Qiu Ping once read a story about a boy playing by the sea. The waves swept many little fish onto the beach, goes the story. He picked up the dying fish and sent them back to the sea patiently, though high waves carried the fish to the sands again. People told the boy that no one would care about it. The boy replied, "but the fish care."

Teacher Qiu likens herself to the boy and her students in poverty-stricken Haiyuan County to the little fish in the tale.

"Most students will not be able to continue their education after finishing junior middle school," said Qiu, who graduated with a major in broadcasting journalism from Xiamen University of East China's Fujian Province last summer.

Instead of heading for a new life in the city, she traveled to Haiyuan as a member of the China Youth Volunteer Poverty-alleviation Relay Project.

Organized by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), the project has seen tens of thousands of student volunteers provide education and health services in poor regions around the country since 1996.

Qiu teaches students of junior three history in the Middle School of Guanqiao, a rural town in Haiyuan.

During her one-year service, Qiu receives an allowance of 600 yuan (US$75) per month from CYLC.

"I hope my presence here has colored the harsh life of many students, and given them some hope," Qiu said.

Qiu believes she was born to teach. She narrates lively history stories in her class and easily captures students' attention. She shows them pictures of the outside world after class.

Apart from her eight classes, Qiu also takes charge of the school's broadcasting station. She has selected eight student broadcasters and produces five programs of communicating news, essays, students' articles, science and music. The programs air every day for half an hour, beginning at 4 pm.

"For me, Guanqiao is a pure world of fairy tales, far from busy urban centers. It is simple and straightforward to interact with local children," she said.

Harsh reality

She visited Haiyuan three years ago when she was still a university student.

"The poverty struck me," she said, adding that she rejected the idea of working there as a volunteer at that time.

However, two years later when the local Haiyuan youth league committee extended the same invitation, she signed up.

"Being a volunteer enables me to get to know the western region of the country, which differs enormously with the prosperous east where I grow up," she says.

"I wanted to join the local people in the remote west, to see what I could do to help them," she adds.

On the day Qiu left Haiyuan County for Guanqiao, she took a picture while standing in front of a sandy hill. For there was a tree on its top, the sole green she could find on the way.

The dull yellow dominates the plateau. "I always find my desk covered by thick dust every morning. Haiyuan is rich in sand, yet lacks water. Locals say the place suffers from drought nine years out of 10," Qiu said.

The annual precipitation there maintains 200 to 700 millimeters, with an yearly evaporation of 1,000 to 2,400 millimeters.

Almost every household in Guanqiao has dug a special well in their courtyard to store rain water.

The middle school where Qiu serves would buy a truck of tap-water from the county town each week, and store them in the wells.

During the cold winter, the temperature frequently falls to 20 C below zero.

Villagers grow wheat in summer and autumn. The heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures in the winter of 2004 ruined all the seeds last May. "It was a bad year, but villagers have got accustomed to worse harvests," Qiu said.

A larger proportion of parents cannot afford the yearly fee of 400 yuan (US$48) in text and exercise books and other school charges.

It is even worse for families with more than one child. Commonly, the older children stop schooling halfway through and raise money to support the younger ones, while girls give up for boys.

Some parents save money to build a house for sons or prepare a dowry for daughters, rather than to pay the school fees. Students have to take on part-time jobs.

Some dig up the flagelliform nostoc (facai) plant during weekends. Its price reaches 200 yuan (US$ 24) per kilogram, though trade in this plant is officially banned because digging up the plant destroys the vegetation of soil and harms the environment.

Some help farmers pick the fruits of the Chinese wolfberry (gouqi) during their summer holidays, and catch wild rabbits for sale in winter.

To help these children who are liable to quit schooling at any moment because of poverty, Qiu and another nine volunteers in Haiyuan have been uploading children's information onto the Internet.

Now, about 300 students of junior one in Guanqiao Middle School are ble to receive financial aid.

"That's still far from enough. It is frustrating that more than half of my students of junior three will be deprived of further education this fall," Qiu said.

Boys, like their fathers, may leave for a manual position in cities to earn more money. Girls would return home to help out, take care of other children, and prepare for marriage, she said.

Qiu shares a small dormitory in Guanqiao Middle School with her schoolmate volunteer Chen Xiaolan.

The two young women drank up 24 bottles of mineral water during their first week in Guanqiao. Then they shifted to cheaper purified water to save money.

Simple life

Now they have found the most economic method, to weekly fetch two buckets of the running water from Haiyuan. "We dare not drink the stored rainwater. We pump it up in the basin to wash our hands and faces," Qiu said.

They would try their best to think of different ways to cook tomatoes, potatoes and cabbages at dinner time. For these are the three dominating vegetables on their daily menu, besides eggs and noodles. At times they would stuff the cupboard with hometown specialties.

Qiu always looks forward to the weekend, when the two usually have a get-together in Haiyuan, with other volunteers. They will have a good feast of mutton and beef.

Yet every meeting also means Qiu has to put up with two trips aboard the bus, which are time-consuming and dangerous.

"Only when it is overloaded with 60 to 70 passengers, three times the normal capability, will the bus set out. I feel myself stuck in a can of sardines. Some people stand on one foot. Passengers will kiss each other if there is a sudden brake," Qiu said.

Qiu now raises a cat, a souvenir of her visit to Xi'an of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province last October. She called it "changle" which means "be always joyful" in Chinese.

"I bought the cat because I found mice in the dormitory. 'Changle' has become a popular star among students," she added.

Qiu learns, from local women, to weave different patterns of wool threads, and knit a brown scarf for herself.

Since she and other volunteers started working in Haiyuan, they have enjoyed respect and popularity among their students.

Qiu said that students strictly limit their weekly living cost within 10 yuan (US$1.2), which does not even guarantee them three meals a day. Children who have no money at all only consume a steamed bun every meal.

However, the children would share their little food generously with Qiu, even an apple. That is an expression of the supreme courtesy from these children.

Qiu also treasures the dreams they have shared with her.

Qiu has kept in her PC notebook an article by Wang Xiaoli, a shy girl from junior one class.

"She says she is studying hard so that one day her family can afford green onion pancakes, instead of black steamed bread. She dreams of a bright room of her own, a bed with a flowery sheet and a well-dressed doll," Qiu said.

"Many outstanding students can't even afford the traveling expenses to senior high schools in Haiyuan and in distant cities, let along the tuition," Hei Sheng, the local youth league committee chairman, said.

"All I can do is to teach them how to protect themselves, to communicate with others, and to be an upright person," Qiu said.

"Most importantly, I hope years later their children can receive higher education under better studying conditions," she added.

Till now, Qiu Ping has not won any support from her parents for her volunteer work in Ningxia.

"My father says we are not able to change anything. Yet I believe it is always better to do something than being a sympathetic spectator," she said.

Qiu plans to buy a film projector, as none of her students have ever seen a movie.

She also wants to shoot a short film about Haiyuan and Guanqiao.

"I hope more and more people can realize the backwardness of the education here, and offer their help to improve it," Qiu said.

(China Daily January 26, 2005)