Xiao Qiong - Sponsored Child
Xiao Qiong is a 15-years old girl who lives with her parents and younger brother about 10km from the county seat of Mashan. Her village is nestled in a rocky landscape dotted with craggy pastel rocks and little arable land. While a beautiful setting, her village is not good for farming, so 70% of adults migrate to large cities in search of work.
Xiao Qiong lives at school and goes home on weekends and holidays. There are three rooms in her house: a kitchen, a single bedroom, and a third room with unfinished walls. Her father is the main breadwinner in the family. Unlike many villagers, he has not migrated for work. He does odd jobs in town, earning CNY80-100 (US$12-15) per day. Her mother is not very healthy and mainly cultivates vegetables in the family field and raises three cows and some chickens and ducks. Xiao Qiong doesn’t know how to ride a motorcycle, so her father has to pick up her younger brother from school every day. Since he needs to leave work early to do this, his income is less.
To enable villagers to earn an adequate living, so parents can stay with their children rather than migrating for work, World Vision implemented a farm irrigation project to increase the village's arable land. World Vision spent CNY$1.5 million (US$230,000) on the project, while villagers matched the investment and also provided the labor to build a 3.5km irrigation channel.
World Vision also helped the village construct a paved road to allow access by trucks, a prerequisite for earning income from agricultural production. Xiao Qiong says, “I think the biggest change in our village is the road. Because it used to be made of dirt, the road was slippery when it rained and dusty on dry days. Now with a concrete road it is convenient to get around.”
Due to the natural geography of the area, the village did not have regular access to a water supply for domestic use. World Vision implemented a drinking water project, laying water pipes from the hills to each farmer's house. In the past, Xiao Qiong's family needed to carry 6-8 buckets of water daily from its source 1-2km away. Her father says, "Now we don't need to carry water anymore and can drink clean water every day. We have more energy to work and time to spend with the kids."
Xiao Qiong became a sponsored child when she was in fifth grade. She explains, “At that time, World Vision built a canteen for our primary school. Prior to that, there was no room to eat at school so we ate in our classroom. When the canteen was built, we had new tables and chairs especially for eating and didn’t need to eat in the classroom anymore.”
In addition, World Vision has set up a Children Center in the village and donated sports equipment such as basketballs, skipping ropes, shuttlecocks, gobangs, hula hoops, table tennis tables and badminton sets, so children in the village have a safe place to spend their spare time. World Vision equipped the Children Center with books for the village children to read, and staffed it with an aid who can help children with homework. Xiao Qiong says, “I like to come to the Children Center to read text books to help with my studies as well as story books to read for fun."
To encourage positive parent-child relationships, World Vision organized activities at the Children Center. Xiao Qiong and her father took part, competing in the three-legged game and cooperating to complete various challenges. Her father said, “I take her and her brother to the Children Center for activities, so that they can exercise and participate and activities to improve their abilities.”
Xiao Qiong’s father participated in a positive parenting training organized by World Vision. Through an interactive workshop, he learned how to communicate better with his children. Xiao Qiong recalls humorously, “I used to go home on weekends to quarrel with my brother and get scolded by my parents. Now, when I start to quarrel with my brother, my parents have ways to break up our fight. I also communicate better with my mother and father. When I go home, they ask about my time at school and I tell them something interesting that has happened."
In her parents' eyes, Xiao Qiong is a sensible and clever child. Her mother shared a story that touched her deeply. On New Year’s Eve of 2019, Xiao Qiong surprised the whole family. She took out a pair of new shoes and clothes she had bought for her brother as well as a pair of new shoes for her mother and father. Her parents had given her CNY20 (US$3) for pocket money every week, but she never spent it, instead quietly saving the money to buy New Years gifts for her family. Xiao Qiong's parents could not help but tear up when they saw what their daughter had done.
This past June amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Xiao Qiong was to take the entrance examination for high school. “I hope I can make it through high school successfully and then attend college," she says excitedly.
