To do all I can for children
I can still remember that in a late winter years ago, a friend invited me to a school in the western mountainous district for inspection. After four hours of long journey on the mountain road, the cross-country vehicle finally stopped at a school, hidden in the depth of a mountain.
The school building was made of wood, too old to be described by any words. Most of the glasses in the wooden windows were broken, and cardboards were used to cover the windows. Then I saw a girl with dirty hair and something white on her ears. It turned out that she had chilblains but had no money to see a doctor, so she sticked paper on her small face. The girl lived alone with her grandpa. All the property they had were two straw houses and one coffin, which the grandpa reserved for himself.
I was told that people live a very poor life here. Man can’t afford to get married. Even though he buys a wife with all his property, she will run away after giving birth, as it is too poor to live on. Then the man has to find a job outside and leave here without messages from then on. There are about two hundred people here, but only one child is lucky enough to have a mother.
The teachers of the school got only 300 yuan a month, teaching several hundred children, nearby or faraway, which was a heavy burden for them. “To distinguish whether the student is from a rich family or a poor one, just see how much oil there is with the pickles they bring to school.” That was what the seemingly about seventy-year old headmaster told me. From then on, I’m used to donate all the money I have in my pocket to help those poor children, encouraging them with all the comforting words I can think of. When I’m together with them face to face, I feel happy as I know that the children are looking at me with their big eyes, then I would smile and use my eyes to let them know that life is beautiful, life is full of happiness, life is full of hope.
I believe that people should live not only for himself, but also for the society. Therefore, he should use the money he earned to help the people in need. I determine that from the next year, I will donate more money to the school dropouts, to do all I can for them. When I’m back to the hustling city, returning home after a busy day, every time I open the photo album, seeing those poor children again, my eyes will be filled with tears, my throat obstructed, with my hand touching the chin, I become wordless.
Once my friend said that I was too emotional. I told him, “Life without love is mournful.”
I went to Tibet and Qinghai in 2003, from where I met the people who were so poor that they couldn’t live on, couldn’t go to school, couldn’t see the doctor, or even had no clothes and many children died because their parents had no money to cure their illness. All these shocked me greatly. When I was back from Qinghai, I made up my mind that as long as I can, I will donate one thousand Hope Primary Schools in my life. The second one is now being built in Yushuzhou of Qinghai province, which will be completed in August. I know that many children are waiting for my help. I hope that one thousand is enough for them. I hope that all children can be happy forever.
There’s a saying that “God knows what we are doing”.
Sometimes when I learn about some harrowing stories from newspapers or TV, I will donate money to them and never release my name. Even when some people call back, I won’t admit that I did it. I donate several million yuan in this way, because I firmly believe that God knows what we are doing. We must have a charitable heart. I act on the principle that whatever you do, do with a clear conscious, be responsible for yourself, for your family, for your friends and for the society.