YINCHUAN: Never had Ma Xiaoqi (pseudonym) celebrated a birthday, though he makes birthday wishes every year. When the 11-year-old boy wished to have a new schoolbag to replace his worn-out one this year, he did not expect that would happen so fast.
“I saw a new bag at home several days after I made the wish. I like it very much,” said the fourth-grade student excitedly, who lives in a remote mountainous village in Jingyuan County, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
The gift is from Yu Jianchang, who works on the Jingyuan county committee of the Communist Youth League of China. Devoted to working with rural kids for years, Yu is also the leader of the “Happy Room” Child Care Project, serving disadvantaged children aged 6-14, such as orphans, the disabled, those separated from their parents who leave their homes to work in cities, and other children living in difficulties.
According to Yu, the project launched by the local government refurbishes the houses of these kids to create an independent learning space equipped with necessary furniture to improve their learning and living environment. Nearly 50 children have benefited from the project in the past two years. With his father dead and his mother remarried, Ma only has his 67-year-old grandma to rely on. –Agencies
