect 20 kg of these vegetables. He can sell them 3 dollars for the total 20kg. His house is in the high mountain, very difficult to access. He is a very nice and very strong boy.
Tao ChunYan, 12 years old. Her parents divorced some years ago. Last week her father has got a very serious accident. Lost one eye, he is still at the emergency, his brain was damaged during the accident. She has a 9 years old brother. Her mother ran away some years ago. Her house is in the mountain, there is no road to access it.
Luo Lin, 14 years old, middle school. Her father died because of kidney disease. She has 2 sisters (8 and 4 years old). Her mother is working on the farm. It is their only revenue.
Shi Lin, she is 16 years old, in high school. She has a younger brother. She lives with her parents, her grand-father and grand-grand-father. Their revenue is coming from the farm. She is living too far away so she must be an intern and stay at school. She is an excellent student, second in her class. She wants to go to university, become an English teacher and come back to her village to teach.
