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Lending a loving hand
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Li Dan
MONEY collected at a campus photo exhibition themed "the voice of mountain kids", plus a bazaar, will be given to Song Wanming and Song Wenhui this Saturday by a group of students from Shenzhen University.
"Our eyes have often been directed to Guizhou, Sichuan and other inland provinces thanks to 'Project Hope'," Wu Peng, one of the organizers, told me. "But we tend to neglect that kids in poor mountainous regions of our own Guangdong Province face the same tragic fate if no one comes to help."
The plight of youngsters in Guangdong reached public awareness at a student meeting, during which Song Yongchang from Wuhua County, Heyuan City described the poor kids back at his hometown. "We cannot sit doing nothing about it," Wu Peng said. "Song's description struck us like lightning and lingered long in our minds."
Then, after several days of preparations, he collected cameras and a notebook and set out with Situ Xiaowei for Qiaojiang Township to get a firsthand look.
"Only five hours away by bus brings you to a completely different world from the modern city we take for granted," Wu said. "Dilapidated schools, crude chairs and tables, no computers, no recorders, no basketball hoops, not even toilets---this was what we saw at the town's Dahu Primary School."
Song Wanming and Song Wenhui led the charge to do something. The two live with their old grandparents after their fathers died and mothers left. "They cannot afford the education fees, so just living is a problem," Wu told me.
Their photo exhibition, launched last week, has caused a stir on campus. "I am deeply impressed by those pictures," a student wrote on the school's BBS. "In one photo, a little girl peeps into the simple classroom where a group of primary school students line up for vaccinations," another wrote. "I could see how envious she was, simply because they go to school."
Already, several thousand yuan has been collected through donations and a bazaar of donated stationary, books and CDs. The Seek-knowledge Bookstore also donated 50,000 books to support the bazaar.
Wu Peng and his schoolmates pledged to continue their efforts to help those kids. "We will support Song Wanming and Song Wenhui through primary education, and build a toilet for the school." Also they are planning to organize a trip back during their summer vacation to help the kids with their lessons.
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