From January 24 to January 28, 2016, after more than half a year's preparation, the charity project “In the Name of Love initiated by SFL (School of Foreign Languages), SEU (Southeast University), started in Yanduhe Town, Badong County, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province. Mr. Tang Dinghua, deputy party sectary and deputy dean of SFL, Miss Xu Xuening, secretary of Youth League and undergraduate students’ counselor, Li Wei, head of Students Charity Club, and volunteers Zhang qi and Cui Zijing, delivered the first batch of donations to eleven disadvantaged students from Luoxiba Junior High School and Tongjiaping Primary School, visited their homes and got a first-hand experience of their life.
On the early morning of January 24, with the temperature as low as minus 8℃, the team of five started their journey and did not arrive at their destination---Yanduhe Town until 6 p.m.
The next morning, the project started in the conference room of Luoxiba Junior High School. The first impression of the school was its shabby teaching building, and a bungalow where 21 teachers, the entire staff, work. The students residential building looked good on the outside, but a closer exploration would reveal the truth inside: on the less than one-meter-wide bunk sleep two students.
At about 10 am, except for a boy student who has gone on a medical trip to Guangzhou for vitiligo, all the other sponsored students along with their parents attended the launching ceremony. On behalf of SFL, initiator of the project, Mr. Tang Dinghua sincerely greeted the students and their parents, introduced the charity policies of SEU and encouraged the students to overcome the difficulties in their study and life, and work hard for a better live. After that, Li Wei gave a detailed description of the project and, together with other team members, handed out some stationeries and 500 RMB to each sponsored student.
In the talks with the headmasters from Luoxiba Junior High School and TongjiapingPrimary School, the team members got to know the tough situations of schools and hard life of those poor students and understood their sincere hope for some real help. Touched by their sense of disappointment and helplessness from some of the previous charity programs characterized by all talk and little action, the team became more determined to be earnest and down-to-earth, to solicit more supplies and gain more support for the students’ subsidy, school activities, daily life and psychological guidance, thus making the charity an authentic project that will last long.
In the following two and a half days, the team visited the homes of all the sponsored students and had a better understanding of the children's learning and living conditions. The first destination was the family of a boy in fourth grade named Yang Jinxing, who is lovely and polite. The boy and his family live in the hillside, a sparsely populated neighborhood, as the majority of former residents moved out of the mountain area for a better condition. In his house, there are few household appliances and furniture except a big wooden table and a full wall of school honorary credentials of the boy. Yang’s brother used to be a top student in the school, but because the poor family could not afford to treat his eye illness, he had to quit school and became a migrant laborer in a city. Though living in a tough condition, the boy had beautiful smiles as shiny as the sunshine. Yang's grandma is too old to walk around and has not left the mountain to see anyone outside for a longtime. Upon the departure time, the old woman, with tears running down her face, held the hands of Mr. Tang, Miss Xu and the volunteers tightly and was reluctant to let them go. Yang's parents got some bamboo sticks for the team so that they could walk down the mountain safely. For the rest five days, those bamboo sticks were grasped in the hands of the team members on their trip through mountain trails.
On January 26, and January 27,the team visited the other 10 students' families, and they were: Li Bangguo, Deng Qiaoli, Liu Chenlin, Xiang Jinfeng, Chen Peng, Wang Qinghua, Ye Mengcheng, Wang Zhusheng, Wang Kanghua and Yi Zhen. Those ten children have different personalities and family backgrounds, but they are all top students and they all come from financially disadvantaged families. Most of them are dressed in worn-out clothes with unsuitable size. Mr. Tang talked to every child, tried to release their psychological pressure and encouraged them to study hard and live healthily. Moreover, he pictured the university life for these children, and hoped that they would be able to see a broader world and create their own futures. Two volunteers recorded and filed every child's information so that a link would be established between the donors and the child that needs the support.
The project was invested with efforts of Students Charity Club as well as staff and faculty members of SFL. It also got great support from Department of Postgraduate Affairs, SEU and entrepreneur Mr. Fan Cheng. Since the first day of its establishment, the Charity Club has decided to focus on the left-behind children in poor families, with particular attention to the schools in Yanduhe Town, Badong County, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province. During the summer vacation of 2015, SFL contacted Luoxiba Junior High School and Tongjiaping Primary School, and with the help of local teachers, visited 27 students and gathered some information covering their grade, age and family condition to set up a preliminary file. After the summer vacation was over, the project got support from the leaders of SFL. Thus, the Charity Club started to prepare the one to one helping platform and began to seek the sponsors. The home visit in winter vacation mentioned above aimed to pass on the love to the first group of sponsored students who are the most outstanding and poorest of the 27.
The home visit came to an end, but the whole charity project will last for a long time. The help to these eleven students was just the beginning, and it is hoped that more and more poor students would get the support to see the world outside of the mountain area.
(Reported by Cui Zijing
Translated by Huang Dandan
Translation Revised by Wu Lanxiang)
