Li Hao

A 30-YEAR-OLD Shenzhen entrepreneur Zhao Rubin has provided subsidies to more than 690 students at eight schools in undeveloped mountainous areas in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region since 2006.

Since then, he has visited children in the areas twice a year to learn what they need and what he can do to help. Each time he has to travel 700 kilometers, part of which can only be covered on foot due to undesirable road conditions.

When asked by Shenzhen Daily on Tuesday about the hardships he has met, he smiled and said, “It’s all a pleasure.”

He spent most of the interview sharing stories of the children he met instead of talking about himself.

He is determined to continue doing this.

Getting started

“In 2006, a friend told me about some children in a remote village in Lingyun County in Guangxi. He said they lived in thatched huts and could not afford to go to school,” recalled Zhao.

Zhao didn’t believe it until he and a friend at Shenzhen Customs visited Houlong Village in the county, where Zhao witnessed widespread poverty that had been beyond his imagination.

“The distance between each two schools in these areas is more than 10 kilometers. Some children have to walk for 2.5 hours to school each day without the company of their parents. Worse, drinking clean water is a distant dream for them because of a severe water shortage. The water in local water storage tank is always yellow,” Zhao said in a sad tone.

He cried and donated the thousands of yuan he had taken to the village.

“I was born in Chaoyang in Guangdong and came to Shenzhen to make a living before I had even finished junior middle school because of my family’s poverty, so I can sympathize,” Zhao said.

After returning to Shenzhen, Zhao started thinking about what he could do for the children.

 With the help of local volunteers, Zhao began to subsidize poor students and the construction of school buildings.

Zhao’s devotion to help has also had a positive effect on the children who receive his subsidies.

“I would have dropped out without Zhao’s subsidies,” said Wei Fuxiang, a college student who receives regular financial support from Zhao.

 Wei has asked to reduce subsidies for him to let more people benefit from Zhao’s care.

Regular visits

In addition to regular donations, Zhao has visited the children twice every year, mainly during the May Day and National Day holidays.

“Each time he brings bottled water, stationery, cotton quilts and other daily articles,” said Yang Ke, a volunteer.

Zhao also buys vegetables and meat to cook for the children. He takes everything he needs, including water, during his stay in the area.

When local people offer specialties or invite him home for dinner, he refuses to avoid adding to their financial burden.

“The visit during this May Day holiday has impressed me most so far. There was a little girl who was sleeping on the ground in a classroom when I saw her. I was surprised to see how dirty her face was when I hugged her. Even the wet paper napkins I was carrying were insufficient, she must have gone a long time without washing her face,” Zhao said.

The girl was waiting for her brother and sister, who study at the school.

“I gave her an apple and she ate it within several minutes,” said Zhao, who later visited the girl’s home and was shocked by the poverty he saw. The parents of the girl work in Xinjiang.

During Zhao’s three-day visit, Zhao and his friends visited eight rural schools and gave 100-yuan (US$16) subsidies described as “care packages” to 600 students. In addition, Zhao visited students’ homes to distribute rice and edible oil worth a total of about 10,000 yuan.

On May 1, Zhao witnessed the opening of a new school built with his donations in Daping Village in Hechi City. The school’s construction rectified formerly undesirable conditions for 62 students, who had been studying in classrooms made of cob bricks.

‘Helping is a pleasure’

When asked about his persistence in giving help, Zhao used the word “pleasure” at least five times in the interview.

“Giving help is a pleasure for me,” something Zhao often says to his friends. “It’s nothing to do with my business,” said Zhao, who runs a foreign trade company in Bao’an District.

Each night of his visit in May, Zhao only slept a few hours so that he could spend as much time as possible with the local children.

“I always tell my friends ‘when you consider it a pleasure to help others, you will never find it tiring,’” said Zhao.

Zhao enjoys introducing the undeveloped mountainous areas of Guangxi to his friends, encouraging them to learn about the poverty there, offering help.

“For most of them, ‘seeing is believing.’ They won’t believe how poor it is until they see it for themselves,” said Zhao.

New plans

Besides monetary gifts, Zhao is considering teaching marketable skills to rural children who do not continue their education after middle school.

“Teaching them skills is another way to lift them out of poverty,” Zhao said.

“I plan to ask my friends in Shenzhen to help subsidize these children so they can learn skills and work in the city.”

 Zhao also plans to extend his gifts to the Lazikou mountainous area in Gansu Province, helping to build schools or ease water shortages there, according to another volunteer, Zhang Zhengjun.