Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    NARROW concrete roads that can hold light vehicles only, winding gravel roads that only motorcycles can pass and muddy roads that only people can walk down. The only route that links Lingzhan Township in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to its remote and poverty-stricken villages was full of physical challenges for our team of 12 members who visited Yao ethnic villages to inspect the progress of water cellar construction over the weekend.

    The minibus carried us to Lingzhan Primary School, at the end of a concrete road from where we had to hike for two hours to our destination. On our way up the mountain, one of our photographers quit and one asked a fellow who passed us on a motorbike for a ride.

    Left-behind child

    When the rest of us reached the pass, from where we could overlook village houses on the other side of the mountain, Wang Yi, 14, now a student at Lingzhan Middle School, was waiting for us with two other students at a roadside pavilion.

    Wang, who now lives with his grandmother in a wooden house halfway up the mountain, is a typical left-behind child. His parents have been working as laborers in Guangxi since he was a small child.

    Wang’s parents only come back to see him twice a year, once in summer and once during the Spring Festival. Every Sunday, Wang prepares and carries his food to school, which offers 10-yuan (US$1.6) subsidies for three meals.

    “The situation for three of the Yao villages has greatly improved after the water cellars, either funded by the government or nonprofit organizations, were built here,” Yang Keshu, a teacher at Nongxin Primary School, told our team on the way to see the water cellars at the top of the mountain. A donation provided by Ride for Hope helped the Yao villages build 24 water cellars.

    “When we started building the water cellars, the villagers, mostly women, children and the elderly, had to carry bags of cement to the construction site from Lingzhan Primary School, where the road for vehicles ends,” said Yang, also a volunteer who spent 10 years calling for attention to the plight of the Yao villages. It needs about 100 bags of cement for a water cellar, which costs about 8,000 yuan.

    Enthusiastic volunteer

    Yang now works at Nongxin Primary School. He often receives donations from people who care about the children. For this trip, he brought a stack of money and gave each student 500 yuan.

    “I rarely have the chance to visit the families door by door because they live so remotely and far apart. Since the students are on holiday, I can find them easily by calling them together at one place to give out the money,” said Yao.

    Yang planned to give out the money he received, around 10,000 yuan in total, to students during weekends in September and will report back to the donors in October.

    Education improved

    The two primary schools are the best facilities in the area, which are administered by Lingzhan Yao Ethnic Township.

    Lingzhan Primary School and Nongxin Primary School both have three-story teaching buildings, student dormitories, spacious sports grounds and dining rooms. The two schools now accommodate around 300 students.