Who Cares?
by Wang Ying
An Amity volunteer dares to look at social reality a world apart from her own comfortable city life.
At the end of December last year, I took part in an activity organized by the Amity Foundation. We went on a field trip to interview orphans who live in northern Jiangsu, not far from Nanjing. This experience made a deep impression on me. I already knew that life is not easy for orphans. But not until I saw their living conditions with my on two eyes did I realize how poor they really are.
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Amity volunteer Wang Ying comforts an orphaned child. |
These children lost both of their parents and now live with their grandparents or other relatives. The houses they live in are cold, dark and shabby. They have only a small patch of fields where they can grow crops to make a living. Their grandparents are already old and they are usually not very healthy. Other relatives are not very rich either. This means they are in for a lot of trouble when they take care of orphaned children. Orphans, therefore, start taking on household and family responsibilities at an early age.
In the morning, the orphans rise very early to prepare breakfast. Afterwards they go to school. Some of the schools are far away from their homes but an orphan normally cannot afford a bike. So they walk all the way. When they come back from school they need to do housework and look after their grandparents and their younger siblings. Seeing them, I became aware how carefree my own life has been.
Comparing our lives
During the days of our visit, the weather became colder. I was rearranging the clothes in my closet when I suddenly realized how many clothes I had - clothes I never wore. There even were some clothes I had never worn at all. But poor people like the orphans even wear shoes with holes in them and threadbare clothes which the cold wind blows through. Clothes are passed on from elder to younger brothers and sisters even if they are old.
People say that it is a great thing for students, especially for those living in the cities, that there are school vacations. Students can either take part in organized vacation activities or they can take trip with their parents to places somewhere in China. But for children who live in poverty these activities are like the tales from the Arabian Nights. During vacation time, poor children are supposed to help with farm work, do housework or take part-time jobs to support their families. We - the kids from the city - take it for granted that we receive nine years of compulsory education. But when we look at poor children we have to admit that for them education is just a distant dream.
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The author of this article, Wang Ying, (in pink) and former Amity associate general secretary Zhang Liwei at an orphan’s home in Northern Jiangsu. |
Some people say, life is fair and bad luck will eventually turn out for the better. But look at us! Sure, we may have failed to go to a favored university or suffered from love sickness, but apart from that, life has given us so much. Yet for those children who do not have enough food to eat and clothes to wear, fairness is just an illusion.
Friends, only if every single one of us has the heart and the compassion to do something good, no matter how little, can we convince these children that there are still people who care.
