This is a small classroom with a dim light. The teacher has to climb to the roof and open the windows to let some light in.
Mr. Yee was giving a lecture to the students. He told the students, “You all have to study hard. Next time, when you grow up, you can take a train to Beijing…..” Beijing has become the farthest paradise for these students here. I was taking pictures behind them and I could feel hot tears rolling over my eyeballs.
Five children from a village are walking to a school. They have to walk few kilometers passing through the mountain, and unfortunately nobody fetch them by car, or by bus. Their parents have gone out to work, and thus these children have to learn to be independent. They know how to cook, how to sew clothes, how to clean house and etc. I think this is a good practice for our generations to learn to take care of themselves.
Due to a geographical setting, eastern part of China particularly in the area of Gansu, Ningxia and Xiabei has engaged with the worst drought ever. It is the most serious area suffering with water shortage ever recorded in a history of China. Its annual average rainfall is only 300mm but its evaporation rate is as high as 1,500 to 2000 mm. A severe water shortage has put people living in poverty. Children here have very outdated syllabus taught in school on the cause of water shortage. People here, particularly the women, have a very worrying state of health condition.
Due to an extreme drought, most of the children only have a little water to wash up their faces before going to school. As compared to us, we are lucky as we do not have to suffer the water shortage like them. We sit in an office, turning the tap; the water runs out like a fountain. After working for a day, we enjoy a bath from a water heater, and the running water enables us to get some house work done.
A mother only has a small basin of mud water for cooking. This is not because they do not care about their hygiene, but because of lack of water. For them, they may have only taken a bath once a month.
This is not a crazy story as it is reported in the newspaper that they have not taken bath for 13 years. It is not a story I created here to lie to you, but it is really a fact they are facing.
They have to walk more than 10 kilometers everyday just to fetch some water. It has become a famous song here, “When the cock wakes us up, we'll go out to fetch water; when the sun sinks, it's time for us to get home.”
When gazing at those people here, especially the poor children, my tears kept on rolling down from the cheeks. I cannot bear on crying for them. Few question marks flashed through my brain, “Who is going to take a responsibility to improve their living situations? They are just like any other children, but why they've no rights to enjoy the best education like anyone of us? What's wrong with them? Why they've to suffer in this manner? Where is the fairness for a human living under the same sky?”
While we are enjoying a comfortable life, do we always think of those unfortunate people? Ask yourself; do you always ignore their existence? They just need a few minutes of our time.
