Letter from a Student

Blessing Hands

Recently we got this letter and volunteer report from Li Dongyu, one of our Blessing Hands students. It so moved me that I asked him if I could use it for a newsletter. He agreed, so here it is with his own Chinese words and translation (with a few corrections in English from me).

我在培训的地方拍的。在这里我学到了很多东西，我爱这个地方。 My training place. I learned a lot here. I love this place. 亲爱的的祝福之手：  Dear Blessing hands： 你好！How are you! 下个学期我就上大四了，时间过得真快，我又想起了第一次给你写信的时候，那时我还在上初中，到现在过去已将近八年了。那时我还不会用电脑，给你写信时我就用铅笔写好在信笺上，交给老师代发。那时我的很好奇，远隔重洋的你是否能收到我的信，事实证明你收到了，八年来都收到了我的信，八年来你们一直给予我帮助，让我的学业能不断进步，让我有更多机会去见识世界和了解世界，非常感谢你们。   I am a college senior next term. Time flies. I remember the first time to wrote to you, when I was in junior high school, and now it has been nearly eight years. At that time I did not use a computer, when I wrote to you. I used a pencil to write on the letterhead of the school with the teacher's encouragement. I was very curious, separated by vast oceans, whether you received my letter. In fact you did receive it. For eight years you have received my letters. For eight years you have given me help, let my academics progress, and let me have more opportunities to see and understand the world. Thank you very much. 我还有最后一年就要毕业了，到时候我想从事软件开发的工作，因为这是我的专业。我希望我编写的软件能帮助人们提高工作的效率，或者给生活带来趣味。你们是我的榜样，我想在工作后做一个祝福之手。  I have one last year to graduate from the university. I want to work in software development because this is my profession. I hope I will write software that can help people improve the efficiency of their work or bring life fun. You are my role model, I want to do like the works of Blessing Hands.  这是我在学校的时候拍的照片，那时是2014年4月。School photograph in April 2014. 现在我正在南宁市接受培训，我原来说过我想成为一名软件工程师，现在我越来越接近我的理想了。我在这儿学到了很多知识，我和我的同学打算为一家医院开发管理系统。能取得今天的成绩与你的帮助是分不开的，非常感谢你们的帮助，我很期待有一天也能像你一样去帮助别人。  Now I'm in Nanning for training. I want to be a software engineer. Now I feel more and more close to my ideal. I learned a lot here. My classmates and I are going to develop a management system for a hospital. To achieve today's achievement is inseparable from your help. Thank you very much for your help. I'm looking forward to one day being able like you to help others. 这是我们将要开发的系统，为了方便医院对病人的资料进行管理，使病人能获得更好的治疗，让医生的工作量减轻，我想我如果能作出这个系统，也是一件很有意义的事情。 We are going to develop a system to facilitate the hospital information management of the patient. The patient can get better treatment, making the doctor's work easier. I thought if I could make the system, it would be very meaningful.    2013年下学期到2014年上学期的义工说明  Volunteer Activities   我有一个社科系的同学，叫做莫素芳，她每个学期都会去柳州市儿童福利院做义工，她给我讲了在在儿童福利院的孩子的事情时，我决定周末跟她一起去照顾福利院的孩子。  My classmate, Mo Su-fang, goes to Liuzhou Children's Welfare Home each semester to volunteer. After she told me about the orphanage children, I decided go with her to care for the welfare of the children on the weekend. 柳州市儿童福利院的地址是航银路66号，从我们学校乘公交车过去要将近1个小时。周六我和同学给孩子们买了一些小礼物就过去了，有笔和笔记本，还有一些零食。刚到的时候，孩子们有些害怕我们，因为平时很少陌生人会来看他们。我们把礼物发给每个小孩，和他们做完游戏后，孩子们都喜欢上我们了。时间过得好快，我们都很开心，有的孩子要为我们表演唱歌和跳舞，有的要为我们朗诵诗歌，我很感谢他们的表演。中午的时候我们在一起吃饭，我和同学都细心地喂孩子饭（有些是残疾儿童），那顿饭我们吃的很开心。 The Liuzhou child welfare address is No. 66 Air Silver Road. It's one hour from our school to there by bus. My classmates and I bought some small gifts for the children on this past Saturday. There were all kinds of pens, notebooks, and some snacks. When we first arrived, the children were afraid of us, because usually strangers come to see them. We gave gifts to each child. After they finished the games, the kids began to like us. Time passed very happily. Some children sang and danced for us or recited some poetry. I was very grateful for their performances. At noon when we ate together, my classmates and I were careful to feed the children rice. Some of them are disabled children, who cannot feed themselves. The meal we ate was happy. 时间过得好快，我们下午4点就要回去了，孩子们对我们非常不舍。由于福利院不允许拍照，我们没有留照片。 Time was soon gone, since we had to go back at 4:00 pm. We were very loathe to leave. Because the institution did not allow pictures, we have no pictures. __________________________________________________________________ 最近一次做义工是在这个暑假，我离开学校到南宁市去进行培训。我的同事和我一起为一个留守儿童募捐的活动布置会场。  A recent volunteering activity I participated in this summer vacation concerned left-behind children. My classmates and I together planned a left-behind children's fundraising activity. 这是我们布置的会场，为留守儿童进行募捐。This is our arrangement of the venue, to raise money for the children left behind. 这是我的同学，他叫周天明，我们正在把气球挂到墙上。This is my classmate. He is called Zhou Tianmin. We were preparing balloons to hang on the wall. 这些是留守儿童代表，他们都获得了帮助，许多孩子的父母都是外出打工，一年才能见一次面。这是他们在彩排一个节目，诗歌朗诵。 These are representatives of the left-behind children who get help. Many children's parents are migrant workers, who see their kids once a year. This is their rehearsal program for poetry readings.   我们邀请了一些企业家和教育机构的代表，他们将在下午为孩子们进行募捐。 We invited representatives of some of the entrepreneurs and educational institutions. There will be fundraising for the kids in the afternoon.  我和同学弄了一个上午才好，虽然没有直接帮助孩子们，可是我还是觉得我做的事情是挺有意义的。 My classmates and I got to prepare in the morning. Although we did not directly help the children, but I think we did something really meaningful.

Great Nonprofits Award What a wonderful letter Li Dongyu has written. I am attaching a photo of him when he first came into our program in 2006. This year is our 9th year serving students in China.  Li Dongyu at Puyi Middle School in 2006 We get lovely letters like this when students are thanking sponsors. What a joy it is to see them grow up and want to become Blessing Hands.  Each year Great Nonprofits Top-Rated List of Nonprofits comes out in October. To be listed for 1914, we need 10 positive reviews on our page on their website. Most of our students in China can't give a review on a computer, but you can.  Please take the time to tell people what you think of Blessing Hands - good or bad.  Help us get a @GreatNonprofits 2014 Top-Rated Award by writing a review of your experience with us! All reviews will be visible to potential donors and volunteers. It's easy and only takes 3 minutes!  http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/blessing-hands-inc I will tell you a secret. These reviews encourage our hardworking volunteers to keep it up. Take time to say thank you like Li Dongyu did. Thanks is all the pay we get.   I thank all you who have helped our Blessing Hands students. We have all of our college  scholarship students funded now thanks to you.   Blessings and thanks,  Betty Cutts Blessing Hands

Exciting China trip

Exciting China Trip  Website in English     Pinterest pages     Newsletters     Blog      Contact Us  Dental Clinic at Chong Ye Primary School 崇业小学 Students Receive Dental Check-ups, Books, and Toys at Chong Ye School  You can see more pictures by clicking on the photos.  Kids line up for the dental clinic Doctor and volunteers demonstrate proper brushing.    Three Mai sisters made this whole day possible and handled the details. Xiaoyuan Mai, a doctor at the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Hospital in Nanning, encouraged her co-workers to bring their expertise and arranged the Chong Ye Primary School Dental Clinic.   Xiaomin Mai, one of our board members, helped raise money at a USA yard sale for toothbrushes and paste for all the students.  Xiaoling Mai, vice-principal of Ming Yi Primary School in Nanning, arranged a book donation drive at her school which gave over 1000 books to the rural Yao minority school. BlessingHands gave four metal bookcases, so each classroom could protect the books. We also took them a water purifier.  The Chong Ye kids were very excited to see all the books, visitors, gifts and candy. Volunteers were glad to help the kids, eat lunch at the school, and see the countryside homes and culture.  The road to the school was narrow, under construction, and bumpy. One car carrying books had a flat tire, but at least it was not in a muddy place.   Kids got to choose a gift  after their check-up.    Principal Lan Kegang 蓝克刚 (far left) accepted the books donated by Min Yi School. Kids will soon be able to have safe drinking water.     Blessing Hands gave the school a water purifier. Chong Ye Primary School   崇业小学   will soon have a Blessing Hands water purifier installed. The water presently comes from a cistern since wells can't be dug in the limestone karst. The kids drink from one faucet with no thought of boiling water.  Xiaomin Mai translated during the TV interview.       This five-year-old boy  is mute like his mother. Yao Families Some of our group hiked up to visit two of the Yao families that Blessing Hands is sponsoring. The traditional Yao house is at least two stories with the bottom being the barn for the animals. The rafters hold storage and sometimes drying crops. Corn planted by hand is the main cash crop.  With a sponsor's help, this boy will be sent to a doctor in Nanning to see why he is mute. Most of his family of five is handicapped in some way, but his older sister is a good student in middle school. She walks miles to school everyday.  The houses are open to the weather, so they sleep with mosquito nets.        Older Yao homes often have concrete additions with flat roofs to gather rainwater. Migrant workers send money home to build the more modern homes. The homes are high in karst mountains where water is precious.  The hospitality of the families was shown by their gifts of corn, soybeans, and three live chickens to their Blessing Hands guests. The driver took the chicken to the market to be dressed, and we ate them the next day for lunch. It was a little hard for our group to eat chickens they knew, but they were delicious.  Steps to the main floor were made out of logs. Eric, son of volunteer Shanli Zhao, with  the gift chickens.     Sharing the path with a herd of goats New Opportunities - New Students  In summer, we went all the way from Zhuhai to Kunming helping students and engaging volunteers. We have begun a new children's programs in Zhuhai City, among the Miao minority people, and at Shenfu Primary School in Quanzhou County near Guilin.  Yangshuo County is also selecting thirty-five new students for sponsorship. Huizhong Wang  with his  father Lao Wang help us among the Miao.  These are opportunities for you to sponsor a child for a longer time period since you can follow them as they grow up.  Beginning in the fall semester, these new programs will start small and increase as the students grow. Contact us if you want to sponsor a child. Each program has different costs.  Sponsor New Students   Give $42 a semester for a primary student at Shenfu Primary School  or Fumin Primary School.  Give $57 a semester for a Miao student.  Give $65 a semester for a Zhuhai student.  Kids Singing 深福小学 Shenfu Primary School  Sponsorships  Shao and Jing, her husband, are our volunteers for Shenfu Primary School in Jing's hometown. We have enrolled 11 new students there, who need sponsors. You can see the story of our visit on our Pinterest pages.  真龙 Zhenlong can be sponsored for $84 (510 yuan) a year    This school is in the Guilin Prefecture of Guangxi Province.  The teacher and kids walked an hour and a half to meet us at a larger school. Because the kids are from the same village, Jing and Shao think they can follow them as they grow into higher grades. Most of the kids have the same family name. This is an opportunity to sponsor a student from first grade on up.  When sponsorship starts this early, students raise their dreams and have more open doors available to them. You can see more photos of students and pick one out to sponsor on our  pinterest board about Shenfu Primary School.  家家Jiajia needs a sponsor.    涛Tao needs a sponsor. 启明Qiming and other students can be sponsored for $42 a semester or $84 a year. Wheelchair Dedication Dedication of 109 Wheelchairs Our volunteers got to see some of the people who they helped to receive wheelchairs. I enjoyed talking personally to each one of them. We partnered with the Wheelchair Foundation to provide the chairs made in China for $90 each. The chairs even had our logo on the back.  There were two different kinds of red chairs. One was a tricycle that could be used outside for travel and the other was for general use. I especially noticed one clever man, who had altered his old tricycle to have a windshield and covered top. When the dedication ceremony was cut short by rain, he scrambled to get his new wheelchair hooked up to his old one.                    Click on photos to see the whole story.  Tricycle type wheelchair This man used wooden blocks  to protect his hands.    With his new tricycle chair in  tow, he took off.       Members of Lexington Chinese Christian Church gave fifty of these wheelchairs.  The Handicapped Bureau of Du'an County helped plan the ceremony and arranged for the delivery of the chairs.  Our many Blessing Hands volunteers made the day unforgettable.  马榕蔓 Mandy Ma, our volunteer administrator in Du'an, used her skills to coordinate everything. Our wheelchairs in the disabled classroom Du'an Handicapped School We also toured Du'an County Handicapped School, which is the biggest in Hechi Prefecture. The three year old school teaches 100 blind, deaf, disabled, and mentally challenged students until they graduate from ninth grade.  We suggested to the principal that they should have computers to teach the students vocational skills.  If you know of a donor, foundation, or international company willing to fund such a computer project,   please contact us .    They need to have new com puters in every appropriate classroom as well as a lab to teach computer skills. Students' dorm at the school   These disabled kids could learn computer vocational skills. We gave small gifts and candy to the students. The students were learning Braille. Xu Zongjie (Mike) plans  to study Engineering College Scholarships We have new students seeking college scholarships. Some already have sponsors from high school, but need extra from a second sponsor.徐 宗杰 Xu Zongjie has been accepted by Qinzhou University School of Electronic Information Engineering. His tuition is 4590 yuan a year. We hope sponsors will work together to give him a 4000 Yuan ($650) scholarship. Please help him.  You can see other students needing sponsors on our Pinterest pages.

...