Donated to:
Jianping He (何建平)
$280 of $280 donated
Sichuan, China
Like many in my village, I did not own my first set of clothing until I was five years old. My family had been too poor to buy cloth. My family rents fields from others, and my father works a second job as a manual laborer downtown. My family must pay tuition for my brother and me – I am in middle school and my brother is in elementary school. During one tough time, I dropped out of class for a semester because my family couldn’t afford my tuition fee. Originally, I lived in a remote rural area, from where children would walk five hours to get to school since public transportation was not available. My old home was about 5 miles away from my current school. Everyday, I had to walk for an hour and a half to get to school. Because my parents wanted my brother and me to be closer to school, we decided to move, and found a nice neighbor willing to rent some farmland out. Unfortunately, the weather was very bad. When there was a storm, my family would have nothing to eat for several ...
Guangen Shen (申关根)
$200 of $200 donated
Sichuan, China
I was born in a small remote village, nestled in the mountains. Although I long to visit the big cities, my village lacks developed roads. People in my village either do farm work or hard labor. The only source of income in my family is the money earned by my father. Unfortunately, when I was little, I fractured my right arm, and in order to afford my medical expenses, his family had to borrow money from neighbors. To pay for tuition fees of both my sister and me, my father had to find a second job. The work was hard to find because my father is illiterate. Like many other poor families who have children attending school, my family is heavily in debt. Despite my difficult circumstances, I love to read. Physics is my favorite subject. When I was in elementary school, I often borrowed physics textbooks from my older sister every time I went home. Since I lived approximately 8.3 miles away from my elementary, I could only go home once every three weeks. In middle school, I enjoyed phys...
Shangwen Zhang (张尚文)
$10 of $280 donated
Sichuan, China
My family of four has struggled with economic hardships for years. We only own a small lot of land. Due to the poor health conditions of my mother, most of the farmwork falls on the shoulders of my father. My younger sister and I help out on the weekends when we return home from boarding at school. After the crops have been harvested, my father travels to a nearby city to earn a minimal income through hard labor to help the family get by. I often cry at night under the covers because I am torn between wanting to attend school and also wanting my father to not have to work so hard. I hope to finish school so that I can help my family out of poverty. (Translated from Shangwen’s autobiographical sketch)
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