Education China Project #52687

Support Girls' Education in Rural China

by The SOAR Foundation

Project Report | Jan 10, 2022
Rivera - The Cancer Survivor

By Story by Rivera, translated/edited by Dawn | Student & Project Leader

Rivera as a kid

My name is Rivera. I was born in a small village in the mountainous Guizhou province. I don’t know where my mother is. My father’s humble income supported me, my younger brother and two younger sisters. So by the age of 12, I dropped out of school and went outside of the village to earn my own living. As a minor, I had extremely difficult experiences as a young migrant worker. Yet, I understood the opportunity to go back to school was invaluable. Knowledge will change one’s life and destiny. Thank you SOAR FOUNDATION!

But life is a box of chocolate and you never know what’s next. In sophomore year, I had bumps. At the beginning, I didn't know it was very serious and dangerous. But the doctor told me to remove them as soon as possible. So I had to take medical leave right before the final exams. I was so scared and worried. After the 1st surgery, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to quit school for further medical treatment. I almost gave up. I didn’t want to be a burden to my family. I suffered from deep depression. Thanks to my family and SOAR’s encouragement, I came out of the dark and gloomy emotion. After the 2nd surgery, I survived!

Now I’m back at school, I treasure my life and the opportunity to study even more. Special thanks to SOAR scholarship and mentorship, you are my family without the blood ties! I promise that I will try my best to learn and hope I will be able to help other poor children like what SOAR is doing now.

Editor’s note:

Rivera is a fictional name, as her real name has the character of river. Her family annual income is ¥3,000 RMB, about $470 USD.

SOAR FOUNDATION wish you and family a happy, healthy and peaceful new year of 2022! Thank you for your continuous support to the poor but talented students in rural China.

Rivera Now

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Sep 14, 2021
SOAR is My Benefactor

By Written by TXJ, Translated & Edited by Dawn & Hao | SOAR Alumna & Volunteers

Little TXJ in mountainous village hometown school

Every time I write about my experience, I feel that I cannot achieve anything today without that unforgettable past. It was SOAR that helped me through those difficult years. Yes, SOAR is my benefactor!

I was an orphan, my biological parents abandoned me three days after I was born. Because they wanted a boy, but I am a girl. My adopted family are also very poor. Tragically, my adopted father and brother passed away due to a lightning strike when I was three-year old. Then my adopted mother passed away suddenly from an unexpected stroke when I was nine-year old. Luckily, my adopted sister and her family took me to their home. But they were very poor as well. After fifth grade in elementary school, I dropped out of school because my sister's home did not have money for me to study. I had no choice but to go to work with my sister and brother-in-law, climb up the mountain to herd cattle, and watch my peers go to school. At that time. My sister and brother-in-law had a family of five. They depended on the weather for food. If it didn't rain for a year, there would be no harvest. There would be no income from crops. We barely had enough food to survive, let alone going to school for education. As the middle school entrance exam day approached, my brother-in-law told me that I couldn't continue studying, so the exam would be useless. As timid and ineloquent as I was, I could only obey. Fortunately, God took care of me. The heavy rain fell on the morning of the exam day, and we couldn't go up the mountain to work as usual. One can’t imagine how happy I was. I secretly ran out of the cottage and followed my classmates to another village to take the exam (the registration fee was ten RMB (about $1.4 dollar), half from my elementary school teacher, and the other half from a dozen of my classmates). I dared not tell my family about the matter. Because my exam scores were very good, even though I failed to register at the school when the school started, I got the attention of the local middle school, just in time for the nine-year compulsory education policy started. The middle school teacher found my brother-in-law and sincerely persuaded my brother-in-law to finally allow me to go to school. But my path to school was not smooth at all. Although the nine-year compulsory education system exempted my tuition, I still had no money to pay for school fees. Knowing that I was about to be forced out of school again, I secretly cried several times a day.

Just when I gave up the idea of going to school, a teacher approached me and said, "SOAR FOUNDATION can provide scholarships for you to go to school!" I burst into tears with joy, and carefully filled out the scholarship application form and wrote my autobiography... In September of that year, I received the first money order in my life. So the fate between me and SOAR began! With the SOAR Scholarship, my brother-in-law didn't have to bear any expenses for me, nor stopping me from studying. At that time, I secretly made up my mind to study hard, go out of the mountains, and see the outside world. SOAR not only gave me financial support, but my mentor often wrote to encourage me. Every time I received her letter, I was very happy, full of joy, and felt that I was the luckiest person in the world! In the next few years, I cherished every opportunity to contact SOAR, including filling out every form from SOAR. I was as serious as always because it was SOAR that gave me the opportunity to go to school. SOAR makes me confident, and SOAR made me optimistic. I learned knowledge and met friends in school together with my classmates, and spent the happiest time in middle and high school! Meeting SOAR 20 years ago changed my destiny and took me out of a remote mountain village. Today, 20 years later, I become the Head of SOAR’s Beijing Office. From accepting SOAR's help for the first time to now becoming SOAR's volunteer, I feel that I have never left the big family of SOAR. I can’t forget the day I joined the SOAR volunteer family. SOAR's teachers said to me, "Welcome back to the SOAR family!" Teachers! I will pass on SOAR's love forever!

Every time I write about my own experience,I feel that I cannot achieve anything today without that unforgettable past. It was SOAR that helped me through those difficult years. Yes, SOAR is my benefactor!

TXJ

SOAR Alumna & Head of SOAR Beijing Office

Editor’s Note:

Starting Monday September 13th until Friday September 17th, during GlobalGiving's Little by Little campaign. ALL online donations up to $50 will be matched at 50% !* So if you donate $50, SOAR will receive $75 minus fees from GG. Make a bigger impact this week with the same amount of donation compared to other times of the year.

*Terms and conditions apply.

https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/september-2021-little-by-little/terms/

Happy TXJ Now in Beijing

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