Graduated from a key university majoring in English, I once dreamed of becoming a translator in a big company and settling down in a big city. However, I finally decided to come back to my hometown and became an English teacher in a senior school. Maybe the students here need me more. I still remember my first day of teaching. When I told the students the most important thing we must have in our life is our dream, their eyes shone with bright light. I always remind myself that I need to bring hope to their life.
My school is located in Longxi, a poor small county of Gan su province in west China. Most of the students come from rural areas and live alone by renting a small room from local farmers. They have to study six days a week and some even have no time to go home for a whole semester. Every morning they must get up at 5:50a.m and start their learning at 6:30 until noon. After two hours of break, they begin to have class again in the afternoon. Usually, they cant go to bed until 11:00p.m.
As they graduated from middle school in countryside, they didnt have access to advance teaching facilities and even certain teachers to teach them English. Thus, as senior students, English is still their weakness in all subjects. As a result, teaching English is always challenging. I must try all kind of ways to make them understand what I teach. Sometimes, I doubt whether my efforts can make any difference in their life. Some students even never use English in their life except for the College Entrance Examination.
Actually, for the students, they have only a few choices in their life. They either study hard to finish their college education and find a good job to support their family or go to big cities to do some labor work after high school. Some girls even drop from school early and get married soon. Since then they begin to take care of a big family by working on the barren land and struggle against poverty.
Once a girl named Chen Hongxia came to my office and asked whether she could have a talk with me. After my permission, she told me she felt confused and stressed. Her father was working in a construction site and her mother was staying at home to do some farming work to support the family. Her parent had to work hard to earn enough money for the studying fees of her and her two younger brothers. She wanted to drop from school to help her parents now and then. I comforted and encourage her that the only thing she could do was to work hard to finish college education so that she could help her family get rid of poverty. As a matter of fact, many students, especially girls are faced with the challenging to change their life.
When I was a student，I also led a cruel life because of poverty. I even dare not imagine what my future would be like. My parent often quarreled even fought with each other because they didnt have money to raise my younger brother, sister and me. So I always felt shy and even inferior and had no confidence at all. Thanks to Hope Project and EGRC, two charity organization, I could finish my university education. I really benefitted a lot from them.
After graduating from university, I still benefit a lot from EGRC. EFRC (Educating Girls of Rural China) is a charity organization founded in Canada in 2005 by Tien Ching. It believes that educated women will have educated children; educating women is the key to make our world a better place. Up to now the non-profit, nationally-registered Canadian charity has sponsored 692 girls from Gansu and Guizhou province in west China to finish their education. Every year Tien Ching will meet with EGRC girls at their hometown. By the annual gathering, every girls sponsored is connected together. The girls help each other like sisters.
The organization functions so well that more and more people begin to focus on it. For example, recently a book named Achievement in Working written by Gaolin was published. Each book is sold , 2.88￥ would be donated to EGRC. The girls who have graduated also try their best to make the organization function well. I hope more and more people can focus on the organization and more students of mine can benefit from it. The charity is really helpful to change the life of girls in rural areas.
这是2016为EGRC写的一篇小文，过好每一天只为感恩。
